Self-Care Recommendations Between Body Shop Checkups

My goal is to get my clients to a point where they don’t need me except for maintenance, 1-4 times a year. Self-care between appointments is the best way to achieve that. Exercise is not self-care. Exercise is helpful, yet is often responsible for pain and injuries. Self-care is what helps keeps clients healthy between checkups.

Exercise strengthens the big muscle "movers" and improves circulation. Regular exercise also ignores the small muscle "stabilizers" and dehydrates and destabilizes joints. Weak, dry joints lead to muscle overuse and pain and can lead to calcific tendonitis or arthritis pain.

An effective self-care program

• Hydrates and strengthens joints
• Reduces muscle tension 
• Calms the nervous system
• Promotes healing
• Reduces pain - including arthritis pain.

Self-care Systems I Recommend:

Dr. Paul Lam's Tai Chi for Health
Most tai chi programs focus on martial arts or form perfection. Dr. Lam's version is a DIY health improvement program.

• Generate a healing energy you can feel.
• Strengthen and hydrate your joints for mobility as you age.

If memorizing a routine isn't for you or if you are not currently mobile, you can move tai chi style on your own:

Slow way down and move from your joints in a strong yet willowy way. The slower and smoother you move, while doing so from the joints with strength, the more the benefit. Think about the entire range of motion of each joint you decide to move this way. Think about nothing else but moving 100% from the joints, only. It requires mental focus! Go as slow as you can to feel the magic.

You can move tai chi style at any time, even at home walking from one room to the next! Stuck in a chair? Start by moving the joints of your hands, feet, knees, and shoulders, tai chi style! Make up your own routines! I often move tai chi style to music while playing with kitty. He loves it!

The MELT Method
The first time I read about MELT, I did nothing. Someone else understood how to handle connective tissue the right way! That was all I could ask for at that time because there were so few of us.

Years later, my body succumbed to illness, and I was struggling to help myself. A single MELT Rebalance Sequence, done three times over three weeks. restored much of my vestibular function. That got my attention.

MELT uses rollers and balls, but in a way that helps clean and hydrate, not traumatize, the fascia. A little MELT goes a long way toward a pain-free life and improved quality of longevity.

Hi Paula,
Just wanted to say Thanks!  You fixed my leg and I am almost back to 100%.  I also have started using the (MELT) method which has helped me keep my leg from spasm again.
THANKS!
(D.G. NYC June 2018)

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​Make the best of your future body
with self-care
​and Paula's Body Shop.

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Notice: Paula is also an on-demand health sciences editor, and once worked as a consultant for Longevity Fitness (MELT). Any previous affiliations have no bearing on Paula's recommendations. Any recommendation is from genuine respect for a given method. Methods must promote self-healing and self-awareness and reduce dependency.