That's Just Human
That’s Just Human, a podcast that explores all aspects of being human, living in a body, and dealing with life’s obstacles. We discuss people’s stories, learn practical tools for growth and healing that help you learn to step into your authentic self and aliveness.
That's Just Human
Episode 31: From Injury to Recovery - w/Hart Fandrich
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The Heart of the Conversation
In this episode, I am joined by Hart Fandrich, a transformation-focused practitioner and founder of Piedmont Injury Massage. We dive deep into the often-overlooked connection between our physical bodies and our nervous systems, exploring how our history and our habits shape the way we move through the world. Hart shares her powerful journey from a life-altering accident to becoming a healer, highlighting the moments when traditional medicine reached its limits, and alternative care opened the door to true recovery.
In this transmission, we explore:
- The Language of Muscle Memory: Understanding how our bodies "lock down" to protect us from perceived threats, even years after an initial injury, and how to begin unlocking those patterns.
- The Tool of Frequency: A look at how subtle, non-invasive technology can harmonize with the body's own electrical currents to resolve tension and move from a state of "protection" to a state of flow.
- The Power of Agency: Why you are the driver of your own healing journey and how trust with a practitioner can accelerate the physical release of long-held trauma.
- Choosing Peace Over Happiness: A final piece of wisdom on why striving for internal peace and individual boundaries is more sustainable than the pursuit of fleeting happiness.
- Moving from Pain to Information: Practical ways to stop "pushing through" and start listening to the signals your body is sending you.
An Invitation from Elisha
"This conversation is a beautiful reminder that our bodies are constantly communicating with us, even when we’ve learned to tune them out. Meeting Hart helped me see how often we carry our history in our tissues, and how much peace is available when we finally address the 'protective armor' we’ve been wearing. If you have been struggling with chronic tension or feeling disconnected from your physical self, I invite you to sit with us. This isn’t just about fixing a pain in the neck; it’s about returning to a state of ease and finding the coherence to live your own definition of peace."
Time Stamps:
00:00:00 —Hook
00:00:30 — Intro to guest Hart Fandrich
00:02:15 — Accident details
00:06:08 — Hart’s path to massage therapy
00:08:15 — Client-centered approach
00:10:52 — muscle memory
00:14:19 — Use of frequency
00:17:10 — Benefits of regular massage
00:18:49 — Recommendation for appointment length and frequency
00:21:28 — First-time massage advice
00:25:55 — Boundaries with medical professionals and patients’ autonomy
00:30:02 — Importance of self-care for caregivers and prevention
00:35:13 — Hart’s personal self-care routines
00:40:31 — Body remembers
00:43:39 — Final wisdom\Closing
Find Hart Fandrich on the Web:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hart770p884i6566m/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carebyhart/
Link to Transcript of Show:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jtfa7AKwaduIhM-gW-C89qSZ9_YLaQLT/view?usp=sharing
Apply to be on the Show:
Find Elisha Elsewhere on the web:
https://linktr.ee/elishalightangel
I was very traditional and let's go to the doctor. I grew up like, hey, let's go to the doctor. And there's nothing else you could do except for go to the doctor. Within one treatment of massage and chiropractic, I was able to hold up a cell phone for eight minutes. And with the traditional route and finishing it, I was still at two seconds.
SPEAKER_01Hello and welcome to That's Just Human, a podcast that explores all aspects of being human, living in a human body, and dealing with life's obstacles. I'm your host, Elisha Light Angel, and by day I'm a massage therapist. But like you, I live in a human body and I have a plethora of human experiences. So sometimes I talk alone and sometimes I have a guest. And today I'm really excited to bring on a new guest that found me, and we're both massage therapists. So I'm really excited to the depth that we can talk about some of the human experiences within the body, and then even some juicy details, maybe that us as massage therapists get to see and help people with. And maybe you might need help, who knows? So please welcome Hart Fandrich. She is the founder of Piedmont Injury Massage and a transformation-focused practitioner. She bridges the gap between body, mind, and the lived experience. With a background in advanced therapeutic massage, skin care, and trauma-informed healing, she brings a grounded, like really human perspective to conversations about resilience, identity, and growth. Welcome, Hark. I'm so glad to have you here today.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for having me. I'm a pleasure being here.
SPEAKER_01Fantastic. So I'm really excited to talk to another massage therapist. And uh we all get different skills and training and then different clientele to learn different things about the human body. And you have a really focused um more like a medical problem.
SPEAKER_00I do focus a lot on medical because I got to be a massage therapist because of a car accident.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I was hit on um going 60 miles an hour. I went basically got into a tail end of a truck that was fully loaded with a trailer and going 60 miles an hour, and the airbags didn't deploy and went the medical route, and my pinky and ring finger were still going numb. And every time I picked up the phone, I'm like, I'm 24, I don't want to live the rest of my life numb pinky in ring finger. And I'm like, guts, opening jars, buttons, zippers. You I mean, it was impacting my whole life. And I'm like, that's what led me on my journey to become a massage therapist.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So is that that's the main thing that you took away from that accident was mostly in the hands. Was there any other body issues that you had to recover from?
SPEAKER_00Um, luckily, we all walked away except for that. So I mean, knock on some lovely wood, that it was just numbness and tingling. But I'm like, I went to physical therapy, I took the muscle relaxers, I did the pain pills, I did the NSAIDs, which are um a type of inflammation reducers, and nothing worked. And I'm like, no. So that's when I brought in the alternative, and um now I educated myself to say there's more you can add to what the doctors are giving you, or if you don't want to do the drug route, there's alternatives except for more than drugs, and that's where I come in handy because I'm like, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Well, I was gonna say to that, um, so you were going through all these ways that the doctors tell you, how did you come to discover the massage therapy in that process?
SPEAKER_00Oh, it was the end, and they're like, We're dismissing you. There's nothing else we can do. And they're like, I'm like, okay, fine. I was very traditional and let's go to the doctor. I grew up like, hey, let's go to the doctor, and there's nothing else you could do except for go to the doctor. And I'm like, they dismissed me, they put me up on the closet, and they're like, okay, nothing more. And I'm like, then I went to a chiropractor. The chiropractor said, You have a tight um deltoid, pec major, minor, and everything else. So let's go get a massage, come see me. And I'm like, within one treatment of massage and chiropractic, I was able to hold up a cell phone for eight minutes. And with the traditional route and finishing it, I was still at two seconds. So I went from two seconds to eight minutes in one treatment. And I'm like, why didn't they tell me this like seven months ago?
SPEAKER_01Wow. That really speaks to how much massage and chiropractic is not respected as much as it should be in our society and what it can do. Like, if somebody's hearing that, say maybe for the first time and they've never been on a massage table or they've never had um a chiropractic adjustment, or know how these can be really beneficial to helping reduce the amount of pain that we live in, it's it's not known as much as it should be. So I definitely want to get that out. So this was your inspiration. I love it.
SPEAKER_00That's my intro, yeah, that's my inspiration of how I ended up in this field.
SPEAKER_01So, how many, how long were you getting massage therapy before you said, This is what I want to do?
SPEAKER_00Um, so my husband was in the military, and I I'm like, I was in Kansas, so I started with the skincare. I'm like, because I love skincare is chemistry and painting, and it blends my love of science and arts together. And I'm like, okay, my next duty station where I'm gonna be signed to, which at that time I didn't know what I was gonna be of my husband being out of the military, but I'm like the next duty station, which happened to be Georgia, I'm like, I'm gonna go to aesthetic school because I'm like the military is gonna move us. And so the military did move us by saying, here's your orders out. And I'm like, okay, fine, I'm gonna go to aesthetic school. I went to aesthetic school, I met a longtime massage therapist, and she's like, You see movement. I can't teach that. And I'm like, let me get through one school before I get to the other school. And so while we were in aesthetic school, she was mentoring me on massage and movements and everything else. And she's like, I will let you be my protege. And I mean, she worked with the United States um fencing teams. I mean, she she's been in it from before 1992, I think, and still practice today. And I'm like, I was very blessed with some very educated people and going, This is how do you tell if it's emotional? How do you tell if it's physical? How do you tell if it's the fascia, which is this ran wraps around the muscle? How do you know if it's the muscle? Why is it hurting? How do you stop the hurt from like what people call deep tissue? And when do you push, pull, and everything else? And I'm like, I've been blessed with all that, and being able to pick people's brains of how to be the next generation.
SPEAKER_01I love that. So um, can you explain for the listeners a little bit more in detail the type of massage work that you do and how that helps people?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so one, you're gonna get a label of I do deep tissue. I'm gonna do Swedish, I'm doing um Ashu. And I mean, those are a type. Just like, do I need a double A battery, a triple A battery, a C battery, a D battery? There, it's a type. And I throw that out the window. I don't give you a type, I give you what your body can handle that day. Because you know, in life, your body can handle a lot more stress when you're happy and healthy, and you have a plethora of reserves versus the fifth critical thing that happened in a week. Then you have, oh my god, what else is going on? I'm like just swallow me now, and the God almighty complex type thing of what you're like, I'm just beaten down, where you don't have any reserves. So I just I've learned a lot of energy work, which is like um Reiki and cranial sacral and lymphatic, um, and all that. And then I'll also do the medical side of it, like roughing and my fascia release and deep tissue and trigger point therapy. And I'm like, okay, and then I combine it to what the muscles are telling me what you can handle. So I don't label them and say, okay, book this massage, book that massage, or book this. I'm like, why don't we see what you can handle that day? And I throw my toolbox, which has all those batteries that I just talked or was talking about, and go, I'm gonna blend them together to figure out what you can handle. And that's how I'm a lot different from everybody else.
SPEAKER_01I love that. That's definitely I think the best way to be is we just collect different tools and then integrate using them depending on that. So I'd love to speak to what you were talking about, what the body can handle. Um, I know with my own clients, not everybody understands that sometimes people just think that they need to have really deep pressure, deep tissue to effectively get the work. And then it's having to talk them out of, well, your body's not letting me do that right now, or that's just not gonna work for you today. You need to keep working. So, from your perspective, can you talk about how the muscles um hold and how that is a conversation with the nervous system?
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's a great question. So basically, I'm gonna use a metaphor. Think of riding a bicycle. Most of us, as we get our driver's license, we put the bicycle away and we don't do that one. But if you know how to ride a bicycle before you put the bicycle up, you can do it. It's called muscle memory. And that memors the pattern and everything else. To remember that pattern, your body has to know the sequence that your muscles and your electro, your electrical pulse of your nervous system, how to fire it. Because they're not segregated. And because you have this muscle memory, which is coming from your nervous system, you get on that bicycle. So most people don't realize our body doesn't know the difference between a paper cut or maul by a tiger, they respond the same. So if you're holding on to this and saying, I'm gonna use an accident that I did. About three years ago, I fell down slippery stairs on ice. And then about four months ago, five months ago, I had a stair that wobbled on me. And my body locked down because it thought I was gonna go back to that bone bruise that I did when I slipped on on the ice where I was down for three months of I couldn't lay on my back. I'm like almost not functional. And my body for a wobble and a stair because I perceived it. So my body locked it down to prepare myself for this trauma, even though that wobble on that stair never had a trauma. And most people like, oh, it didn't happen. Well, your body thinks so. I dodged that. So with that, your body's going to prepare your for that fall, and then you have to unprepare and say, no, time to calm down, and this is not the way we're gonna do it, and just kind of get out of it. It's like your favorite treat that you no longer eat. I mean, I I don't see myself eating pop rocks anymore. At one point, I loved them, and it's kind of like that. You're like, I loved it at one point, and now I need to put it down. And your body's like, I love you, but it wasn't good for me. I need to put it down. And that's the reason why your body can't have every massage the same every time you go on the table. Even if you had a massage yesterday, your body's gonna give you something different today because it unlocked something or it held something because of what happened in your subconscious while you dreamed, which we usually don't know, or the phone call you're like, I was dreading or happy about, or something that went right, or something that went wrong in your job after the massage. So nothing is static, just like life, and your body prepares accordingly.
SPEAKER_01So what do you do to help people get more conscious in their bodies to recognize some of these patterns that our bodies have created for safety and then to undo them?
SPEAKER_00So one of my favorite hidden tools that I do, there's a modality that I call it that has frequent-specific microcurrent. And yeah. And it resonates with the body and it increases your ATP levels, but it has frequencies that harmonize. So think of the aqua singer who can break the glass. There's frequencies in the body that you're like, I need more of or I need less of. So if you dial it in, you're like, your body calms down, it relaxes, it opens up, and that deep tissue is happening without that pain and discomfort. And it's just basically resolving that trauma and that tension pattern without the manual work to go with it. So I and I either it works or it doesn't work, and there's very little danger to it, and I love it. So I usually don't say that to my clients. I'm like, I'm just gonna put this on there to help soften the tissue so you don't have to have me break through it. But underneath, I'm like, I'm gonna help the emotional impact of what your body's holding on to dissolve the heates and trigger points, and I mean it's it's fascinating. The VA's been doing it, um, Sloan Kethering is doing it, and I I mean, there's a lot of profession NFL athletes are doing it, so it's in a higher echelon, and I brought it to my community, and it's been a really great game changer. And I'm like, I live with it by my bed at night, too.
SPEAKER_01So you're just playing frequencies, or you have a device that you're putting on the body.
SPEAKER_00So it's a div um, so you can either do magnetic converters, wet towels, or sticky pads, and then you have between zero to a thousand. Most people don't even feel it going on them because it's so minute. It's kind of like you don't feel your heart saying time to pump that electrical current. You just don't feel it. And you try to dial it into a frequency that the body needs. So there's a frequency for linen, there's a frequency for earth, there's a frequency for every living thing because every living thing has energy, and you're just trying to figure out what resonates with you or the client on that table, and you just let it play. And then they're like putting it in your hands.
SPEAKER_01I love it. That's really cool. So what is what are some of the things that you've noticed when you've been able to get clients to come back and see you on a regular basis?
SPEAKER_00Their sugar levels are down, their blood pressures are down, they feel like they're calmer collected, that ordinary events in their lives that were catastrophic now seem manageable. I mean, it gives you I think there was a case study that was just done not too terribly long ago. One hour on the table or one hour on the table is about a five-day vacation, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Oh cool. I like to call it a mini vacation in the middle of your day, work week, whatever. I'm like, come lay here for mini vacation. So now I'm gonna start using that um equivalent of five days of vacation in one hour.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I mean, it's I I mean, I was not a fan of massage until that car accident, as I told you earlier. And now I put it on my schedule. And I don't do a 60-minute massage when I go on the table. I prefer a two-hour massage because then I'm not working on one focus area. I get to work on my legs, my back. I get to have about four or five focus areas. And most people don't realize that if you're circling that whole body and you're saying, get this done in 60 minutes, it really isn't gonna happen. It's like a professional bodybuilder or an athlete of the Olympics caliber isn't gonna go into the gym for an hour. So just keep that in mind when you booking an appointment because you can't change time. Because this is what you're gonna give me for the time frame to do it, is go figure out what works for you and what works for not. Now, if you're a new brand new one, don't do the two hour, you're gonna be sore as absolutely everything, and probably not move the next day because of all the toxicity and the opening up and everything else that you moved. But I mean, after your f which after your first one, I'm like, keep it regular and as long as you the longest section time that you're comfortable with and that you can put in your time, do it. Don't say, Oh, I don't have time for it, because that's the worst thing you can do for your body yourself. Because we're sitters, we're trying to put everything in a five-pound bag, and um with 20 pounds in the five-pound bag. So I'm like, just take the time for yourself because it's not a luxury, it's a need in life to calm you down, to be able to parent better, be a better person, be a better human, and just give more to life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, all of that goes really well into taking care of self. Massage is a great self-care for anyone that can afford it. And I don't know about you, but I've had clients like it's their first time getting a massage and it's later in life. It's their first time getting a massage and it's later in life. Um, I don't find the same things with maybe younger people, and they aren't used to being touched. So it may take a few sessions where it's a much lighter massage, where it's just working more with them learning how to relax, how to receive before any actual deeper work can be done because the body is not ready for it. And I mean, I've had people that I've worked with on a consistent basis for you know a year before I could even start doing deeper pressure because their body just wasn't able to receive it. And eventually it gets used to it, and we can work deeper into the tissues. And because you when you work with one person, you become more comfortable. So the trust factor gets built up a lot more, and every time that the person goes back to see the same therapist, they're able to relax a little bit more, and then the deeper the relaxation is, the easier it is to get into the tissues and let the body release.
SPEAKER_00I want and the other there's a thing that I want to mention and go back to when you're statement if you can afford massage. I actually had a client for about three years until she moved away. Made she was a server, and she came every week. She put it in her budget, and she was a server. And we all know how much servers make, they're bottom barrel, but she was willing to put it in her budget and say, I'm gonna do this. And I I saw her for three years every week and going back so to. Put it in your budget, and I mean it doesn't have to be every week, it just needs to be frequent, which means four times a year or more. And then going into what you were saying about the body of receiving it, the first time massage person, if you're brand new, remember it's your massage. Speak up. If you don't like it, the massage therapist will change. Or if they don't, you can say, I'm done, and then find a better fit. Because we're not created equal. We're not all not everybody's your friend, not everybody you know. And just remember that it's the same thing with massage therapists. So don't say I tried it once and I hated it. You just didn't like the person's touch, and you are control of the massage. So that is the key that I give every first-time massage person. And the once you learn that you're in control and you're driving this boat and you're just having somebody help you, then your body relaxes better. And then you're able to be open and say, I'm not vulnerable, I'm in control. And it really helps people to break down that holding tight. I'm like, I don't like this. This is a new ride. This is a new roller coaster. What's gonna happen? It breaks that down so quick, or I tend to have less time for that one because of a trust communication and saying, I'm not a mind reader, I didn't get telepathic tendencies. I don't think I want it. But I'm like, and that breaks the ice for me. So if you can find somebody that has a great rapport with you, breaks that ice. If you're a new client, then it just goes easier. And once you get that trust for your massage therapist or aesthetician or the person you're gonna go see, then you open up quicker and then you're allowed to do deeper work quicker. And that's my experience.
SPEAKER_01I think that's a really good point. And I think it's not just exclusive to massage therapy. And what I'm talking about is for people to be able to speak up, to have a boundary, and to be able to put that out there. And when it's any kind of like it's still a business relationship when you go to see somebody for a service, and you're hiring that person for whatever it is, whether it's working on the body and working with the skin, doing hair or you know, personal trainers, whatever it is, you're hiring that person. Now, they only have a certain set of skills that they can use, and if it's outside of their skills, then hopefully there's communication there. But um, I also would love to encourage everyone out there to speak up and know that it's okay for anyone because you're the paying, you're paying that person, and you want to get what you paid for.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I mean, this is when I really decided that when I was in a room, I was in the patient, my friend was a patient, and orthopedic doctor asked her to dislocate her knee. And he took a necrocardiose of saying, do no harm, and dislocating does harm to the body. She wanted her knee. The orthopedic doctor wanted the patient to dislocate the knee because she came in and was saying my knee dislocates easily, and the doctor wanted to see it. And I'm like, No, she she refused. So, I mean, it goes into the medical field, it goes to anybody that you're talking about. Boundaries are okay.
SPEAKER_01Well, and not only just having boundaries, even though you're seeing a professional that has information, knowledge that you don't have, um, there's still another person that you're dealing with. Yeah. And I think a lot of times I try, I've had people I'm trying to communicate with and they're like, oh, well, you're the professional. You just do your thing. And I'm like, no, I'm talking to you, and you're, I'm not in your body. I can't feel what you're feeling. Now I can tell you what I'm feeling with my fingers, but I can't tell you interoception. And for those of you that don't know, that it's how we feel internally and how we recognize what we're feeling internally. That's that's personal, and nobody else is gonna know what you're feeling on the inside or how it's coming across.
SPEAKER_00Right. So it goes back to boundaries and communication, and that's exactly what I tell my clients that with coming in and receiving that if you actually have boundaries and you're at you're at peace with your boundaries and you're at peace with the massages that you're getting, then your body responds by breaking down that muscle and that heesion and that trigger point because you're no longer on that fight stance and you're no longer going, I mean against the world. No, you're at resonance with the world. You're like, I'm at harmony with the world, and I can be at peace. And then your body just relaxed because you're in the parasympathetic, if we want to use that 25 cent word, of being calm. And when you're calm, you heal, you digest your food, you sleep better, and you can be able to do better with your um your life to be able to go out and do more and be present and be out of pain and be able to listen to your body instead of let me fight through it, which eventually your body's gonna put a hard stop on that and injure yourself. And it's a balancing act between the two of how much do you push through and saying, I'm gonna do this 100K, or when do I say enough is enough? And that's just trying to figure out that balance between life of doing that, and your body knows okay. I mean, I know some hundred mile ultra marathoners out there. I'm not gonna do that, that's not a journey for me, but I've helped prep their bodies for that, and I love how the ultra marathon people and the ultra-athletes of that literally say, I tune my aches and pains out, but I listen to my body. And it took me a while to understand that one. It's not I need to give up, it's there's nothing else to give. It's when I tap out and I'm I'm done, I'm broken, I need medical intervention at this point. There's nothing else, and that's what the ultra athletes do is give beyond where there is zero. And we're not all like that, we don't have to be like that, but that's a great thing to live in your life of saying, What's your all? Where do you go? Now I'm just doing gentle stretching, now I need to get on the table and receive and build back up and just have that wonderful balance. Because you don't live on that field 365 days a week. You live one week in the month on that field, or you and you have a season, or you have a race, or you have that, and then you have a lot of downtime in between. And that's one of the reasons why I'm bringing this up is the mothers, the dads, the caregivers, the caring of the older parents. When are you off that field? When are you getting your break? When are you choosing to put yourself first? Because you're gonna injure yourself and put yourself on the sidelines if you don't. And it might not be massage, but you need to find something to calm yourself down, relax yourself down to be able to heal, relax, regenerate, and everything else.
SPEAKER_01So I really like the concept, and I hadn't thought about that, but the balance between pushing through and then stopping for some self-care. Is there anything that you've noticed in either your work with people or in your own life that would be signs of maybe I should stop pushing through right now and go care for myself?
SPEAKER_00So I like prevention versus symptoms because symptoms, you're like you push through every single last little bit of warning signs that your body's going, hey, I'm giving you a signal. Um so I I mean, as much as this I woke up with a stick neck, stick neck and it was gone in an hour getting up or something like that. Like, oh, I have a crick in my neck and you're you're massaging it, and you're that one, and then you do nothing about it for nine months. That's a warning sign. Or you turn to the right to pick up a um paper towel to wipe up a mess, and then you have a sharp side sting. That's a warning. Um, you're getting up out of bed and you have to do this giddy up hop before you start walking normal. That's a warning. Um, headaches, migraines, I have no energy, fatigue. Those are all warnings. And I was guilty of pushing through them. And now I go, I back up and go, whoa. Um, what do I need to do? I need to go in and go, am I not taking care of myself? Am I eating junk food? Am I not eating the right source of nutrition? I'm not a nutritionist, but you are what you eat. And or have I, I'm like, when's the last time I got? Oh yeah, I'm past day for my massage. Let me contact my massage therapist and try to figure out what I what I need because I'm like the holidays were are hard on massage therapists because everybody wants to get in because it's their time off and they want to get their cousins. And I literally took or looked to my best friend who's a hairstylist. I went, uh, we're going to Asana and have some cucumbers on our eyes um on Monday. And it literally is. I'm like, I'm like, it was supposed to be from two weeks from now, but it's gonna be we moved it back a week because we're we've looked at each other like we can't do another seven days. We need to do it this week. So that and that's just nice sleeping through the night. That's another signal. You you're anxious, you're like, oh my god, there's something to be present active about. And that's the reason why I'm like, I need to do something quiet. So we're just gonna go sit in some salt rims and some saunas and just have a sauna day.
SPEAKER_01Shut out the noise. There's a lot of noise in life. And those are all really good examples. And I would say I notice people, mostly, you know, people that I'm surrounded by in life and I know in person, that don't want to stop doing what they're doing or they don't want to take the time to slow down, to give the self-care. And then there will be the symptoms that do come in. And I think there's more people that live their lives that way than are recognizing the preventative nature of all these things that we can do to set our future self up, to not feel like crap, or to not have an injury or something or a disease come in because we've stressed ourselves and our bodies out that we've just worn our immune system down.
SPEAKER_00I was about to say, uh what the what popped in my head, are you familiar with the statistics that massage therapists after two years of work tend to have chronic pain?
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and uh it's most massage therapists retire in five years, and two of them have, and after two years, they have chronic pain for the majority of them. And I think it's like 75% of the study that I saw. I mean, it wasn't a great study, but it was the study that I came across of like thumb pain, hand pain, wrist pain, and all that. And because of some self-care, I've been doing this since 2015. I very rarely have wrist pain, thumb pain, body aches, and everything else because I have taken self-care at home. I have taken steps, and I mean, I sit in the bathtub every single day of the week that in why. And I do that because that's one of the very few places that I can take gravity out of every single joint. Um, if anybody wants to sponsor me to go to space, I will be glad to take that because that's the other place that you can get no gravity. But I I don't have I think we sent somebody to space for $100 million the last time I checked, but I don't have that in my back pocket.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, me neither. Um yeah, I do a lot. There when I first started, I definitely was not into self-care the way that I am now. It's been through doing this as a career and having gone the gamut of having some of those aches and pains, burning out for a little while, doing something else, coming back to this and reinvigorating my passion. And um all of that has been key to letting me know all of the different things. So I've tried different stuff too over the time. Sometimes I just dip my toe in, and sometimes I am there longer. So um I did a yoga practice. I haven't been consistent lately, but I was being really consistent for a while. And I will get like some hip pain and stuff, and I found that whenever we did didn't matter, it was different stuff in each class. Practicing yoga helps my aches and pains. When I stopped doing the yoga for a little while, it came back. And so that's one part for me is moving the body, um, stretching the body, and then also receiving massage because I think having this as a career, it's really pivotal that we're receiving for multiple reasons. But one of those which everybody listening, it helps the body to function better so that you can live your life more fully in the ways that you want to, and you can show up and be involved and connected with other people that are out there that you want to hang out with.
SPEAKER_00Well, the other part of it is one of the things I really love about massage is it reduces inflammation. And inflammation is the hallmark of a good life. Less of it, you're 90 years old and doing whatever you want to do. I mean, I met a 75-year-old who was zip lining. She liked it better than I did. I did it twice, I'm done. But she got medical clearance by her doctor, she did everything right, and she's like, I'm gonna go zip lining in Honduras. She was out there with me. And then my husband, who is two years younger than me, lives in chronic pain. And I go, There's I I've done a lot of work to get out of the chronic pain from that car accident. And I mean, yes, does it flare back up? I'm not gonna say it doesn't because it absolutely does, but it doesn't stay, and it's an ebb and flow, just like life. Sometimes it's you're riding high, and sometimes you get knocked down, and then you have to get back up. So it's an ebb and flow, and it's not a cure-all, it's a tool to help you go longer, go faster, go better, and be present. So it goes take it from somebody. Um, my my I'm being vulnerable to your podcast. My mom died when I was 25, my dad died when I was 16, and I am 43, and I'm losing my biological brother with cancer right now. He's fighting cancer, and I'm going, thank you. And I'm going, I'm 43 years old, and I might be the last of my generation. And I am the last of no grandparents, I am the oldest generation, and my 13-month-old older brother is fighting cancer, and I'm like, it's a wake-up call. Is what you're doing worth having the people who are behind you not have you or missing their events if you're working so hard. And if you're fine with it, be fine with it. There's nothing wrong with it, but just don't forget when you're on that race with a choice that you make, there's a choice that you're giving up, and that's a huge thing with the body. That choice you're giving up, that body's gonna remember it. The muscles are gonna remember it. Did you pick going to close a deal or the last game of the season that your child was playing at, or that renowned thing that your child wants to do, and you pick closing that deal? Your body remembers going that push pull and it and there's no right answer, but your body remembers the answers you're gonna pick. And if you're comfortable with it, then your body tends to be at peace with it. If you're not and you're still going, I should have, I could have, I wish, I if, then your body will never be at peace with it until you come to terms of saying, Am I making the best decision to be at harmony? Now, harmony doesn't mean all or nothing, it's just a better balance between work, life, you, and your partner because you have four people in that world because you have your family, you have the family you're born in, and if you have children, you have your biological family. So that's two different sets of family, and you're just trying to navigate which one, and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It's just like a roller coaster, and there is no wrong answer. It's just trying to figure out what you can live with and what's at peace with your body, and the massage tends to kind of calm down the not at peace with your body, and I know that's a lot of woo-woo for the science stuff, but go look up phantom leg pain for people who have the amputes. Every single thing for phantom leg pain or phantom pain, it's the same symptom of real pain in a in a leg, arm, whatever tissue that is in, they're equal. You're never gonna know if it's psychological or physical. And that's what the body does. And if we can get that psychological down, we can get that physical down, then you're like I can figure out how to do both. Because you're like, okay, let me move my conference 15 minutes and let me see some of this game and see the end of it, see the beginning of it, or whatever. So you can have a compromise between the two, and that's just life, and that's what your body loves, is if you can figure out a win-win for everything around you, and that's how I tend to live my life, and my body loves me for that one because I tend not to get sick, I tend not to have any I live at harmony and healthy individual. And my brother that I'm seeing is going through chemo treatment right now, is basically kind of having this push-pull and seeing what he's doing, and it's his choice. I'm just there for the sounding board. Every day is a day to change it.
SPEAKER_01That's a good phrase. You should put that on a t-shirt. Well, we're coming to the close of our time together, and you've given so much wonderful information and wisdom. But my last question would be what piece of wisdom would you like to leave the audience with? And that could be anything that we've tapped on today, anything from your life that just comes up for you.
SPEAKER_00I love this one. Don't strive for happiness, strive for peace. Peace, there is no opposite. To have happy, you have to have sad to know that you're happy. Peace is calm. It's daddy, and it's whatever you choose, what peace is. And I love that one. And just remember, peace is not always without conflict. But it's like what you can live with, your boundaries at peace, not others. So find your definition of peace and live your definition of peace.
SPEAKER_01I like it. Thank you so much. So where can my um listeners find you if they want to see you on the internet?
SPEAKER_00Um, so I have a website, pmotinjurymassage.com. You can contact me through there, or you can go to Care by Heart and um Facebook and find me through there too.
SPEAKER_01Wonderful. I'll be putting those links into the show notes. So if you're listening and you want to hook up with her and follow her, you can do so there. And if you're listening also, please leave me a review on either Apple iTunes or on Spotify. That'll help get my podcast out to more people. If you really enjoyed this or some of these nuggets you feel wanna that somebody in your life would really benefit from, please share this on YouTube, subscribe, like all of those things help to get my content to more people for those that are interested as you embrace your humanness. Remember to be you, be kind, and remember, all things are part of the journey.