Raynor massage is the one therapy I am pursuing at the moment, and I thought it about time to write a new post, so it is only appropriate that I write about Raynor.
I receive Raynor from a lovely guy called Dave Taylor (for his website, click here). I've had 4 treatments from him now, and each one has been different in some way. Dave has practically magical hands, and knows just how to find my sore spots, and make them feel better. Whilst causing them a lot of pain.
Raynor massage was developed by a gentleman called Brandon Raynor, who studied various massage techniques and alternative medicines, and wanted to combine them all to completely treat the body: "It covers not just the muscles of the body but also the skeletal system and the subtle energy systems of the body."
Having had plenty of massages and experiences in Eastern medicine, I sort of understand the idea of chi, and energy blockages in the body causing tension. Raynor focuses quite seriously on a person's chi, and associates a lot of tension with emotional problems or stress. Mental well-being is as important as physical well-being, basically.
Having a Raynor massage is difficult. It's hurt, I'm not gonna lie, in fact sometimes it hurts like hell. Sometimes it hurts so much I can't understand why I'm not passing out from the pain. Raynor encourages patients to breathe properly throughout the massage, and breathing is very important to get yourself through the pain of the massage. Of course, it's not always easy to regulate your breathing (long breath in through the nose, long breath out through the mouth) and often I end up breathing more out of my mouth like you see pregnant women in labour of hospital dramas doing in order to get through the pain. And it's important to remember that it is not the masseur causing you pain. They are just trying to get out the deep-rooted tension in your body. It just happens to be happening at the end of their fingertips, palms and elbows,
Dave has managed to find some really sore spots on my body in the 4 times I've seen him, spots I didn't know existed. I know I have tension in my neck and shoulders, and I know I have tension down my spine and lower back. But I've learned from Dave about how the muscles run from shoulder to hip, how all the leg muscles are connected together around pubic bone at the bottom of the spine (look at the Hip & Pelvic Girdle section here). And in my 3rd session, Dave suddenly hit a spot in my hip that apparently held a lot of tension. It felt like he was putting as much pressure as humanly possible on it: he was basically pushing on it with the same pressure as you do when you tap your finger to the beat, i.e. no pressure at all in comparison what he could be be doing. But it hurt so much I cried and shouted. Dave, and the concept of Raynor, encourages emotional responses like that. It's best just to let it go.
As a deep tissue massage, Raynor is very effective for me. I don't know if it'll ever get rid of all my knots, it's unlikely. But in the meantime, I think it'll help relieve some of the tension. And despite putting myself through that much pain for an hour, I feel much better for it afterwards.
Having just gone on & on about how excellent Raynor is, I don't think it will cure me. That's not me being pessimistic, that's sort of just being realistic. Because I am likely to have this headache, and this pain, for the rest of my life.
I read this thread online this morning. I don't know I haven't come across it before, I have googled my condition Chronic Daily Tension Headache enough times. But it confirmed for me what I had secretly been fearing, and what I didn't want to admit to myself. It's 5 & a half years this month I've had this headache, and it's important I don't stop counting, but it's also important that I stop putting so much emphasis on the longevity of this headache, and that the longer it goes on the less likely I'll be able to be headache-free ever again. There's no cure for CDTH, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy my life, and that one day I won't find something that cures me, or can relieve me of my headache for days, or weeks, or months on end. I think what I should now focus on is getting myself into the best possible health. I need to focus on conditioning my body with Pilates and Yoga, and start to eat a lot better. I would love to start running again, but we'll see eh?
I need to learn how to manage the pain. I've just got to stop letting my headache get me down.
I've just got to let it go.
