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Dear <<First Name>>, 

Are you enjoying spring yet?  Now that the days are longer from the end of daylight savings time, I am taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the extended evenings.  

The massage schedule has been quite full lately, as the snowbirds get in the last of their massages in Ocala.  But the schedule will be opening up a bit in April, so there shouldn't be as much of a wait for appointments.  I appreciate your patience.

Have you come to a yoga class of mine at either On Top Of The World or Studio SC?  This month, I will be getting my certification to teach aerial yoga, and hope to start teaching an aerial class or two at Studio SC soon.  That, along with Slow Flow Yoga every other Saturday and Yin Yoga every Monday and Thursday morning, will give me a great variety to teach and opportunities for you to try out!  

Are you interested in learning more about your anatomy and how your body moves?  I will be teaching a class at Master The Possibilities during their summer session called, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", which will be an active, fun way to learn about the anatomy of your neck, low back, hips and knees.  I am very excited to teach this class, and hope to see some of you in it!  The class will be in June, and I'll continue to mention it in the coming months.

Yoga Class Schedule:

Studio SC:  Located near the corner of Hwy 27 and 27th Ave (NW Ocala), Studio SC offers a wide variety of classes. 
Mondays and Thursdays, 10am: Yin Yoga
Every other Saturday, 10:15am: Hatha "Slow Flow" Yoga.  This class is not as rigorous as a Vinyasa Flow class, but we still keep it moving and challenging.
Keep your eye on this newsletter or my facebook page for updates.  Classes can be booked through Studio SC at www.studioscfitness.com/schedule.  (If you see a login screen when you follow the link, just click on the "classes" tab just above the login area to see the full schedule). 

On Top of The World:  For residents of On Top of The World only. 
Fridays, 9am:  Yin Yoga (Arbor Fitness Center)

Private Yoga:  Don't forget about private yoga sessions!  Private yoga is a great way to get started, get more specific, targeted help, or simply develop your own personal practice at home.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you.  

Best wishes,
Renu Poduval

The best way to stay informed about my offerings?  Like the Therapeutic Massage of Ocala Facebook page!

New to this newsletter?  Read previous articles here.

Health as Relationships 

For some people, "eastern" approaches to health seem completely foreign and strange.  Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine approaches (like acupuncture) can sometimes seem fantastical.  But they are rooted in a specific idea of health that has great value, and is worth understanding.

Have you ever heard of homeostasis?  Homeostasis is defined as "a relatively stable state of equilibrium or a tendency toward such a state between the different but interdependent elements or groups of elements of an organism, population, or group"*.  Homeostasis is the basis by which all organisms manage their bodies, and even how nature manages populations of different creatures.  It is the constant search for balance.  Most functions within your body are driven by this principle.  The changes that happen in our bodies to maintain body temperature or blood glucose levels are examples of the body working toward homeostasis.

So what does homeostasis have to do with different approaches to health?  Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda both see a person as a being in a state of some kind of balance (different for different individuals), and methods to improve dysfunction are always motivated by bringing the being back into balance.  For example, a TCM doctor may describe a condition as "too much heat", let us say, in the digestive system, and might prescribe treatments meant to bring more "cold" into the system to bring things back to balance.  Treatments will always be a personalized combination of different herbs, foods, energy work or manipulation, based not only on the symptom, but also on the patient's personality, lifestyle, and other factors.  Because each individual is different, the exact same treatment is not necessarily given to different people with similar symptoms.  These approaches are based on the idea that the right stimulus will help the body come back to homeostasis.  It is not so important, therefore, to understand the physical reason why there is digestive difficulty, but only to bring the body back to its balance, and let it self-correct within the larger picture of the being. 

In our modern, allopathic method of health care, we treat problems as independent of the individual.  Persistent heartburn is the same process, whether I experience it or you do, and any treatments are designed directly around using drugs that will produce an opposite effect of the heartburn, rather than seeing it as a symptom of imbalance in the whole person.  This approach is highly effective in many situations, especially when a person's life is at risk.  

So which one is better?  As always, both and neither.  They are simply different ways of approaching a problem, and we are so fortunate to have the opportunity to make choices about how we want to approach various problems we experience.  There are times when surgery and drug treatments will create more problems than they solve, and there are times when those are the most effective and health-producing options.  It is important to recognize that we are, indeed, "beings in balance", that our minds and bodies have incredible capacity to adapt, heal and change.  When we are able to give ourselves a chance to do so through the more traditional health perspective of balance, we have a better chance of using drugs and surgery more effectively when they are the best option.  Most importantly, the greatest investment in health is continually improving self awareness and finding a health support team that you trust.

* definition taken from www.merriam-webster.com