This chakra is associated with the element of air. When someone has difficulty with air, with breathing (asthma, emphysema, tuberculosis, etc.), we say that their relationship with air reflects their relationship with love - difficulty letting it in, or letting it out, for example.

Joe's Tips

Stretching Guidelines 

Don't stretch before an activity.
Warm up first. Stretching cold muscles can actually increase your risk of injury. Even 5 to 10 minutes of walking or jogging in place is a good warm up.

Hold the stretch for 30 to 60 seconds to give muscles time to respond. You will find other recommendations on how long to hold, and you can experiment to see what works best for you. The most important thing is to NEVER BOUNCE. Bouncing can lead to injuries because the "stretch reflex" will tighten the muscles you are trying to lengthen.

If you feel sharp or shooting pain, STOP. If you feel pain, you have probably gone too far.

Relax and breathe freely.

Also, if excess tension is limiting you, let your massage therapist know that you want to work on releasing the tight area of your body at your next massage session. 

Values/Beliefs

The road to the city of love is paved with communication!

St. Valentine’s Day is a time when we all reflect on our relationships, especially with the ones closest to our heart. Sandrine and I have discussed with many of you the importance of gaining a better understanding of our values and beliefs and how they control the quality of our life. It is because we value our relationship that we honor the tradition of St. Valentine’s Day. Most of us will say that love is high on the list of values in a relationship between two lovers. While we all value love in a relationship; do we all agree on what the word love means in this context?

What's important?

All worthwhile growth is indicated by an enhancement of ideals, increased appreciation of values and new meanings of values. While this may seem to be a lot to digest, it’s not beyond our ability to understand and act upon. We are rarely conscious of what our values are. Therefore we go through life totally unconscious of what is truly meaningful to us. To understand our values can be a simple process that most of us never consider. To find out what we value in life, we must ask ourselves a few simple questions. The first is: “What’s important to me”? Since what is important can be many things, on many levels and in various situations, we must ask more specifically about certain areas of our lives. There are values related to our job, family, relationship, religion, life, etc. To find out what our values are in a particular part of our life, all we need to do is ask the question: “What’s important to me in my __________”.

Example: “What’s important to me in my relationship”?

List them. Your list may look something like this:

This will bring to your consciousness what your values are in your relationship. Knowing our values allows us to tap into the more important piece of the equation and our next question, "what are our beliefs"? Our values and beliefs, more than anything else, determine how we will interact with the rest of the world. Being that important, you would think it would be something we would evaluate and improve upon regularly. Most of us go through our entire lives without ever considering what they are or where they came from.

It may surprise you to hear that almost all of your values and beliefs are not yours. They were uploaded into your computer (brain) without you ever knowing it; like a virus that begins to distort the information. We will come back to that later.

What does it mean?

Let me go back to values and beliefs and how they guide our actions, or sometimes, lack of actions. Getting a list of our values in any aspect of our life is as easy as making a list. To acquire our beliefs, all we have to do is write down the definition of each of the values we have in our list. A belief is nothing more than the meaning of the word we use to describe our value. This is where we have our most frustrating challenge. We always assume that everyone else has the same definition as we do. This is rarely the case. If in our relationship, we both value honesty but have different definitions of what it means to be honest, there will always be disharmony when we talk honestly to each other.

If we were to ask several people what it means to be totally honest, would we get the same answer? Some would say it means to always tell the truth, regardless of the consequences.  Another may say to always tell the truth as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. You may feel that a little white lie is ok. I might think a lie is a lie is a lie. Some see honesty as either black or white. Others see it in shades of gray.

Without having a thorough understanding of our values and their associated beliefs and also those of our significant other, we always think we are talking about the same thing. But our definitions may be totally opposite. Many of you are nodding your heads now because you experience this type of non-agreement communication on a regular basis. There’s nothing wrong with your partner. There’s nothing wrong with you. You have just never agreed upon your values (what’s important) and your beliefs (the definition of your values). Our assumption is always that others may not believe the same as we do, but if they do, we must be in agreement. We accept this as being true and then wonder why we can’t seem to have conversation without conflict.

How did we get them?

Now, let’s take a look at where these values and beliefs come from. I suggested that they were uploaded, mostly when you were a child. When we are children, we believe everything adults tell us. We are hungry for information. “What’s that, Mommy”? “Why”? “Why not”? We have no definitions for the world around us. As children, we don’t choose what to believe. What anything means was given to us. Much of what we hold as being very important to us is actually not important to us at all. It was important to the person who uploaded it to you in the first place. The country, state, city, family, financial status, gender, religion all had a powerful influence on what our “uploaders” valued and what they believed. 
Maybe you were told: 

What definitions of love have been uploaded into your computer?

As we evaluate our values and beliefs, there’s only one question to consider in our decision to keep a belief or exchange it. "Does this belief support who I am now or who I want to be in the future?" or "Does what I believe help me to feel better about myself and those I love?" If the answer is no, then you must change it; replace it with a definition that WILL support you.

Growth is dynamic

Values and beliefs can never be static; reality signifies change, growth. Change without growth, the expansion of meaning and the uplifting of value, is valueless. Even as truth changes, our ability to comprehend higher concepts, values and meanings increases. Love is doing the right thing, for the right reason; expecting nothing in return. Love is to GROW. But Love is always more than any definition we can give it. Many of us have this vision of love being chemistry between two people that attracts and binds them together without any effort. There is no growth without conscious effort. To love takes intelligent effort. Effort does not mean drudgery. The definition I give to intelligent effort is “Think and Act”. We all think too much and act too little.

To many people Sex and Love are interchangeable. That virus has been uploaded generation after generation. Can we all agree that sex is biological, a natural occurrence within the animal kingdom? Is love also biological? Or should we place love on a higher pedestal of a more spiritual nature? Love always makes sex more meaningful when two people share in their collective growth through honest communication and an acceptance of higher values and accurate meanings. Meaningful communication enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. Don't just talk... Communicate!

As a side note to the men who wish they could get more “intimate” attention from their partner, the answer is simple: have meaningful conversation about the things SHE is interested in.

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The Hug

By J. Martin

 Enjoy a 2-hour massage FREE!

 Valentine's Day Gift Certificate

For every gift certificate you purchase (for one hour or more) by February 10, 2006, your name will be included in a drawing to be held on February 11th. The winner will be contacted by phone on February 13th and a date for your FREE 2-hour massage can be set. Your FREE massage must be completed by April 3, 2006
Massage is the perfect gift for Valentine's Day. Call Louisa TODAY!
(Free massage cannot be divided. No cash value.)

New hours for CHi

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: 9:00 to 12:00 and 3:00 to 6:00
Tuesday and Friday: 9:00 to 1:00
Saturday and Sunday: Closed

C H I
Center for Holistic Instruction, PLLC
21316 Davidson Street
Cornelius, NC 28031
(704) 895-6788

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Health Solutions... Naturally!