Everything is Greening!

I don’t know about you, but I get excited every morning when I wake up to the sounds of migrating birds at first light, and then again when I venture outside and see what new plants have sprung up or unfurled. It always amazes me how much it feels like a first time, each year.



It’s as if I am seeing the Solomon’s Seal emerge for the first time, the leaf of the Blood Root unfurl like never before, with bigger, brighter flowers than I remember. The wonderful chartreuse of new leaves on so many of the deciduous trees just thrills my liver. I want to soak it all in. And each year, maybe it seems different because some years there really is a different assortment of birds and plants, and sometimes it’s just because I am transformed, and seeing with new eyes.



No matter, it is the JOY of seeing and experiencing anew that so engages my spirit. This year I see and hear the Brown Thrasher (which I don’t remember being acquainted with before), first on top of Rabun Bald, proudly dancing and singing for a mate, and now in my hollow. The Hummingbirds are back, the Black Throated Green warblers, the squeaky Solitary Vireos, the Whippoorwills, the Trilliums, Mayapples... I could go on.

Through all of this, too, I feel movement inside. My body wants to move a little more, a little differently after this seemingly long winter. There is a feeling of wanting to stretch and reach out farther. A draw to inspire more fully, engaging the lungs and extending the front line to create more space through my gut. It feels so wonderful to feel my bare feet touch the earth. In fact I took a barefoot hike all the way down to Raven Rock and back. I wasn’t sure how it would be, but I was so glad I did. Although a couple of times I stepped on sharp broken roots or holly leaves, I came back more mellow and grounded than I ever remember feeling.



I had slowed down to a pace my feet could handle (it’s a steep hike), and took in so much more with my senses than other times. It was quieter and more spacious all around me, and even my sense of smell seemed more acute. I saw where the wild boar had explored with their snouts in the woods and their bare feet in the sand by the river. It was a wonderful way to welcome Spring, and I am inclined to explore with my bare feet more often, in appropriate places.

Can you think of any ways in which you might like to explore the world differently this Spring? Are you aware of any critters or plants that seem new to you? Perhaps a new melody on the breeze, or a brighter bloom on your azalea? Is your body talking to you in some new way, perhaps asking for a new practice, more movement - dance or yoga?

On another note, I had a rib out a week or so ago. This has only happened to me once or twice before. It always feels scary because it shows me just how connected everything is, by the sensation of all the muscles around my midsection being on the verge of spasm. Twisting was not an option and taking a deep breath was not comfortable at all. And it seemed like almost everyone I talked to that week was also experiencing similar back issues. This always impresses me - how so many of us seem to share these experiences around the same time. Anyway, I’m happy to say that with a little help from a couple of LMTs and time and moving carefully, I am just about back to normal.



Maybe it’s the change of seasons, rising temperatures and fluctuating humidity. I’ll choose that over age, anyway. In any case, a good massage can help so much with these kinds of things. Even when the instinct is to see a chiropractor or bone doc, it’s important to address the holding in the muscles, too. After all, the muscles are what hold the bones wherever they are.


Well, I hope you are enjoying this beautiful season and that your winter was what it needed to be; that your seeds are planted and your plans for the warmer seasons are germinating well. If I haven’t seen you in a while, please let me know how you are doing. I am happy if you are feeling great and not needing to book a session, but I still love to hear from you and to know how you are and what you’re up to.

Happy New Year! Happy Valentine's Day! And Happy New Year of the Black Water Snake in Chinese Tradition!

This will be a year of transformation, and in the spirit of the Water Snake in Chinese Astrology:

"The nature of the deeply feeling Snake year is “gradual and gathered strength,” bringing a more moderate than radical year. During Snake years, our concerns turn toward inner-growth, spirituality and discovering the reasons behind things."

When I read this, I think about the stress and traumas that can get trapped in our bodies. Sure, sometimes we have worked or played hard and strained muscles, and our habits create patterns of imbalance in our bodies, but sometimes our patterns of imbalance are caused by emotional or physical events that caused us internal trauma which shows up in our bodies. This does not have to be a permanent condition. Through effective bodywork paired with appropriate dialogue, we can shift these patterns - at the same time, correcting a physical imbalance and healing an emotional trauma. In both cases, it takes establishing new feelings and new ways of being to incorporate and reinforce change and growth.

I can’t believe we’re already to Valentine’s Day. I hope you have all been enjoying the wintry weather, coming and going through the area, interspersed with warm, spring-like days to recuperate. It sure was nice to have just enough snow to capture the beauty of the season, but not so much to keep us inside for too long or to make getting around on the roads a challenge.

How is your 2013 going so far? Have you noticed any new patterns or ideas coming to awareness? Have you started any fun new projects? The contraction of Winter can show up in our bodies. Be sure to drink extra water when in heated, dry environments - be it wood stove or furnace heat. Our joints, more than ever, need to stay lubricated, and I don't know about you, but I've been drinking more hot coffee and tea than usual (read DIURETICS!), and so really need to pay attention to hydration. Also, hot soaks with epsom salts are a nice way to loosen up some of the stiffness.

Our bodies move, sense, feel, work, rest and perceive in so many ways. I want to find where the restrictions are, bring conscious awareness to them and hold space around them - give the body (and mind & spirit) the space in which to reach beyond the restriction and discover where things can feel and move “easier.” This is when we start sensing the mysterious and pleasant new sensations of ease. I hope you are getting enough water and sleep and keeping it loose through these colder days. On the other hand, I hear folks talking about changes and feeling lighter and more free. I can surely feel some of both!

Right now, I am sitting in a sunny spot in my yard, soaking in some rays and letting my body synthesize vitamin D. It is important this time of year to make sure and get some sun rays specifically for this purpose. Our bodies need sunlight in order to synthesize vitamin D for bone health and other benefits.

I came across an interesting piece on NPR this morning (click here to see/hear it). It is about a study on what radiologists see - or rather DON'T see - when they are reading films.

"Trafton Drew, an attention researcher at Harvard Medical School, took a picture of a man in a gorilla suit shaking his fist, and he superimposed that image on a series of slides that radiologists typically look at when they're searching for cancer. He then asked a bunch of radiologists to review the slides of lungs for cancerous nodules. He wanted to see if they would notice a gorilla the size of a matchbook glaring angrily at them from inside the slide. But they didn't: 83 percent of the radiologists missed it, Drew says."

I'm sharing this because it made me think, once again, about our attention and how it focuses our energy. Wherever we put our attention is where our energy goes. So if we're thinking about our pain, it will only persist and grow, but if we choose to shift our attention to our places and parts that feel good (or if we just don't feel good, then to something beautiful, perhaps) then we can find ways to feel better and establish new patterns. Just imagine that the gorilla on the image is pleasure, joy, beauty. We might then reconsider what we're looking for. After all, that which we are seeking is seeking us. Are we seeking enough? Too much? What is right for us?

As Winter winds down and Spring showers head our way, it's time to start thinking about the seeds we will sow come April or May, and in general as more active times approach. During this still slow part of the year, it's a wonderful time to sit down and sketch out some ideas for how we want the rest of the year to play out. Are there any new habits we want to initiate and have in swing by Spring? Things we want to finish up so we can clear space for fresh opportunities?

Take some time to peruse the seed catalogs or other sources of inspiration for the coming seasons - maybe some travel magazines.... And start day dreaming, night dreaming, however you dream about what you want to begin next.

Speaking of dreams, I am still leading dream work and am available for consultations. Do you have a big dream that has been asking you questions or telling you things that you just can't make sense of? Dreaming is a powerful gift and we can mine our dreams for gold in the form of life guidance and resolution and shifting of outdated patterns in our lives. Feel free to email or call me about setting up a consultation.

And remember to take advantage of my Valentine's offer this month! If you don't have a honey, book a session for a good friend you know deserves a great massage - it's good massage karma and will come back around to you!

May your dreams deepen as the light shines more brightly upon you this winter. May your new year bring many blessings and much surprise and delight. May you remember ease, grace, beauty and joy every day!
Warm Winter Blessings,

Honor Woodard, LMT
GA MT 008365
FL MA 66301
Member, FSMTA
904.315.2917
706.212.7924

Happy Holidays!

Yay! The days are getting longer, brighter...

Good afternoon and holiday greetings! I hope these longer days are bringing the light of inspiration and the warmth of peace to us all.

I have some news, so I will get to it first. In the interest of your convenience and my continuity, I will be moving my practice into Clayton this winter. As you might imagine, my road gets impassable when it snows, and I imagine we will be getting some snow this winter. I want it to be easy for us to get to each other. I will have the same phone numbers and you’ll simply come see me in a warm office downtown rather than at the cabin for the next few months. This is also an opportunity for me to try out having space in town, so I will decide later if I will move the practice home to the cabin in Spring.

Other news... I am recently back from an amazing workshop with Deane Juhan (www.jobsbody.com) in Florida. This workshop focused on the breath and breathing. We worked on the shoulder girdle, the ribcage and the abdominal area - creating greater breathing capacity and more ease of movement around the structures involved in breathing. You’d be surprised just how many parts and pieces relate to the breath. And Deane is an amazing practitioner and teacher. Interestingly, he got his start at Esalen, in Big Sur, CA, where I recently attended the dream work workshop with Robert Moss (www.mossdreams.com).

Deane studied with Dr. Milton Trager for more than 20 years, and his work is a beautiful combination of Trager’s work and his own resistance/release technique that Deane has developed over the years. Many of you have experienced this resistance/release work with me, and some of the movement I do with you comes out of the Trager style learning I have received from Juhan and other teachers. It truly is amazing how simple movement and vibration can work more deeply into the tissue and muscle than what people call “deep tissue.”

Deeper is not necessarily better. Change can occur in the body more easily when one is in a relaxed and open state, and deep work does not always create this opening, though it is certainly effective where appropriate. Another tidbit I gleaned from working with Deane Juhan is the value of sensation - particularly pleasant sensation. There is an “edge” of opening I experienced with some of the work that felt unique and important to me. It is challenging to describe, but it is like the edge of pleasure, but a pleasure that is unfamiliar - so the nervous system has to learn from it as it strives to understand or make sense of the sensation.

This brings me to the Solstice. I set my alarm yesterday morning, to wake up early and meditate before the sunrise. I meditated a little, drew a mandala, wrote down some simple thoughts and then was inspired to drive down to the overlook in Tallulah Falls to watch the sun rise. It just felt right to do this, and I was rewarded with a wonderful image of the sun rise with a violet crepuscular ray above. And just as the sun broke the horizon some crows flew across, greeting it with me. On the way home, the hymn “Morning Has Broken” came appropriately to mind, and I thought to myself, “this could have been written for just this morning!”

In my writing, I had some simple but profound understandings.

I came to a deeper awareness that we are here on this Earth for a short time, and that the vehicle we have been given for this wild ride is a BODY. Flesh, bone, muscle, organs, viscera, nervous system, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, fingers, toes, hair... We are sensory beings. We are miraculous systems with thousands of cells flawlessly performing complex duties and functions all under our conscious radar (and while we are busy enjoying the ride). And I’m not even going to touch on the Soul or Spirit here (maybe another time). So the piece that I became more aware of is that we are here, in large part, to experience life through our sensory apparatus - our body, our senses.

I can feel my own edges, and there is pleasure in this. Seeing is feeling, using sight. There is pleasure in seeing beauty just as profound as the most sensual touch. Each and all of our senses can be developed and explored, to find more ways to beauty. The pleasure of texture - in sound, image, music, touch, taste - the complexity of flavor, the fullness of breath, the expansion of the heart. How much we sense, feel and know with heart and stomach... remember, always, the wisdom of both of these. My heart tells me what is right. My stomach tells me when something is wrong. The importance of heeding the stomach's message was emphasized for me. Our heads so often get in the way and confuse the matters at hand - especially between head and heart - and we can forget to notice that the gut is there, like a student with hand raised awaiting her turn to speak, trying to tell us something. Or fear gets in and confuses our gut to distract the heart from the truth it is holding.

Our bodies move, sense, feel, work, rest and perceive in so many ways. I want to find where the restrictions are, bring conscious awareness to them and hold space around them - give the body (and mind & spirit) the space in which to reach beyond the restriction and discover where things can feel and move “easier.” This is when we start sensing the mysterious and pleasant new sensations of ease. And the more expansive our experience of sensing and feeling, the more subtle it can be. The most minute shift of light or change of texture can be appreciated. The gentlest touch, the softest sound, the slightest movement - these can create the most profound awareness. These can create profound shift.

Lastly, I am HERE for the holidays. Feel free to call on me if you need to break away and pamper yourself with a massage!

Oh, and... Happy Holidays! I hope you are enjoying peaceful and joyful times with your family, friends and furry critters during these short days and long nights.

There is always so much promise in the air this time of year - folks thinking about ways of giving to and blessing each other. Thinking about what and whom we're grateful for in the passing year. Dreaming what we want to bring into being this coming year. And just resting in the stillness of the great turning, here in the pinch of the hourglass where time seems to stand still for a moment at the solstice.

While we travel to friends and family and host our loved ones, let's remember to care for ourselves, too. Here are a few ideas to consider:

*Find a quiet place - it might have to be a walk in the woods or even around the yard - and listen to your own breath, remembering your own internal rhythm. It's always there. And getting some extra oxygen feeds your cells!
*Take a hot soak with some epsom salts - sure to neutralize stress and slow the world down for a little while. If you don't have a bathtub, a hot shower will suffice, and a few drops of an essential oil - mint, lemon, rosemary, eucalyptus, lavender or fir, these are some of my favorites. The hot water in the tub or the shower will diffuse the aroma and soothe your nervous system.
*Call a faraway friend you haven't seen in a long time or rarely get to visit with. It does the heart good to connect and remember the pieces of ourselves that are unique to particular friendships. AND, studies have shown that our aging process is slowed when we are around people from earlier in life and talk about or focus on younger times.
*ENJOY the indulgence! If you decide to indulge in behaviors or foods that are not in your normal diet or lifestyle, make sure to ENJOY yourself. Give yourself a pass when you need to. I imagine you will digest much more efficiently what you take pleasure in consuming. And I imagine, too, that we overindulge less when we enjoy more consciously what we are eating, drinking or doing.

May your dreams deepen as the light shines more brightly upon you this winter. May your new year bring many blessings and much surprise and delight. May you remember ease, grace, beauty and joy every day!