Massage & Bodywork

JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2021

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28 m a s s a g e & b o d y wo r k j a n u a r y/ fe b r u a r y 2 0 2 1 WHAT DOES SACRED MEAN TO YOU? The word sacred is sometimes associated with religious beliefs, spirituality, or an experience of connecting with the divine, with nature, or with one's essence, soul, or spirit. We acknowledge and honor your relationship with the sacred. We experience sacred as the embodiment of any word, thought, or action that is intentional, inspirational, and full of heart. As you travel on your own journey into the sacred, you allow your personal values and passions to imbue all the sacred spaces and sacred moments you are living into. We invite you to become surprised and delighted by your own discoveries and experiences of the sacred as you construct and reinforce the architecture of your being. HOW TO CREATE SACRED SPACE Creating sacred space is both the foundation and scaffolding for connecting to what's most meaningful to you. It can be a place to reflect your beliefs, ideas, dreams, and creativity. Consider how you want your sacred space to make you feel and how you want to use it. Generating sacred space can be something you do daily, monthly, or seasonally, and it can be shared with loved ones or practiced alone. Following are some considerations for growing your sacred space. 1. Find Your Spot It doesn't have to be a whole room. It can be a corner of a room, a bookshelf, the top of a dresser, or a place in your garden. Choose whether this space will be public and open to the contributions of others or best practices | SAVVY SELF-CARE The Art of Constructing Sacred Space & Nourishing Habits By Heath and Nicole Reed 2020 was a tumultuous year—one requiring a new kind of awareness, organization, and emotional resilience— and, you made it! Please take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate yourself. Appreciate you, your family, and your business for what you were able to adapt to, achieve, sustain, and learn from. For those who follow Chinese astrology, 2020 was foretold to be a year presenting itself as "water moving under earth." Symbolically, this means that many had the experience of walking on shaky ground, watching plans get swallowed up by the earth, and riding the unsteady landslides of chronic uncertainty. As we experienced so many of our own routines and structures being dismantled, new structures began to emerge in place of the old. For us, reliably and regularly creating sacred space became the vaccination to the violent shell shock of an unpredictable pandemic. And these intentional practices have now become the bedrock and launchpad for our future inner and outer well-being. Discover the elements of sacred space that support nourishing habits and build a future filled with your values, essence, and energy! "Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again." —Joseph Campbell private and filled with your own personal touches. Perhaps your scared space is on wheels or on a tray that can be moved in and out of public and private areas. Our space is in the center of our home, on the fireplace. It's a place we pass by several times a day, and it is openly displayed for others to see and contribute to. Seeing it helps us remember to pause for a mindful breath; to reconnect with an intention, affirmation, word, or feeling; or to simply make us smile. 2. Gather What You Love Find and place personal items that are meaningful to you in this space. These items may include pictures of family members (who are still with you and those who have passed), teachers, mentors, guides, and statues or icons of those whom you admire. It may include your favorite candle, poem, affirmation cards, stones, crystals, plants, flowers, or anything that gives you energy, inspires you, and reconnects you to the sacred. We have included items from our travels, pictures of our teachers, icons of our ancestors, artwork, flowers, a single candle, and sage for smudging. Our space is continually being refreshed and evolving with what we feel is valuable in the moment. SAJAD NORI/UNSPL ASH

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