We've recently discovered Health & Wellness Magazine. Designed for Middle Tennessee, this complimentary magazine highlights local talent and has articles on local events in our healing community. It also serves as a classified listing for local healers. We'll look through this when we need something - acupuncture is up next for us.

See, this is the sort of thing Nashville needs. As someone who is interested in alternative health, I often find myself fighting against my better judgment when it comes to designing advertising. Explain too much about what you're doing - and poof! - there goes the mainstream consumer. For example, I'm starting a small law firm that's focused on virtual interactions to reduce time and expenses (a little edgy), but I also have an interest in helping people who are members of this expanding community. With the right media in place, I could advertise to the niche market of practitioners who I think my legal skills could help, without fear of confounding and confusing the rest of the world.

That's where Health and Wellness helps out. It's the perfect venue to describe to other like-minded individuals what you're up to. Can you imagine some of these posts in the regular classifieds? Imagine this: "Learn to connect with your true self, energy healing and massage balanced from the four winds, student of the royal master falun gong" right next to "Financial analysis and results from XTrustBank - take your investment portfolio to the next level." Contrasting messages to say the least. While those fictitious creations were all mine, you get the point. There's a freedom that comes from a specialized market and audience, and I hope everyone feels free to take advantage of that when they get the chance.

And, one day, maybe this forum will step up to the plate and help bridge that gap. We'll see. For now, check out Health & Wellness Mag for a comprehensive description of options available in Nashville. healthandwellnessmag.com

On the Rain and Sunless Sky: Art & Soul

We've now had about six straight weeks of constant cloudy skies and rain. I wonder what the effect on us might be. My amateur self thinks that the Vitamin D received from sunlight has got to be lacking in most Nashvillians these days, perhaps causing a general malaise. If you're looking for some good options to kick yourself into the next gear, check out these events and workshops provided by our creative friends at Art & Soul.

Art & Soul offers several creative expression classes for adults that last all the way through December. Options range from Igniting the Creative Fire to The Long Circle Artist Group. Sound therapy and singing also are options. Most classes run for six weeks and started in September or October, but I wonder if visitors would welcome just to give it a try for a small fee. Weekends for the advanced class (there are serious prerequisites) for the Long Circle Artist Group are November 13-15 and December 11-13, 2009. Each weekend costs around $300.

If anyone checks this out, let us know and we'd be glad to post on it.

Art & Soul

www.eArtandSoul.com

(615) 460-1161

Nashville Mindfulness Meditation Group

Nashville Mindfulness Meditation Group is a weekly free event held in the Vanderbilt Divinity School's All Faiths Chapel. As a long-time member of the group, I can say that the experience has been a perfect avenue to continue practice on a weekly basis. For those of you looking to start a practice, it offers good exposure to the basics of meditation. For those of you looking to find a weekly practice or even a daily practice, this group offers suggestions for how to begin looking at ramping up your practice.

The group is headed by the husband and wife team of Gordon Peerman and Kathy Woods. This couple is a force in Nashville. Gordon and Kathy both practice at the Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health, they both practice mindfulness meditation and movement qi gong, and they offer their time for free each week. Their personal stories are rich with teaching. Gordon is an Episcopal priest and the author of the recent successful book titled "Blessed Relief: What Christians Can Learn From Buddhists About Suffering." Kathy is a cancer survivor whose practice developed more deeply as a result of that experience. Together, they make a formidable team and offer a depth of knowledge rarely found in Nashville.

The group gathers at 5:15 on Wednesdays. For those not familiar with Vanderbilt, the meeting location looks out over the lawn facing the well-known San Antonio Taco Company and Ben & Jerry's. Walking up from the street you'll pass the library on your left, and follow the path up to the Divinity school (the one with the steeple on it). Go ahead and turn off your cell phones before you enter the building, as noise radiates once you are inside. The first door you see (all glass) is the one to use. Kick off your shoes and find any seat that you like inside. You can also use a cushion up front. Latecomers are always welcome. Just try to be quiet, but don't harp on it.

Personally, I wondered about the shoes thing when I started. It's nothing more than a symbolic way to separate the experience we're looking for inside from the daily routine we get outside. Honoring the place of practice is important to the group, so that's what's going on there.

Other distractions include wondering who these people are and whether you have to interact with them. Well, these people are other Nashvillians, mostly professionals, who enjoy meditation. If you want to come and go and not say a word, you would be in the majority 90% of those who attend. Anonymity is not hard to achieve.

And their religion? All faiths. The group has no dogma or creed. They draw on multiple sources to explain and teach, with predominantly Buddhist and Christian influences. The point has nothing to do with religion - mindfulness meditation is a technique which has been developed outside the scope of religion, but those with faith structures can apply it seamlessly to their practice.

When you arrive and have found a seat, wait for the guided meditation to begin. Gordon or Kathy will invite everyone to enter into an upright and dignified position, and then offer the step by step approach of the day. When the meditation is ending, they will ring a bell three times. Feel free to move around at that point, and relax and enjoy the dharma talk.

The dharma talk is a brief time to explore what practice means to Gordon or Kathy in their daily experience. Their reflections often follow a book they group is studying or how they are dealing with some particular experience. It never fails to be an interesting and rewarding discussion. Again, no comment will be solicited. Just sit and listen.

When the talk is over, Gordon or Kathy will offer a brief closing prayer. Then they will thank you for coming and say they hope to see you next week. After that, people either head straight out or mill around greeting friends and talking with each other. It all ends in about an hour.

30 minutes of sitting, 30 minutes of dharma talk. I have been attending consistently for about two years - and I have always felt better and energized after being there. Sometimes, the experience is truly exceptional, as Gordon and Kathy rarely hold back and share emotional intimacies as a gift to the group.

I would suggest that anyone come by and give it a shot. If it's not your thing, at least you will have tried it. For others, it really sinks in and helps make your life better. All are welcome. If you're able, there is a table up front that holds a gratuity basket, as well as Gordon's CDs and book. Nobody will point you toward it - some people come for months without noticing it. That's one of the inside little tidbits you should know about, however, if you really want to feel like you've got everything figured out before you come.

You can't get much better than a free weekly experience. I highly recommend this group.

Kabbalah and Sufi

We just missed an exciting opportunity hosted by Kaaren Engel, Jamina Carder, and Thomas Anderson. For those of you who don't know Thomas Anderson, he's a Nashville adept at sound healing often seen around at the Sylvan Park Farmer's Market. We have yet to meet the other leaders.

I caught a nice flyer about the Sacred Hebrew Workshop and Kirtan (sacred chanting) just a little too late to get involved. A workshop began at 2:00, a dinner was included at 5:30, and chanting began at 7:00 - all for $50.

Sufi brings to mind images of the Whirling Dirvishes which performed about two years ago at TPAC. These practitioners swirled in place with their heads tilted for what seemed like an endless, moving rotational performance. An awe-inspiring performance. The spinning represents the heart of the spiritual universe for Sufi practitioners - the Earth is spinning, our atoms are spinning, everything alive is spinning according to this practice. They bring their rotation practice as a way to honor that truth and connect with the divine.

We're glad to see the vegetarian dinner accompany this Saturday afternoon and evening event. If anyone got the chance to go, let us know and we'll post on it.

For information and possible thoughts on the next event (maybe Fall 2010?) contact kaaren@kaarenengel.com

Dalai Lama Visits Memphis

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama visited the Memphis area recently. Nashville Health had the opportunity to see this event in person. We grabbed tickets for the third row of the Cannon Center and never looked back. By the time we arrived, more armed guards than we had ever seen were present, and the line wrapped around the block just to get in. We sat next to one of the event coordinators, who informed us that the event had been sold out even though it was 1:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday.

We happened to have been recruited to help organize the comments submitted to the Dalai Lama. We saw comments like: What is the meaning of life? What is the best practice for Americans? Audience questions were eventually taken by the Dalai Lama who spent about an hour addressing the topic of developing compassion. Most poignant was the question that came from this card: "I am nine years old. My daddy died. What should I do?" The Dalai Lama answered in a reassuring way, positing that the person should not worry or fear the future too much, and lead a life that her father would have wanted her to live. It was a touching moment that had an affect on the entire crowd.

The core of the message was that all of us are the same - we have the same hopes and needs, but we exist in different forms. As humans, we should all treat each other with love and compassion. What a striking philosophy.

The ability to see a living master only comes around so often. The take away from an event like this leaves an impression beyond the message of the speech. We'll look forward to enjoying the fruits of the experience for years to come.

Magnolia Village

Nashville Health has learned that Magnolia Village is a welcoming organization and retreat center in Batesville, MS. Our recent retreat with the Zen monks from Thich Nhat Hahn's order was a huge success. This caring Vietnamese community welcomed everyone from Nashville to Arkansas with open arms and provided a first-rate retreat experience. Particularly strong was the food. The staff provided authentic Vietmanese food which made me a newfound fan of the cuisine which doesn't reach the Nashville area that often. For smaller events, the on-site housing can supply space, or visitors can set up a tent on the expansive grounds - within one minute of the main meditation hall. Magnolia Village is hoping to host permanent monastics, so if that becomes a reality, area guests can look forward to instruction from the best.

Magnolia Village is also now a Google group. They can be reached by phone at 622-578-2077 or 662-832-1818.

Janice Cathey Massage Therapy

Janice comes from a family of healers, and her practice is one that purposefully avoids the expensive lotion rubbing that is common among spa experiences. My wife found her through a friend, and chose to purchase a gift certificate for two reasons: 1) A guy can be comfortable there - no totally female oriented spa setting, and 2) Janice is an expert in many types of massage, so she can craft your time to what you request.

I had no idea what to expect when I called Janice. My first surprise was how challenging it was to find time on her calendar. Even during a weak economy, Janice has weekly clients that make weekend time hard to find. Due to the challenges of my work schedule, we had to arrange for a time about a month out. Another surprise was that she handles her calls herself. I enjoyed having that one-on-one contact from the beginning, knowing that the relationship had already begun long before I arrived.

Janice practices right across from the Harris Teeter on Hillsboro Road. Parking is easily found underneath the unassuming office location, and several small businesses dot the semi-private floor where clients walk down to find Janice's suite.

I walked in and was instantly impressed. She works in an intimate two-room suite, with a main intake area and back room for the massage table. This arrangement, combined with the location, allows for truly discreet visits. Janice came to greet me and we went through an intake form, which included how I was reacting to stress, if I had any medical conditions, my purpose in coming, and anything in particular I wanted her to focus on. She described her specialty as a type of shiatsu called ashiatsu - where she would use a barefoot technique.

Now, here's where you need to know a little about me. I'm a little squeamish about the barefoot thing. But I also deeply believe in getting the best experiences. When someone wants to help you through their specialty, I tend to jump right in. So I swallowed my concerns and hoped for the best. I also told her about my burgeoning interests in alternative medicine, and she gave me an extra tidbit of advice based on my interest: during the massage, focus on my breath.

This sounded exactly like the right thing to do, and I did. I undressed to my level of comfort (boxers) and lay on the table, under the blanket, and waited for Janice to come in and begin. Optional music filled the background, as did incense. I rarely noticed either once Janice started her work.

The treatment began and it was revolutionary. Janice interwove shiatsu elements and ashiatsu elements throughout the treatment. There were times that I could not tell whether she was using her hands, arms, or feet to help rid me of my tension, and I found myself not caring in the slightest. Janice has erected a ceiling rig to help her balance when she is above the table, and she balances on a large exercise-style ball which she moves around the floor.

Shiatsu treatment was not at all like I thought it would be. I imagined hard repetitive pounding, with chopping hands scissoring across my back. Janice's treatments are not of the type where you leave the table feeling beaten. Instead, the long, continuous stroke seems to follow the muscle groups from their origin to their termination, leading to exceptional muscle release. Particularly helpful was the neck treatment. Janice cradled my head to one side as she pulled lightly, so that she could follow the neck muscle from the cranial notch all the way down to the connections at the collarbone. This felt remarkable, and brought me new insight into how long those muscles really are. Janice used this technique all throughout my body - turning me over halfway through and working on all but the parts which were hidden by my boxers. She worked extensively on my head, neck, and shoulder areas because those are the most problematic for me, but she allocated substantial time to all my limbs and torso.

At the conclusion of the treatment, Janice finished lightly on my forehead and told me to take as much time as I needed before I got up and redressed. I took more than a few minutes to just sit with the relaxation, as I imagine anyone would. I then joined Janice back in the entryway and asked for a few seconds to chat, which she gladly gave. She told me she was able to give a lot more in her practice when people focused on the breath, and she felt me just following my breath as she instructed. She also felt me just enjoying the exploration of what was happening, which was absolutely true. As we parted, Janice gave me a reward - a helping of dark chocolate.

There were not any disappointments in this experience, and I found Janice to be warm and personable. One oddity was that my table creaked loudly at one point during the session, enough that Janice worried if I was alright. I carried some concern about the table after that, but I figured Janice would have that covered.

Pricing is done by time rather than by treatment: 30 Min - $45 ; 60 Min - $90 ; 75 Min - $110; 90 Min - $135.

I now know why Janice is so hard to book, and why she has clients who see her weekly. Janice also told me she is working on a new type of therapy that is very helpful called Watsu - which is a water based therapy. A recent check of the website reveals it is now available. If you're looking for an amazing experience in a relaxing and truly private environment, but without the social bells and whistles of some places, call Janice and see what she has to offer.

Janice Cathey Massage Therapy

2200 21st Avenue South

Suite 109

Nashville, TN 37212

janice@janicecatheymassage.com

www.janicecatheymassage.com

Welcome

As I walked through the new farmer's market near Sylvan Park last weekend, I realized how many healing practicioners there are in this city. From massage, sound healing, and energy work to meditation and life coaching, this city has a lot to offer.

I hope to use this space to put together a comprehensive list of the different types of care available to those who are interested. The hospital system is crumbling. The insurance problem is rocking the nation. We need to know who else is out there that can help us heal. Call it integrative, call it alternative, call it medicine, call it whatever you want. It's better to know and have a sense of what's available. That's what I hope to accomplish.

Let me know what you think of this idea and if you're willing to help.

Adam