naj

This is a very personal piece of writing that I am sharing to give explanation as to why those who have known me a long time may hear newer students calling me naj.

I’ve always struggled with my name as a thing that almost does but actually doesn’t quite fit.  My birth certificate says “Jennifer Anne Jacobsen”, but I have never been a Jennifer.  The only person I can recall ever calling me that with any regularity was my paternal grandmother.  I think my dad used it for a minute, but gave up fairly early on.  My mom called me Neffer, spelling it like that, with two effs, ever since I can remember. By the time I reached high school the fluffiness of those effs had started to make me feel like a puppy, and in an attempt to grow the name up and maybe exotify it, I changed the spelling to Nephyr. This made it fit a bit better, but it continued to tug a bit, or fall off my shoulders.  

I added my middle name as the author name on the books I wrote, for the first time owning the Anne, being Nephyr Anne as a writer, and that brought my name a bit closer to fitting, but it still tended to squeeze in the wrong places and snag on corners.  And no one actually called me Nephyr Anne. 

I’ve considered changing my name many times over the decades, but I worried about if someone from my past wanted to find me (same reason I kept my maiden name when I married), or if it would come across as pretentious, and besides, there wasn’t another name that was clearly the right one.  

I’m going to change topics for a moment, bear with me (pun intended). 

Last fall me and several thousand other people found out about Fat Bear Week, a week in early October when people all over the world vote on which bear at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park in Alaska has gotten the plumpest in preparation for hibernation.  My son was sick with covid on the other side of the country, I was stressed and worried, and watching the bears on the bear cam live streaming on Youtube, and voting on them with my son gave me reprieve from the world. The bears were a corner of peaceful covid-free beauty where silly humans voted on them with zero politics, all friendly bear love.  Something deep inside of me rested when I watched those enormous furry fisherbeings catching salmon in Alaska.  

I made a new Youtube account for some reason in relation to watching the bears; I can’t remember exactly why;  but I had to pick a new user name, so I randomly chose my initials, NAJ.   I looked at my initials and suddenly saw them not as separate letters representing names, but as a whole that pierced into me and said “this is you”.  naj. 

I felt instantly shy about this knowledge, tucked it away, and didn’t tell anyone. 

It was simultaneously big and important and tiny and personal. It was a secret that I carried around.  I am naj.  shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone. 

One by one the bears lumbered off to hibernate through the winter in hidden dens that not even the park rangers know the location of. The falls emptied. The bear cams, solar powered, turned off for the long dark Alaskan winter.  

Sometimes I doubted it  Maybe this is silly.  Changing names is so…. Fill in the blank.  Trendy? Pretentious? Needy? 

Sometimes I didn’t think about it so much. 

In early spring I was having a lot of anxiety again.  Climate change, Ukraine, daily mass shootings, no one caring about covid, people beating each other up on airplanes.  It was piling up inside of me and I felt like I was constantly pushing something persistent and fragile and nasty away from my edges. 

Then the cams in Alaska came back online and the bears started to come back one by one lumbering, all skinny from their winter sleep, to the river. I started engaging with other bear watchers around the world. I joined a Facebook group of people talking about nothing but bears. We all held our breath together wondering if this year Otis, the oldest bear in Katmai, would return, and we all cried happy tears when he did.  People in Australia, Germany, me here in Oregon, all crying happy tears because an old bear in Alaska made it through another winter; it was like sanctuary.  The calm of the bears, and the shared sweetness of humans in a world ever more divided came together to heal something cracked and in danger of splitting apart inside of me. 

Watching the bears stilled the chaos. Grounded me.  And made a little voice whisper quietly in my head, “I am naj”.  

I got to know the bears.  Grazer who is a fierce mama, chasing away any who got too close to her, 747, biggest bear at the falls; a positive mountain of fur and muscle, all of the COYs (stands for cub of the year, new spring cubs), Mystery Bear; a  new comer who stayed around for about two weeks delighting us all as he stole our hearts, as well as  fish from other bears, and played in the water like a cub despite being full grown, and then disappeared leaving us to miss his antics.  And sweet bear goddess Holly, almost as old as Otis, known for having stepped outside of bear norms to adopt an orphaned cub.
The name felt intensely connected to the bears. It welled up inside of me asking to be let out whenever I turned away from the constant to-do list and gave myself a few minutes of just watching the bears fish. naj.

I finally told Aaron that I think my name is naj.  He was not so sure about this turn of events.  I tried to explain that it’s connected to the bears, but what sense does that make? 

Lately it seems like everyone is changing their name, and changing their pronouns.  It’s hard to keep up.  I struggle to remember people’s names even when they haven’t changed them; not from lack of caring, it’s just how my brain works; or doesn’t work.  Certain things are hard. I’m not good at faces either, not until they have been strongly etched into my long term memory.  I’ve learned to tell my students at the end of a workshop not to take it personally if I run into them two weeks later on the street and look blank; I just need them to remind me of their name and context, and all of the love for them born of the workshop will flood back into me.  An old friend who is staying with us constantly mentions names from high school and I have no idea who he is talking about; probably someone I once desperately wished would befriend me. 

Seems like kind of a lot for someone who has to energetically kick herself everytime she calls her non-binary friends with a gendered pronoun by mistake and yet still does it again, to ask folks to remember a new name herself. 

So I kept quiet.  Except that I started telling baristas that my name is naj when I ordered my dirty chai. And I practiced it as a sign off on e-mails to strangers, with my full name “Nephyr Anne Jacobsen” in the byline underneath so that they could just see it as initials if they liked.

Last week I told my Thai medicine teacher about the bears and my name, certain he would laugh at my silly earnestness telling me to do whatever I wanted, don’t worry about it.  Instead he said “give me your time, place, and date of birth and I’ll check to see if it’s good”.  A couple of days later I received this missive “...in fact it would be best if your name starts with a “na”. So then naj is perfect”

So here we are.  If you want, you can call me naj.  Pronounced like Taj in Taj Mahal, but with an n of course.  Or you can call me Nephyr - because that’s also a name of mine, like how there are places other than my current home that are also home.  I just thought I’d tell you my secret because well, the bear cams are broken this week so I had a few extra minutes, and I’ve been meaning to explore this corner of bravery (because I still feel very very very shy about it). Do what you want with it. 

Fat Bear Week has come and gone again.  747 won this year.  He does not know or care, but we all rooted fiercely for our favorite bears knowing that in the end they are all winners, for the competition raises awareness of the bears, nature, the parks, the importance of keystone species and of taking moments in life to simply enjoy the fact that somewhere far away there is still a very strong salmon run, and some majestically beautiful floofy creatures sitting in a cold river getting pudgy for the winter. 

The bears are once again disappearing to their secret dens and Brooks Falls cams are going offline more and more. When they are on there are hardly any bears.  I wish them a good hibernation.  

-naj

written October 2022

Life By The Sea

I grew up and have lived most of my life by the sea.  One of the first important life lessons I can remember is my dad telling me “Nephyr, never turn your back on the ocean”.  It was repeated until it was law.  Never turn your back on the ocean.  

The ocean is beauty and strength, healing and enlivening.  She can be gentle, giving us waters to float in and food to eat. She is psychedelic in her ability to expand the mind with possibility simply by gazing at her far off horizon. She shows us the curve of the planet.  She inspires poetry and romance, and there is no better place to grieve than by the sea.  She can also be the most powerful of forces, overturning great ships and tsunami engulfing entire towns.  She can overtly flex her muscles, and she can be a deathly subtle trickster. 

When you live by the sea you know the tides.  You know when it is safest to play in her waves.  Sailors and fisherfolk know when to venture out and when to come in to safe harbor.  Those who eat these things know when the seashore mollusks are safe for gathering and when they contain natural yet harmful toxins just as those of us who gather in the shore pines know which mushrooms to eat and which to avoid.  Those who regularly play in her waves, surfers and seals, know to avoid the places that will smash you on the rocks. And everyone knows, never turn your back on the sea.

We all watch with dismay as every year the landlocked tourists, who are fearless of the sea because they think she is an extension of the for-your-entertainment taffy filled boardwalks come out and get trapped on dangerous rocks by the tides, caught in undertows, pinned under water by logs that loll in the surf, and find endless ways to drown.  They ignore the signs posted saying “stay off of these rocks” and they repeatedly and fearlessly turn their backs.  There is a yearly weeping. 

Locals who live by the sea do not argue or lecture one another about freedom to ignore the rising tide, nor do they condescendingly accuse one another of being scared. No one says it’s better to swim in the storm than to embody fear.  

It is understood that the ocean should be feared.  That a healthy respect for, and fear of, her powers is what keeps the shoreline community alive.  It’s understood that a pinch of fear of the ocean does not mean that we live our lives quaking and trembling.  It is understood that discussing the incoming weather and possible precautions does not mean that we are inherently fearful people.  To the contrary, it is seen as wisdom. 

When you live the by the briny deep you talk about it a lot.  You talk about it with love, you talk about it with warning, you talk about it with joy and you talk about it with sorrow.  It’s an ever present thing.  

I talk about covid a lot.  Like most of humanity, I am living in a time of a viral tsunami.  Davy Jone’s Locker is the briny deep of mucous filled lungs. And so I talk about the rising tide of case numbers. I talk about the areas where we are more likely to get smashed on the rocks of human recklessness.  I talk about the lifeboat of vaccines and our exhausted coast guard of medics.  I talk about the people with little knowledge of science and medicine, the tourists to the shore of healing arts who are fearless in a time when a bit of fear is a life vest of wisdom.  I do my best to educate, to be that sign that says “stay off of these rocks”, because I know the tides are coming in.  

I am not living my life quaking and trembling.  Most of my days are spent doing lovely things like picking blackberries, communicating with my wonderful students, kissing my handsome kind husband.  That my conversations are frequently about the new and dangerous waters we are wading through, and how to best get through them, is not a sign of living a life in fear, it’s an embracing of the very reason that fear exists at all, which is to save our lives, and for that I am grateful to fear as that little respectful dose of it helps me to have less overall fear.  To say “there is an undertow over there” is not to live life in fear of undertows in a constant flood of anxiety, it is how we live with them with wisdom and stay well - we know we can trust one another to help us keep our eyes out, to stay informed, to know where it’s safe to tread, and in this knowledge we can relax a little. 

I have lived most of my life by the deep and wild, cold beautiful ocean of the upper left edge of this country. When I see deep waters I recognize them, and I will not turn my back on them. 
-nephyr

Program Redesign ~ a message to my current and incoming students

As I watch the exponential spread of illness throughout our local, national, and global community it has become clear that I cannot in good conscience proceed forward with the hands-on classes that I had hoped to resume this fall. It simply doesn’t feel like right action in my gut. The primary lesson of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 is and has always been, that we are all connected and only through precautions that protect one another will we move out of these pandemic times. Whether it is the interconnectedness between two individuals through which virus can jump or the interconnectedness between nations that means that so long as any one country on this earth is suffering all peoples in all nations are in danger, the lesson has been from the very beginning that we must care about one another, even when this means making difficult changes and sacrifices; for we are one and love is the answer.

Over the last few days I have sat in contemplation reimagining how to offer the Thai medicine teachings I hold to meet the needs of the times we are in. This has required opening my heart-mind to doing something that I previously thought I would never do, and that is to teach entirely, including bodywork, through interactive distance education until we can safely gather and once again lay hands on one another. This reimagining is in progress, and I find myself surprisingly inspired by it.

I think I have to start by saying the reason that I thought I would never teach Thai massage online or in videos is because I had never seen it done in a way that I perceived to be safe and whole. To teach bodywork, such an inherently physical thing, and Thai bodywork at that, one of the most physically complex modalities extant, without being in the same room, at one time seemed impossible to me. But look at the moment we are in. The tools we have created. The ways in which humans have found to touch one another in untouchable times. The number of impossible things happening in the world around me is enough to reconfirm my belief in magic. We created one of the most effective vaccines in human history in a timeframe I thought impossible even given the decades of research that it stands on; surely I can figure out how to teach bodywork safely, to all corners of the earth, in a manner that goes beyond the limitations of how I have seen it done in the past.

Just give me a minute, I am creating this enormous thing.

More information is coming, but here is what I know right now:

• The program will not be truly finished until the day when we can gather in-person for a massage intensive, because I still believe that working directly with you, seeing you work, feeling your work, giving in-person guidance, is a key part of massage training. I imagine a two week in-person workshop someday in the future - there will be plenty of time to plan for it, don't worry. It could be shorter or longer, it depends on various factors that will reveal themselves.

• The program will be a multi-platform mixture of video lessons, hand outs, live zoom workshops, group messaging communications, weekly wai kru ritual and check-in, students sending in videos of themselves practicing, books, and more. We are going to use ALL the tools to make this work, make this fun, make this accessible.

• I can take more people into this program than I could take in my original hands-on program because the format will allow me to give the same level of personal guidance to more people and we can create multiple end of program intensives so that the true hands-on portion is still a small student/teacher ratio.

• Creating this program will be a huge undertaking for me, and costly, however I intend to keep the price the same if not lower than current prices. I can't say exactly what it will be yet, only that it will not be more expensive than current prices.

• My hands-on workshops were supposed to start on September 11th, but I'm going to need a bit more time to put this together. I'm currently thinking that the end of September is reasonable and will get back to you all with an exact date as soon as possible.

• I will try to keep the live Zoom workshops within the time blocks that are already allotted for in-person classes. The Zoom workshops will be shorter though.

• You will see changes to my website reflecting all of this soon and if you are already enrolled in a program or in talks with me I will reach out to you with the information as it evolves.

I send love and wishes of health and safety and happiness to each and every one of you. I know that this transition will be a delight to some, a relief, an unexpected opportunity; but I also know that it will be a sorrow for some as well; a disappointment and a letting go of excited expectations. I understand both how distance learning connects us to people who we would not have connected with before (and now not only those who are geographically distanced, but also those who could not attend hands-on classes due to a lack of antibodies), and also how it disconnects us. And I know that there are those who simply do not relate to computers. For those for whom this is wonderful news, big smiles. For those for who this is hard news, I give gratitude to your understanding, I give empathy for the loss, and give wishes/prayers that with time this change will prove itself to be of great benefit, to be right action.

When I will have in person classes again (sigh, Covid)

My state is starting to allow massage, and people are asking me about when I will teach in person classes again. Here is where I stand. I take this disease dead serious. And I take my responsibility as a healing arts practitioner, to help not harm, dead seriously. I need to see some mixture of the following before I will consider it safe to do bodywork or teach bodywork:

• Widespread reliable infection testing

• Widespread reliable antibody testing

• Understanding of how much immunity presence of antibodies indicates

• A reliable treatment/cure

• A reliable preventative (vaccine or other)

Other factors that I am keeping an eye on as I follow the science and data are:

• Country-wide infection numbers (my classes generally have students traveling from out of state, so it’s not just about Oregon)

• Herd immunity progression 

• Covid-19 mutation (which may result in stronger or weaker viral spread depending)

Right now we have none of these things. To make decisions that could endanger lives with none of the factors that are needed to know that it is safe would be negligent.

Some thoughts about the push for massage therapists to work right now

• The novel coronavirus covid-19 is known to cause systemic circulatory issues including but not limited to formation of blood clots throughout the body. All licensed massage therapists have been trained that bodywork has the potential to dislodge blood clots, potentially causing brain embolism, pulmonary embolism, or cardio-embolism. Blood clots have been found in young, seemingly healthy or mildly sick covid-19 patients.

• Scientists and medics the world over are telling people to wear masks and stay at least 6 feet apart. Massage requires close physical contact for extended time. There is no way to practice social distancing and massage at the same time.

• The novel coronavirus covid-19 is aerosolized, meaning that the virus hangs and spreads in the air. The longer two or more people share air space, the more likely it is that if one person is infected, whether they know it or not, that the disease will spread to others in the room. Massage is most often done in small rooms with poor ventilation, for extended periods of time.

• I am following a number of social media groups in which massage therapists are talking about covid-19. Something that I am seeing over and over again is conversations about liability release forms. I’m seeing massage therapists who are eager to return to work, or who feel financially pressured to return to work, consulting with lawyers in order to iron clad their liability forms. Two thoughts about this: 1. there is no liability release form on earth that guarantees that you won’t get sued or be held accountable, and 2. If you are about to do something that you feel you need a legal firewall between yourself and responsibility for, that might right there be reason to pause and reconsider if what you are about to do is safe and ethical.

• I’ve seen conversations about having clients wait in the car rather than a waiting room, because the waiting room might not be safe. I’ve seen our governing board talk about clients bringing their own water bottles, because our glasses might not be safe, and then saying that the clients should leave the water bottle in their car, because their water bottles might not be safe. I’m not sure how we can say in one breath that the waiting rooms and water bottles are not safe, but that somehow our massage rooms and direct contact and shared air for between 30 and 90 minutes is magically okay.

• The push for massage to be open and for massage therapists to return to work has nothing to do with health care. It has nothing to do with worrying about client welfare. I have not seen one single massage therapist, in all of the social media groups, talk about clients who require massage in order to function. I’ve seen hundreds of massage therapists talk about needing money. And it’s my personal opinion that the states are allowing massage for money as well; because the more services they open up, the less they have to pay unemployment money.

• Around the country certain groups of people are being hit harder than anyone else by covid-19. This includes the elderly, people of color, native peoples, and the houseless. If you are white, relatively young, and have a roof over your head and don’t live in a hot spot, it is likely that you do not feel as threatened by this disease. If most of your community is white, well fed, and relatively young, it is likely that you have not lost anyone to this disease, or watched a friend suffer for two months through a bad case of it. It’s easy to start treating it lightly. But right now native peoples are, per capita experiencing numbers of covid cases higher than New York. And the risk of dying of covid in New York is greater than the risk of dying for soldiers in Afghanistan in 2010 (bad year in Afghanistan). If you want to be a white ally to people of color, and if you want to show up for our elders, then if you can (as in, you are not an emergency worker etc), you must stay home. You may be in a demographic that is less likely to suffer the worst of covid, but you share a world with demographics of people who are disproportionately likely to die from it.

• States that are allowing massage are requiring extensive PPE be used by both clients and therapists. If you have enough PPE to open your massage practice, then you have a moral obligation to give it to emergency medics who need it. If your local hospitals don’t need it, send it to a hospital in New York, or Chicago, or where ever the current hot spot is.

I don’t know if other massage teachers and schools will be opening up in person classes soon. I know that I miss my students. I know that I miss teaching. And I know that I’m going to choose safety over all else for as long as it takes. Maybe my classes will start in September as planned. Maybe they will be pushed back to January. Maybe I will be closed for two years. I don’t know. I just know that I love healing arts, and that as such, my decisions will be based in helping not harming. I have been doing massage for 30 years now. In that time there have been other times when I did something else for a spell. I know that time goes by quickly and that if I have to work a different job for awhile, I can do that. Massage will not go away. It will be here for me when it is safe for me to come back to it.

When To Go Back To Work (another Covid post)

This flow chart is not mine. It is from a Facebook Post by Tracy Walton, which you can find here. I’m pasting links to all of the resources mentioned in the flow chart beneath it.
I want to acknowledge how hard this is. Acknowledge that in many cases our livelihoods rely on working. Acknowledge the many massage therapists who are closing their offices and embarking on new ways of making a living who may never return to their beloved bodywork. Acknowledge the incredibly impossible position of having to choose between client and personal safety, and the ability to pay your rent/mortgage. Acknowledge that LMTs are getting jobs in warehouses and supermarkets, where they are unable to do what they have worked so hard to excel at. Acknowledge how hard it is to say "not yet" to a client who is in pain and just wants a massage. Acknowledge that many of us are taking on financial debt that may take years to climb out of, and that those who are able to go into debt are often the lucky ones, for they have access to a credit lifeline that many don't.
That, if it turns out that this was overly cautious, we have made a choice between potential unnecessary financial ruin, and potential unnecessary deaths, and have erred on the side of caution, for financial ruin is better than being a part of a chain in which people die (although yes, I know that because of our terrible health care system sometimes financial ruin and death are related).
And finally, I would like to acknowledge that this will pass. That we will climb out of this. That money is an energy that waxes and wanes, and waxes again. That we will, in a couple of months or a couple of years, be able to safely nourish people's health with touch therapy. We just have to get through this. May you all be well. May you all be safe. May you all have abundance. May you all be happy

LINKS from infographic:
(Video) Hayden, M., Werner, R., Thompson, D. A discussion on the potential changes coming due to Covid 19 to the massage/bodywork professions (April 20, 2020). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN_IpPWkX9k&feature=youtu.be

Cates, C. “Your governor is not a massage therapist.” April 21 blog post at Healwell, https://www.healwell.org/…/your-governor-is-not-a-massage-…/

Koplen, M. Massage therapy and coronavirus: 4 reasons why masks and clean surfaces aren’t enough. Massage (April, 2020)
https://www.massagemag.com/massage-therapy-and-coronavirus…/

MT & COVID FB group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/covidandmassage/

US Dept of Labor, OSHA. Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19.
https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3990.pdf

COVID-19 and Massage

Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after will seem inadequate” - Michael Leavitt

In the last 24 hours I’ve had a constant stream of people contacting me all asking the same question; should they suspend their massage practice because of COVID-19? In short, the answer is yes, they absolutely should. At this point most people are responding to me with a sigh of resignation indicative of them already knowing this and just needing to hear it from someone else. But for those who are still rationalizing continued practice, or those who are wobbling on the fence, I offer some thoughts for your concerns about financial instability and your question of are we possibly over-reacting.

Regarding Over-reacting - a few thoughts
• Aren’t people just overreacting?
No, people are under-reacting. I mean, sure, buying all the toilet paper in stores and getting into fights over it is definitely over-reacting, but in general too many people are not taking this disease seriously enough. In the last 24 hours 386 people died in Italy from COVID-19. They are stacking coffins outside of mortuaries because they don’t have room inside for more. The U.S. is a week or two behind Italy in the disease progression and we don’t have any accurate numbers regarding infection rates here because our country is barely testing for it. People continuing to hang out in groups, massage clients, shop unnecessarily etc. are all under-reacting.

• I am young and healthy, so I’m not worried
Do you have any elders in your life or your massage practice? (If your answer to this is no, then I highly recommend that when this is all over, when it’s safe, you do your best to make friends with an elder; go to an elder care facility, or adopt the old lady who lives down the street). If you do have elders in your life, or asthmatics, or heavy smokers, or immune compromised folk, or you work with those who are houseless, or you are friends with someone who has people from any of these groups in their life, or you are friends with someone who is friends with someone who has people from any of these groups in their life, then it isn’t about you. People with no symptoms are capable of carrying and spreading the virus to others and unwittingly killing them.

• Let’s just all get it so that we can become immune and get it over with
Okay, for starters, a lot of people will die with this approach. Plus, there have been cases of reinfection. It’s not known how long antibodies to COVID-19 last, so there is no reason at this point to think that letting it sweep through a community will prevent future infections.

• Everything is going to be fine, there will be a vaccine soon
Experts are saying that we are likely 18 to 24 months from a vaccine. And that’s if everything goes extraordinarily well.

• A gazillion people die every year from the flu so why are we so worried about this?
COVID-19 spreads 2 to 3 times faster than the flu and is at least 20% more deadly than the flu. But even more importantly, we don’t have the resources to handle it. We don’t have enough ventilators in the hospitals; not even close. We don’t have enough doctors (and many will become sick themselves). We don’t have enough hospital beds. We don’t even have enough masks and gloves. We prepare for the flu outbreak every year; we are not prepared for this pandemic.

The only way to stop this virus is for all who can to practice extreme social distancing. That’s it, that’s the only way.

Regarding Money - I know, this is how we make our living
A few weeks ago my teacher was here from Thailand, teaching in-depth contemplations on the Buddhadamma from which Thai medical theory stems. At one point he said that it’s best when healing arts practitioners have another job for income and practice healing arts on the side, whether or not they accept money for their medicinal work. He said the reason is because healing must be our primary motivation for this work and that being dependent upon healing arts for money always brings ethical complications. These are not his exact words, but it’s the takeaway I had from his teaching.

I am seeing the reality of his words unfold before my eyes right now as massage therapists continue to work despite every medical and scientific expert in the world saying that the ONLY way to stop the spread of this disease, a disease that is killing people, is to avoid all non-essential contact with one another. I saw a massage therapist write about doing a session the other day on a client who coughed throughout the session, and then the therapist continued working on others. Because they needed the money. When we place money above the health and safety of our community we can no longer say that we practice healing arts. When we knowingly risk spreading a deadly disease in the name of income we can no longer say that we practice healing arts. When we fail to stay updated and educated about the realities of a pandemic, we can no longer say that we practice healing arts. If we aren’t really practicing healing arts, then we may as well get another job. I know this sounds callous, but can you imagine having to tell all of your clients that you exposed them to COVID-19? And by extension exposed their grandparents and their immune compromised friends? For most of us this comes too late; we should have considered what else to do long before being put in this situation. But we weren’t expecting a global pandemic. Now we know, now we can plan for the next one (and there will be a next one). For now we just have to do whatever we can to get by without hurting anyone. There are a lot of people offering help; accept help. Hopefully there will be some sort of government financial assistance. Hopefully landlords will extend grace periods on rent. Hopefully we will all find our humanity and be kind and take care of one another. For us massage folk, that starts with suspending practices.

I know that the financial impact will be real and difficult for a great many people, not just massage therapists, and I am saddened by this. I’ve talked to more than one person in tears today. I know that people will lose a great deal of income. People will lose jobs. People will possibly lose houses. People will lose security. But what we are trying to prevent is people losing lives. I’ve been extremely poor most of my life. As a child there were times when we lived in a 15 foot trailer without plumbing or electricity. As an adult I’ve lived well below the poverty level more years than I have lived above it. This is all sucky, and I don’t wish it on anyone, but it’s mostly survivable. For a great many people COVID-19 is not survivable. We have to think differently for awhile. We have to think of survival in literal terms. We can get past this.

We can all think outside the box. I know yoga teachers who are offering classes via zoom. I’m wrapping up creating an online ethics class that was always intended to be partially a fundraiser. The first fundraiser I see it being is one to aid to people struggling due to COVID-19. I’ve cancelled my upcoming class and am figuring out how to teach it another way; which won’t be easy with this class. Those who can help others must help others. Those who need help, must accept it from others. We are living through something that we have never seen before, but we are kind and we are smart and we will figure out a way through.

If, after reading this, and all the other things you are reading, you still intend to keep your massage practice open, please disinfect after every client. Air out your room after every client (they are now saying that it can be shared through the air, not just in fluid droplets). Have clients bring their own linens. Wash your hands and don’t touch your face. This isn’t enough, only social distancing is enough, but it’s something.

Thank you all for all of the care you put into your practices, for all of the kindness you show the world, for all of your perseverance and optimism. Stay rooted in love. Trust. We will get through this.

-nephyr jacobsen

Learning in Thailand

About once a week someone asks me where they should study during their trip to Thailand, where the “authentic training” is. Here is what I tell them.

Travel - where to go or not go

• First, explore. Go someplace other than Chiang Mai. All of the healing arts people go to Chiang Mai. It’s like there isn’t any other town in Thailand. Chiang Mai is so full of westerners that I have had the experience in recent years of walking down a street there and not seeing any Thai people. It’s a great place to go if you want raw food, yoga, everything in English, and everything marketed just for you. But you can probably get all of that without flying to the other side of the world. I have loved Chiang Mai deeply in the past. And there are still things I love about it, but the changes that have occurred there have turned it into a crowded, intensely polluted, westernized city. Especially the old city section and the surrounding area; which is likely where you will end up staying if you are new to Thailand. I can remember when Thai people had homes in the old city. When there were businesses there that existed just for the benefit of locals. Now walk around the old city and you will not see homes with families living in them, you will only see guesthouses for tourists, shops for tourists, and restaurants for tourists. The community has been pushed out to make room for all of the things that westerners like to buy. If you want to experience Thailand, spend some time someplace other than Chiang Mai.

• Avoid Phuket and Pai as well. Pai was once my favorite town in all of Thailand, but it’s been utterly taken over by westerners (it went from being a sleepy tiny village that you had to take a bus to, that had a handful of guesthouses, to having over 300 guesthouses and an airstrip). And Phuket has been a hard core tourist island for as long as I have known it.

• Get a guide book. An actual book like The Lonely Planet or some such. Rather than reading other people’s reviews, just read about a place, old school style. Find some little town that looks interesting and go there. While you are there talk to other travelers. Hear about places they have liked. Read more in your guide book. Get on a train or a bus and go to another little place you heard or read about. See the country. See Thailand from a slow moving vehicle. Or don’t; it’s also okay to just hunker down in some little town and get to know it well rather than going from place to place. But go somewhere outside of the primary tourist centers. There is tourism everywhere in Thailand, but if you get out of the tourist meccas like Chiang Mai, you get to see Thai culture that isn’t so diluted, and this goes for the bodywork too.

You’ll find yourself in some places you love, and some places you don’t love. No guarantees. This is travel. It’s real and it’s interesting and it’s risky. When you find a place you really love, keep quiet about it. Remember what I said about Pai? It was ruined by word of mouth. Be a little bit protective of things that you hold dear in Thailand. When things are wonderful, excellent. When things are hard, just remember that when traveling, sometimes the worst experiences make for the best stories later.

Learning Thai Massage

• If you have never studied Thai massage before take some classes in your home country. There is almost nothing easily available, in terms of classes, to westerners in Thailand that you can’t get in the U.S. or Canada or Europe or Argentina. So many people go to Chiang Mai, they all study with the same teachers at the same tourist massage schools (and the tourist schools mostly all copy one another), and then a great number of them return to their western country and start teaching what they learned. I promise you, you can learn all that stuff that’s available in Chiang Mai, in the U.S. Or Greece. Or London. Or Argentina. Or Australia. Or you can go and learn it in Chiang Mai (or an island, or Pai, or, to a limited extent, Bangkok). That can be super fun and it’s cheaper in Thailand, but only do this if you have enough time to also do what I’m going to say next. If you have limited time in Thailand, then get your basic Thai massage training in your home country so that you can do something in Thailand that you can’t do at home.

• Learn by receiving. Once you have the basics of Thai massage down there is another level of learning that happens through experiencing the work on our own bodies. Most of us either cannot afford to get a ton of massages, or we don’t live someplace where there are many other Thai massage therapists. And if we do happen to live someplace with a lot of other Thai massage therapists, it’s probably because someone is teaching Thai massage in your town and you all learned from the same place, so there isn’t much variance. In Thailand you can get a three hour massage for about $10-$15. And there are a LOT of people practicing Thai massage, so you can experience a lot of different styles and skill levels. For this reason when people ask me where they should study in Thailand I say go travel around the country. See where this art comes from. Get to know the culture. Enjoy the country. And everywhere you go, get massages. We learn so much from receiving. In fact I would say that we cannot really understand the work if we do not experience it in our bodies. A lot. More than we get in an occasional workshop where we are being practiced on by other beginners.

• Everywhere you go, make friends with your guesthouse owner, tuk tuk driver, tour guide, restaurant owner, all of the people you encounter who know their area. Ask them where you can find the best massage.

• Know that you will get some terrible massages. You will get lots of mediocre massages. And you will get some fantastic massages. Learn from every single one of them; the terrible, the mediocre, and the fantastic.

• When a therapist employs a technique that you particularly like you can ask them to do it again, and watch what they do (kŏr èek kráng/ขออีกครั้ง/please do that again) . Or, if they are full of new moves and skill you could ask the therapist if they would teach you. Rather than go to schools created for westerners, why not travel around the country getting massages and getting the good therapists to spend an hour or a day or 20 days teaching you?

Here are some phrases to help you to get the massage you want (finish all sentences with kha if you identify as female, and khrap if you identify as male)
• kŏr bao bao noi/ขอเบาๆน้อย/could you please be very gentle
• por-dee/พอดี/perfect, just right
• kŏr nak noi/ขอหนักน้อย/could you please work stronger/harder
• kŏr nak nak noi/ขอหนักๆน้อย/could you please be very very strong/hard
• bpùat têe nêe/ปวดที่นี่/I have pain here (you can point)
• jèp/เจ็บ/pain (to inform massage therapist that what they are doing is hurting too much)

When Looking for a Teacher, Some Random Things to Consider

• In really touristy areas the locals know what the healing arts tourists want and they will give it to you. This is especially true of Chiang Mai. They will tell you that their mother/grandmother was the village midwife and that their father/grandfather was the village medicine man. This may or may not be true. But ask yourself this “if I tell you my father is a lawyer, does that make me someone you want representing you in court?”. Just because their grandmother was a midwife doesn’t mean they are. Be discerning and try to look past the romanticized story that they are offering you that will be fun to tell your friends. Try to seek out real learning, not a story. Unless you are really there for the stories, in which case, go for it.

• Does the teacher have an actual healing arts practice? Are locals coming to them for healing? Or is all of their time spent teaching westerners?

• Trust your instincts. A lot of the time when people are in such a completely foreign place they stop trusting themselves. If some part of you is thinking “this isn’t right”, it probably isn’t right.

• Just because a Thai person said it/did it, doesn’t mean it’s traditional, ethical, or culturally correct. Not every Thai person studies Thai healing arts. Not every Thai person teaching westerners Thai massage has really studied Thai healing arts.

• When seeking a teacher, dress appropriately. Knees and shoulders covered, clean, modest. It’s a different culture, and even though you will see Thais who dress in carefree modern ways, many of the teachers of Thai healing arts are from an older generation and will take you more seriously if you present yourself appropriately.

• Tok Sen traditionally is a technique used spot specifically to treat certain conditions. It’s meant to be taught with initiations and a lot more information than most people are getting when learning it in tourist schools. It is a technique, it is not a massage modality. Please be careful as tok sen can break bones if used incorrectly. It’s a fantastic technique when used skillfully, but it’s not a frivolous tool. If you are seeking traditional teaching, look for a teacher who does an initiation ceremony before teaching you, and who teaches it as a treatment technique, not as a whole body massage kind of thing.

• Yam kang, the stepping on the hot metal and then putting your feet on people, comes from spirit medicine, which requires many years of training with, and initiations from, a Thai spirit doctor. It’s meant for driving bad things out of people, it is not a massage modality. In recent years Thais have started to teach it to westerners as a massage modality, without any of the traditional training that is supposed to go with it. Because money. And so a specific healing art form is being diluted, mutated, and potentially lost. This one I would recommend simply staying away from unless you speak Thai and can work with a real Thai spirit doctor.

• If you ask someone to teach you and they say no, you can ask them again (politely, gently). Sometimes you have to ask a few times to show that you are serious. But if you ask three times and they say no, let it go.

• If it’s all about acro-yoga style stretches, it’s probably not Thai bodywork as Thai bodywork has historically been practiced. It’s probably heavily influenced by western culture. If that’s what you want, that’s fine - but people ask me a lot how they can find “authentic” training, so ….

• If it’s yoga and western anatomy terms mixed with Ayurveda, it’s probably not traditional Thai.

• If it’s Chinese meridians and reflexology, it’s probably not traditional Thai.

• If it’s osteo, dynamic, chi nei tsang, acro, circus, hanging from scarves, “energy work”, done by half naked people, using fancy clearly modern tools, using just the feet, using crystals and essential oils, etc. etc. etc., it’s probably not traditional Thai.

Again, to all of the above, if that is what you want, that’s okay, I’m not saying it’s bad or ineffective. I’m just being clear about what is and what is not the historical practices of Thailand, because again, what people ask me is “where can I learn the real traditions”. And I like crediting sources correctly whenever possible. And it does seem to be my role in the western Thai massage world to clarify what is and what is not traditionally, historically, Thai. Okay, the half naked would be historical, but you’d have to go back a long ways, and I promise you, it’s not appropriate in Thailand now.

I wish you all genuine, inspiring, wonderful learning experiences. May you receive skillful bodywork, may you find excellent teachers, may you learn things that help you to alleviate suffering in this world, may you prosper and thrive.

gratitude to Joshua Mackintosh for checking and correcting my Thai

Thai Massage Mats

Another question that I get asked in every class, of course, is about choosing a mat to do Thai bodywork on. When I started The Naga Center back in 2005 I had to put some serious thought into this because I wouldn’t be just getting one mat, but many for my students to practice on in class. Here is the criteria I used when choosing a mat:

• As non-toxic as possible. This rules out all polyfoam petrochemical mats, which is most of them. Petrochemical mats (most of the foam or rubbery ones) off-gas toxins for their whole life, so having client’s faces lying on them just doesn’t fit in my ideal of health care.

• As eco-friendly as possible. This once again rules out petrochemical mats. Also, unless you get organic, cotton filled mats, because cotton is a high pesticide crop.

• Comfortable and durable. Most cotton and kapok filled mats will flatten over time in the middle where people lay the most. And the beautiful Thai roll up mats that are usually filled with kapok (sometimes cotton), while gorgeous and Thai, tend to come apart at the stitches.

Natural latex mats lined up in my yurt with pretty tapestries covering them. These are twin size.

What I Use

In the end I settled on using 100% natural latex mattress toppers. They come from rubber tree plants, which are tapped for the rubber much like maple trees are tapped for syrup. This makes it a natural renewable resource. The proteins that some people are allergic to in latex are washed out, so they are safe for latex allergies (my son is allergic to latex and used to sleep on one of them). They are super comfortable and very durable so long as they are kept covered (a cloth sheet material cover is enough), but will begin to biodegrade very quickly when exposed to the elements. I’ve had some for well over ten years and they are still great, but I’ve seen them start to disintegrate within a month of being left uncovered. To me this is wonderful as it shows me that they are truly biodegradable. And they are a lot cheaper than many of the products marketed to massage therapists.

Of course, there is an ecological price to everything. In this case, we don’t have rubber tree plantations in north America, so there is global shipping. I have not found a mat that is perfect, but these come the closest. You can buy them at most natural bedding stores. This company has good prices and you can get an organic cover to go on your mat from them, but if you do an internet search for 100% natural latex mattress toppers you’ll find them being sold by many companies. Make sure they are 100% natural as otherwise they will have some toxic fillers.

For most massage spaces I recommend getting a firm twin or full size mat that is about 2 inches thick, or 3 inches thick if you have knee issues. If the mat is too thick then the therapist and client can end up on too great of a height difference in moments when the therapist is more on the floor. A full size mat is ideal, but twin size works for smaller spaces.

this is natural latex uncovered. It’s so comfy

Outcalls

If you do outcalls I recommend using a cheap tri-fold gym mat. They are lightweight, have a carry handle, and are durable. They also wipe clean easily. They do not meet my normal criteria as they are petrochemical products, but the natural latex mats are kind of a floppy dead weight and so aren’t as easy to move around. Beware of products that are marketed to massage therapists for outcall work. There are a lot of glorified yoga mats being sold at exorbitant prices out there. Seriously, you can get a gym mat for about $50 -$75. They use them in Thailand all the time and they work well.

something like this

Reality

One of the things I love about Thai bodywork is that it is folk medicine. It does not require a bunch of fancy expensive equipment. You can heap a bunch of blankets on top of each other and do a Thai massage on them. You can get a cheap camping pad and do massage on it. What I’ve talked about here is my thought process in choosing my ideal Thai massage mat, but if you aren’t ready/able to spend $150 to $200 on natural latex, you can use anything. Keep it real and give a great massage.



Local Herbs vs. Imported Herbs

Every single time that the subject of herbal medicine comes up in a class I teach someone asks “isn’t it better to use local herbs? Don’t they work better in our bodies?” Since this is such a common question, I’m sharing my thoughts on it here, beginning with a quote from my book Seven Peppercorns (in italics).

A question that comes up a lot in my classes is: Aren’t local herbs better for you? It’s a valid and interesting question, to which there isn’t a simple answer. There is certainly truth to the idea that we resonate with our environment and that which grows in it; yet, we have had a global spice trade for thousands of years, and there is no denying the medicinal effects of many imported herbs. If we agree that food is medicine, we can see that we have been medically nourishing ourselves with herbs from faraway places for a very long time. In the West, from black pepper to cinnamon, from ginger to cloves, we have been introducing these foreign herbs to our bodies for millennia. Still, some things, such as honey, are clearly more beneficial if locally harvested, and there is the environmental factor of export/import to consider. This is a book on Thai medicine, so the use of herbs that must travel the globe to reach you is inherent; but some can be found around the world, and I do encourage use of local sources whenever possible.

In order to imbue nonnative herbs with a local energetic, there are two things you can do. One is to find local nutgrass root, which grows all over the world, and make a tea of it. Drink this tea when ingesting foreign herbs medicinally. Nutgrass picks up the energetics of a particular region, climate, or season, and harmonizes whatever you are taking with that place. The second thing that you can do is to take locally harvested raw honey** with your medicine, as this will have the same effect.

Personally, with some exceptions, I think that Thai herbs are just as good as, and in some instances better than, local herbs. But it depends on the herb in question. The thing about environmentalism is more important to me in general than the question of the efficacy of herbs from far away. In my experience they work very well, but I know there is a high environmental cost in shipping. However, if you are going to reject foreign herbs because of transportation, then you'll probably have to stop using cinnamon, black pepper, sugar, many wines, rice.... I could go on and on about things that directly affect our bodies that we ingest and import every day.

The point about food I think is somewhat important. when the local vs. imported herbs conversation comes up, all of my students, when asked, always agree that food is not only medicine, but it is a primary medicine. Yet no one has ever said to me “wouldn't it be better to not use cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cumin, turmeric or nutmeg etc. in food cooking?”. Every single herb I just mentioned is used in Thai herbal medicine. If I talk about them in relation to herbal formulas, people say "wouldn't it be better to use a local herb?", but if I talk about them in a dinner recipe, no one asks this. So I think it's good to notice that we already have a harmonious relationship with many herbs used in Thai medicine.

The other part of this that bears mentioning is that it is extremely difficult to categorize western herbs into the Thai medical herb categorization system. Western herbs are categorized by a system that puts them into categories such as antipyretic (reduces fever), diuretic (increases urination) soporific (causes drowsiness) etc. In Thai and Ayurvedic medicine herbs are categorized by taste - salty, sweet, astringent, pungent, aromatic, sour etc. Each taste has an effect on the elements (traditional medicine the world over is element based). You cannot substitute one categorization system for another. It does not work to look at a Thai herb and examine it through the western theory and say "oh, this herb is antipyretic" and then go and find a local western antipyretic herb. You must use the Thai taste system if you are using Thai medical theory. To figure out the taste category of an herb is very very difficult in many cases. The person doing it would have to have a very deep and clear understanding of the taste system. And they would have to be trained in identifying herbs. They would then I think have to fast for a certain amount of time before eating the herb and then sit and notice what the herb does to their body. They would need to do this with all of the different parts of the plant. The leaves, the flowers, the seeds, the root, the stem - because different parts of plants have different qualities. They would then need to do it again during different seasons - because different seasons produce different effects in a plant. So you can see, this would be very hard to do. I am sure that it took thousands of years for the plants in Thailand (and India and China…) to all be categorized.

There are some herbal medicine schools in the west that say that they are teaching Chinese or Ayurvedic theory using western herbs but I will be honest with all of you; I have strong doubts. I am unaware that anyone has actually done the work that it really takes to do this correctly. I think that mostly they have used western science to identify similar properties in herbs that grow in the west with herbs from the east and assumed this is enough. Because to do the true way would take an extremely rare person to be able to do this who has a lifetime to dedicate to just doing this - probably actually several people and several lifetimes.

Okay, all of that said, here is the thing. I agree with my students who say wouldn't it be nice to use local herbs! I would love to go outside into my yard and pick my medicine. And if I could go back in time about 20 years I might tell my younger self "hey, you are going to grow up to really love herbal medicine - perhaps you should start studying Native American herbal medicine". But then I would not be here teaching Thai healing arts. Because the thing is, I have to choose. I don't have enough time to study Thai medicine to the depth that I would like to know it. So I definitely don't have enough time to study Native American medicine to the depth that it would deserve as well. I respect both of these traditions and I can completely understand why someone in the Americas would choose to study Native American medicine or why someone in Europe would choose to study traditional European herbal medicine. For now, that just isn't my path and until it is, I'll mostly use the herbs that go with the system I am studying.

One more note about what I just said. I have noticed that everyone I know in the U.S. who says "I'm studying western herbal medicine so that I can use local herbs" is actually studying European herbal medicine. I don't know any western herbalists who are studying Native American herbal medicine. I don't understand this, since Native American herbal medicine is the local traditional system where I live and there are Native Americans who still practice it so if one really wanted to practice local herbal medicine, one could find someone to study real local traditions with, which would mean finding someone who knows the medicine of a local Native American tribe. If someone here is thinking "I"m going to switch gears, give up Thai massage, and study local herbal medicine" and you are in the Americas, I encourage you to actually study true local herbal medicine. This will be the most harmonious with the plants in your yard.

But really, of utmost importance here, I want to say again that the Thai herbs I have worked with have tremendous efficacy no matter what country the person who is using them happens to have their feet in when they use them. And the vast majority of the time the people I have given Thai herbal treatments to (internal or wound care) have not been eating local honey or nutgrass infusions. The herbs just work. Just like how when you slice up some ginger and drink it, it settles your belly, even if the ginger didn't grow in your country. It just works.



**please always buy honey from local beekeepers who you can ascertain put the needs of the bees first. Bees work incredibly hard to make honey, with a bee producing about 1 teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. Many honey suppliers have cruel practices in the way that they keep bees, but this is not necessary. Find a source of kindly harvested local raw honey if at all possible

Fantastic News

I am super excited to announce that The Naga Center is working in partnership with Lane Community College to offer my classes as transcripted pre-licensure education hours that can be applied toward applications for Oregon massage therapist licensure.

What this means
This means that students who are not licensed massage therapists in Oregon now have the option to focus their pre-licensure studies on Thai bodywork. In the past those who had fallen in love with Thai massage and knew that it was the modality they wanted to learn and practice, had to attend massage schools focused on western massage; now they can dive into their passion right from the start.

How it works
Starting in the fall of 2020 I will have a fully flushed out program that allows students to get all of their 625 pre-licensure education hours in about one year through a combination of classes at The Naga Center, online Naga Center classes, online Lane Community College classes, and either hands on classes at Lane Community College or participation in an alternate year Naga Center Thailand study abroad trip. This will all culminate in a deep immersion of study in Thai healing arts like no other.

What about right now?
Students registered in my Thai Manual Therapy Specialist Program for the 2019/2020 year who are not licensed massage therapists can use their hours of study toward licensure. The only difference is that it will take them two years to complete all hours needed as my current program is 317 hours and I will not start offering the full program until next fall.

Will students have to move to Lane county?
My classes will be in the same place, students do not have to live near Lane Community College.

Does this change things for licensed massage therapists?
Nope. My classes have always been designed to meet the needs of the most experienced Thai massage practitioners right alongside those who have never studied any kind of massage in their life. In fact I have often had students in my classes who are Thai massage instructors with 20+ years of experience in Thai studies and practice in the same class as complete newbies and everyone learns. I expect that the majority of my students will continue to be people who are already licensed massage therapists who want to dive deep into the waters of Thai healing arts. Licensed massage therapists will still be able to complete the Thai Manual Therapies Specialist Program as it has previously existed; their classmates who are seeking licensure will just be taking more classes than them.

Some things that are really special about all of this
There are some things that I want to share about this that make me really happy. Lane Community College has been just fantastic. As the only not-for-profit massage program in the state, their agenda in partnering with me has very clearly been for the benefit of students. It has been a delight to work with Kathy Calise, the Program Director at LCC. Her clear desire to provide options for students and to keep massage education affordable has been refreshing and heartening. It makes me happy that I get to work with the most affordable massage licensure program in the state and to know that we are harmonious in our desire to provide deep learning for the benefit of all.

When I first started The Naga Center in 2005 my original business plan (yes, I wrote a business plan) included a long term goal of turning The Naga Center into a licensure school. Over the years I have visited this idea many times, but have found that the process of doing this on my own would require that I grow my school in ways that I did not wish to. I love my small classes with mentorship style study. I love that I teach people in my whimsical somewhat messy yet beautiful space. And I didn’t want to create another $20,000 massage program, nor did I want to go into competition with the existing schools. It was only recently that I solidly let go of that old dream, realizing that what I have with my classes is exactly what I want. And of course, that’s exactly when Kathy approached me about partnering with LCC. Ah universe, aren’t you just like that? It’s perfect. I get to keep my classes small, stay focused on what matters to me, and offer my unlicensed students a path to licensure. Gratitude.

This is a river in Thailand that I have much love for. It could be here representing the flow of the path to licensure and learning deeply. Or it could just be a pretty river.

Facebook Revisited (and some words on climate change and ethics)

As many of you know I have been struggling with the Facebook conundrum. You can read my bold statement made last November about how (and why) I was going to slowly leave facebook here. I did everything I said I was going to do except the final step of fully leaving. I worked on building my newsletter list in order to better communicate with people that way, I put energy into MeWe, an alternative social media platform, and heavily promoted it on (irony!) Facebook, and finally I took a giant step away from Facebook beginning around the start of the year, only occasionally checking in and participating. I posted about classes, but only after sending out the information in newsletter form, and once in a blue moon I made a personal or political post. Mostly my relationship with Facebook since last fall has been one of contemplation rather than participation.

I put a significant amount of time into searching for alternatives to Facebook and settled on MeWe as being the best option. Why?
• It’s ad free
• doesn’t data mine your personal information
• doesn’t sell your information to anyone
• doesn’t manipulate post presentation order
• doesn’t make fake accounts with the names of friends it has stolen from your phone
• and is, for the most part, exactly like Facebook but without all the bad stuff. Okay, there is some bad stuff. Because the racist sexist alt right, who have their own reasons for wanting to leave Facebook, found it first. And because MeWe, unlike Facebook, doesn’t keep you in a bubble, only showing you what it knows you like, if you look for groups to join on MeWe you are going to see some rather mean spirited groups. These groups exist on Facebook as well, it’s just that if you are a kind hearted person (liberal or conservative) you are less likely to see them. Also, MeWe can be used to promote horrible things just like Facebook has been used. One of the reasons I want to leave Facebook is because of the role it has played in genocide and bullying. It has literally been a tool of death. The only social media platform I have found that seemingly can’t be used this way is Mastadon, which is a lot like Twitter, but adheres to strict “no Nazis” rules. Unfortunately Mastadon is a Twitter replacement, not a Facebook replacement - it simply serves a different role. I don’t use Twitter, so I haven’t put my energies into understanding that realm, but for those of you who do, please go check it out.

Anyhow, I rallied and pleaded with people to take the five minutes that it would take to set up an account over on MeWe (or any other good alternative social media platform) and start using it - because it’s only going to work if everyone goes over there and pours energy into it even while it’s quiet and boring, to get it going. Some people did, but not many; and those who did quickly stopped using it when they found no one there. It broke my heart a little. People talk a lot about all the bold and big things that they want to do to save the world, but when it comes right down to it just leaving a rather evil corporation, when there is an easy alternative, is more than most are willing to do. I understand, all of our friends are on Facebook. And for a small business owner, it has become the single most useful tool for connecting with clients/patrons/customers/patients there is. I really understand.

And so I have sat with this for many months. This conundrum. I pulled away from all social media, MeWe too, because it was just making me sad. And I thought about it.

For me, the ethical need to support something like MeWe instead of Facebook is at odds with the ethical need to be a strong participant in community, and for now, community is on Facebook an awful lot. I am an activist, and when I see an event that I want people to attend to help fight human rights abuses or the environment, I want to tell people about it. And when I see a charity that seems to be actually helping to get children out of cages on the U.S. Mexican border, I want to shout about it. And when I read an article that gives hope when so many are feeling hopeless, I want to share it wide and far. And right now there is something going on that we have to use every single tool available to us to fix, and that thing is climate change. We are on a train that is headed straight for a cliff, and worrying about the ethics of the tools on the train that might be used to stop it is simply not an option. Until people move elsewhere, Facebook is a tool on the train and I cannot justify ignoring it even if it’s a tool that has been used for violence and cruelty and privacy violations. We have an election coming up in which the winners (president, state and country senators and representatives, all the local positions…) will be the ones who determine if we take the train over the cliff or if we stop it. There are some people out there who find reason in the things I say and share. And if I can help even one person to support a candidate who will enforce laws that mitigate climate change, then I must. If I can get one person to call their senators and reps and beg them to support a bill that lowers climate changing emissions, then I must. If I can get just one person to give money to a charity that is working to protect the environment then I must. Because my son, who just turned 18, is in the first generation in known history to have a shorter life expectancy than his parents; because of climate change.

So, I’ve decided to rejoin Facebook for now, and to continue to support the growth of MeWe by double posting everything and using Facebook to promote it because populating MeWe with posts is the only way we can possibly grow it to a point where people will be willing to leave Facebook. My Facebook rule will be that I never use it without simultaneously supporting the growth of a viable alternative. It doesn’t have to be MeWe; if people find something else that is ethical that they like better, I’ll move my efforts. I’m not branded, I just see it as the current best alternative.

I will also continue to alert those on my e-mail newsletter list first whenever a new class opens for registration on my website, or other things of relevance occur. Since my classes have been filling fast lately, I’m hoping this will be an incentive to join. I also put little tidbits of what I hope are interesting and fun Thai related things on each newsletter. Like recipes, or Thai medicine information, or Buddha dharma snippets.

Many thanks to all of you who applauded my initial post about leaving Facebook. Your support of the effort is appreciated. I still hope to be able to follow through someday. And you may all find another post soon flip flopping again, as I may find that rejoining Facebook just feels too icky. We shall see. Right now I believe that fighting climate change is the single most important thing that any of us can be doing though, and if I can use Facebook toward this, and other important ends, then I must. It’s been a lot of contemplation; thank you for coming along for the ride. Much love and hope to all.

I had no idea what pictures to add to this blog post - but this is a nice little lizard being in Thailand

Interning & Auditing Classes - Bridging Community

A million years ago, on my first trip to Thailand, I had the opportunity to work with an old traditional medicine practitioner. I believe he was in his late 90s. I didn’t speak Thai, and he didn’t speak English, but we had someone with us who could translate. I only spent one day with him, but at the end of it, through our translator, he told me that in Thailand once someone is your teacher, they are always your teacher, and so, he would forever be my teacher.

A handful of years later I saw how Pierce Salguero, back in the days when he taught Thai massage classes regularly, had a policy that once someone had taken a class from him they could re-take it at no extra charge, so long as there was space. I saw how this reflected the words of the old man in Thailand and when I started teaching I implemented the same policy. And when I created my online class I made auditing the class the internship equivalent.

Today I had a conversation with some of the teachers who teach my curriculum and have integrated internships with their classes. I ended up talking a lot about what interns bring to a class as well as what I hope they get out of it. There are many reasons that I love the internship opportunity and I wanted to share some of them here.

• Interns are a community bridge, threading connections from classes gone-by to classes current. They are integral to the sense of community that springs up around my workshops. I’ve seen new students and returning students become dear friends, business partners, and collaborators. I’ve seen how returning students inspire new students to go deeper with their studies as they realize that the class they are attending can be more than a one-off workshop. And I’ve seen how the community takes on a life of its own, with aspects that I don’t even know about.

• Interns make for a stronger class. While I make clear that interning is primarily a chance to learn on a deeper level,I stress that interns are not assistant teachers, their familiarity with the material does help to ground the class, and provides an anchor for those who may be brand new to this form of healing and feeling a bit overwhelmed.

• Traditional medicine is not learned overnight. It is important for me to support the need for students to revisit information and to take it in on ever deeper levels. Students need time to marinate on information and hear it again, and again, understanding ever more each time.

• I am a student myself. My knowledge grows and changes and it is important to me to offer my students a chance to hear me correct any past errors, or to expand on information as my own understanding expands. Letting people repeat classes for free, when there is room, provides an opportunity to not only learn deeper, but to stay current on what I am learning.

•  Interns help out. They arrive early to help with setting things up, and they stay late to help with cleaning. Damion Bond, who is my student, friend, and colleague, wrote these beautiful words about the helping side of interning.

When I am interning I behave in this way... my teachers offer me invaluable information that keeps me fed and paying my bills. The information they share allows for spiritual growth, which cannot be measured. Each day I bring something everyone can enjoy because i am grateful for free of cost education, a chance to witness the postures and hear the lectures and messages. I am grateful for my teacher welcoming me, answering my questions, working on my body, teaching me more. Sometimes i donate money to my teacher bc i see that they spend time with me and offer more to me than a first time student. I help my teacher keep their homes/studios clean. I do all of the dishes, straighten the bathroom every time i go in there, keep the space tidy, do the laundry, wipe counters without asking if it needs to be done, and continually ask if they need my help. I prepare food for my teacher bc i honor him/her for this incredible gift of free of cost education. I share my assistance. I understand after years of hosting people and helping teachers that "free" is a strange word for interning...technically i feel as though i am in a trade, with the relief of not having to pay money. i see that my presence and attentiveness and support of the teacher are helpful beyond words. I support other students' journeys by trying to not be greedy or a nuisance, or in the way. My teacher is granting me a gift bc they see that the return helps to solidify and reeducate me. They want me to be a part of the community. In this I see that my teacher values me and am so warmed by that. Interning is an honor not only to me but to everyone i serve and i repeat my thanks to my teacher bc i see that they also value my clients and want the best for me as a practitioner. I bring food each day for the class. I make full offerings each day. I send out love to my teachers who have helped me grow so much. They have been so generous. They have been beyond generous as I know no where else is this practice of reeducating done. How beautiful to be a part of this community. What a wonderful lineage.

• And of course, we circle back to the old man from the village telling me that once you are someone’s teacher you are always their teacher. This is the main reason that students can repeat my classes. There is a great responsibility in teaching someone. The potential for misunderstanding and incomplete understanding is huge. We must be there to answer the questions that come up later. We must be there to watch and correct. I tell all of my students, even those who have just taken a little one day workshop with me, that I am always available for them to reach out to. They text me and e-mail me almost daily asking for clarity on the teachings, or advice for working with different situations. And if they are able, and if they are very serious about this work, they usually come back and repeat classes someday. Maybe the next year, maybe in 5 years. They come and they link a past class to a current class, and build a web of community that is to me, a lovely treasure.

I don’t recall which of us clicked the camera, but the inspiration for this photo credit definitely goes to Damion Bond. Hands are attached to those who teach my curriculum.

Flowers on the Altar ~ Letting them go

In my personal practice, and in my classes, it is tradition to put offerings of fresh flowers on the altar. Flowers represent space element, a gift of pure beauty to the deities and guides found on the altar, and, in their wilting, keep us attuned to impermanence. When class is full and everyone brings flowers the beauty of the altar can be mesmerizing.

But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about things I know about the flower industry and the terrible impact it has on our lovely planet. I want to share some of the reasons that I cannot continue to support fresh cut flower offerings as a part of our loving ceremony with the exception of locally grown organic flowers.

• Pesticides: Flowers farmers are some of the highest users of agrochemicals, and because flowers are not meant to be eaten, the regulation around use of toxic chemicals is more slack in the flower industry. At least 70% of cut flowers in the U.S. are imported from other countries. And while pesticide use on flowers grown in the U.S. is rampant, when it comes to importing flowers from other countries oftentimes pesticides that have been banned here are utilized. All those pesticides, in whatever country the flowers grow in, have a huge environmental impact, hurting soil, rivers, oceans and animals. The cost of a beautiful rose might very well be the well being of a sea turtle. On top of that, those who work in the flower industry are constantly exposed, with migrant workers often being the ones who bear the brunt of the health impact with low to no health care. I’ve talked with health care professionals who work primarily with migrant worker populations who have reported that health conditions directly related to exposure to agrochemicals is horrific. But it’s not just those working on the farms; florists are also exposed to unsafe quantities of pesticides through daily handling of cut flowers.

• Water and Land: Growing flowers uses high amounts of water, often from water impoverished countries and takes up land space that could be used for food production or nature. I think that’s probably all I need to say about that.

• Plastic: Cut flowers are frequently packaged in clear plastic wrapping that long outlive all of the people giving and receiving flowers. Plastic is choking our planet. We all know it. It’s killing animals, filling our oceans and landfills, and it never goes away. It’s hard enough to avoid plastic with essential items - let’s just refuse it with non-essentials such as flowers shall we?

• Fuel and carbon: With more than 70% of flowers sold in the U.S. coming from other countries as mentioned above, that’s a big carbon footprint and fuel use.

So, what to do about the altar, and tradition, and ceremony. I’m still thinking about it actually, and am open to ideas. I am looking into cloth and glass flowers. I know that certain aspects of the tradition of these offerings will be lost in this, but I’ve put a lot of thought into the benefit and toll and I just can’t justify it anymore. I think that for the purpose of offerings, I’ll encourage students to bring (organic) fruit that can last the duration of the class so that after class is done we can offer it to the local homeless population. Or to bring organic potted plants that can be put into the earth to grow. Preferably plants that bees like, since bees need our help these days. And if people want to bring cut flowers I would ask that they be local and pesticide free.

Traditions are lovely and I adhere to a lot of them in regards to my Thai medicine practice and teachings. Ultimately though, caring for Mother Earth is my spiritual path, and, with climate change looming, my mandate as an even slightly good human.

Well wishes and peace to you all,

-nephyr

Prenatal In Brief

I’ve been on again off again researching Thai prenatal and postpartum practices ever since my first trip to Thailand, about twenty years ago when I met a woman in a village in the far north who taught me Thai techniques for massaging babies. In the years since then I sought out prenatal and postpartum information from time to time on various trips to Thailand, read any papers I could find on the subject, and summer before last I traveled through the northern mountains with a lovely group of five female students of mine to learn from Thai midwives as well as some women who didn’t identify as midwives, but who had extensive experience assisting with traditional births. And lastly, to spend time with my teacher getting clarity on the things we had learned.

The western Thai massage community has been asking me a lot of questions lately about Thai prenatal and postpartum work. I’m working on a more in-depth write up on the subject, but in the meantime, due to the preponderance of questions and sadly, misinformation that is floating around, I’ve decided to share in brief, a handful of things that I hope will be helpful.

Please note: You cannot learn all there is to learn from a short blog post. If you have the opportunity to learn from an actual Thai midwife or other experienced practitioner in Thailand who is working with prenatal and postpartum knowledge and techniques as they have historically been practiced, this is where the real learning is. I’m just here to share a bit, to hopefully be helpful. I will follow this up with a separate blog post titled “Postpartum In Brief”.

The following is from my studies with traditional Thai healing arts practitioners in Thailand. Nothing is taken from outside sources such as Chinese or Ayurvedic medicine, however I do use some wording that is specific to western medical language in order to be easily understood. The information here is as I have been taught by my teachers in Thailand. I specifically seek out doctors who follow old traditions and are not teaching in diluted and westernized fashion. To the best of my knowledge I am simply passing along ancient traditions, and any errors here are my own. Also, apologies for how much longer the “don’t” list is than the “do” list, but understanding cautions is important with pregnancy, and a longer “do” list would require in-person training as it’s more hands on. But this should give you an idea and a start. I do think that you can do limited work on pregnant women without hands on training, just know your skill limits and use caution.

The beautiful hands of a midwife in her 70s demonstrating a deep prenatal technique in a small village in northern Thailand.

Prenatal Don’ts

• Traditionally bodywork is not done during the first trimester. Of course, if the mother has specific physical care needs she can be attended to, but it’s not a time for generic or more random work.

• The type of Thai massage that most are familiar with, the combination of palming, thumbing and stretching, is not what is done with pregnant women (and all who become pregnant regardless of gender identity*). You should not simply adapt a standard Thai massage routine to a pregnant body. This is not done in Thailand and while you may find it harmless in most cases, the risks of the rare case in which it causes harm are real and must be accommodated for.

• Stretching, for the most part, is not done on pregnant women due to the very real chance of over stretching, which is not as easily noticed due to the presence of relaxin, a hormone released during pregnancy that softens our tendons and ligaments in order to help the body to be able to open up for the passage of the baby during childbirth.

• Thumbing the sen is also not done during pregnancy. The tissue of the pregnant woman becomes more watery than usual as water, the element of creation and becoming, is increased. Watery tissue is more easily bruised and otherwise injured, so thumb pressing has a higher risk of causing damage. Also, pregnant women have increased chance of deep vein thrombosis, so any strong pressing, particularly in the inner legs, bears the chance of throwing a blood clot (this last bit is knowledge that I have from western medicine, not Thai; they may well have this same knowledge in Thailand, but I was not taught this there so I cannot be sure).

• Inversions are not done on pregnant women. Think blood pressure changes, nausea and dizziness. Once one of my students showed a midwife in Thailand a picture of someone placing a pregnant women in an inversion and the midwife quite literally gasped in horror.

• Whole body deep tissue (which much Thai bodywork is) is not usually done on pregnant women. Pregnancy is a time for gentleness and not for work that leads to systemic detoxification,* which can cause the mother to feel unwell and may be harmful to the baby. Most bodywork that is done on pregnant women is spot specific to attend to a problem. It is sometimes physically intensive as needed, but in this we are talking about skilled technique application for specific problems. They seem to have a fairly hands off approach to pregnancy in Thailand; if all is well, leave it be.

• Don’t use herbal products containing herbs that move wind. This is a lot of the warming herbs, many of which are found in generic Thai herbal compresses (herb balls).

• Do not put pregnant women into the prone position, even if you have one of those tables with a cut out for the belly to hang through. These are a western creation and shouldn’t factor in a Thai massage practice anyhow, but since I’ve heard students of mine suggest them I wanted to address the idea. I’m going to quote an authority on western prenatal massage, Carol Osborne-Sheets, from her excellent book Pre-and Preinatal Massage Therapy:

Some women like to sleep on their belly or in a 3/4 prone position with pillow supports through much of their pregnancy. This may be a safe, comfortable resting position, but one pressure is applied for massage this is no longer a reliably safe option. Prone positioning on a flat therapy table exerts strain on the lumbar, pelvic, and uterine structures. Posterior musculature is shortened; the lumbar vertebra and lumbosacral junction are compressed and anteriorly displaced; the sacroiliac joints are rotated; and strain on the sacrouterine ligaments is increased. Obviously, the prone position aggravates the very causes of many women’s back discomfort, particularly in later pregnancy.
Some practitioners may attempt to accommodate the pregnant belly and mechanically reduce lumbar strain by placing pillows under the chest and pelvic regions, by propping the upper torso on a stack of pillows, or by using equipment that is marketed as “the solution” for prone positioning for pregnant women. Neither pillow props, body cushions, pregnancy pillow, most on-site massage chairs, nor tables with cut-out ovals, with or without a sling or net designed to support the belly solves the problematic aspects of prone positions. These alternatives either (1) further strain the taxed uterine ligaments, especially the sacrouterine ligaments, by dangling the uterus from these attachments, or (2) create increased intrauterine pressure, particularly when sufficient pressure is applied to therapeutically address the posterior structures.

Prenatal Dos

• Use warm herbal compresses for mental and physical relaxation massage. You’ll probably have to make your own for pregnancy work because, as stated above, the generic pre-made compresses contain herbs that are contraindicated during pregnancy. Most prenatal general bodywork is done almost entirely with warm herbal compresses. You can find a prenatal compress formula in my book Seven Peppercorns, or if you don’t have that, contact me for information. So long as I have time, I’m happy to share.

• If taught how, you can use techniques to shift the baby’s position at certain times in pregnancy to alleviate discomfort to the mother. But you must learn this hands on, with a teacher. If you have trained as a western doula or midwife it is possible that you know western techniques for this and can apply these. Just stay clear with people about where the work comes from as Thai healing arts have enough confusion :) The moving of the baby is common with Thai midwifery, particularly at specific times during the pregnancy.

• Position pregnant clients on their side, back, or seated. Some pregnant women cannot lie on their backs comfortably or for very long as the uterus can press on the inferior vena cava. Just communicate with your client about this to find out what is comfortable for them. If there is discomfort in the supine position, try stacking a great many pillows under her upper back and head, creating a supported supine position. Or better yet, just work in side position.

• Encourage the mother to walk a lot. Every single Thai midwife I have spoken with has stressed this as being one of the single most important factors of pregnancy. Walk. Walk walk walk. Don’t do strenuous exercise, don’t jog, just walk everywhere that can be walked. Throughout the entire pregnancy. The midwives I have worked with all said that this, more than anything else done during gestation, assists with the pregnancy, delivery, and recovery. Getting those pregnant mamas walking might be more important than getting them onto the massage mat in many cases.

In addition to the dos and don’ts mentioned here there are a great many lifestyle recommendations that Thai traditions dictate for a pregnant woman such foods that are beneficial and foods that are harmful, and things that pregnant women should avoid doing, witnessing, or saying. I have tried to mostly stick with things that are applicable to a massage therapist here.

I hope that this has been helpful and I wish great health and well being to all the pregnant beings.

A word about those points around the ankles

One of the most common questions I get about prenatal work is if massaging the feet and ankles will cause a miscarriage. This comes from pop culture knowledge of Chinese acupuncture/acupressure points in which we find a commonly held belief that specific spots near the ankle (and a few other places), if pressed, will cause a miscarriage (or, at the end of pregnancy, initiate childbirth). Even though this theory is not Thai, I have looked into it due to the prevalence of people who are concerned about it. I’ve talked with several acupuncturists and midwives (western midwives; I have not talked about these points with Thai midwives) and all of them have agreed that these points are not a concern. Even if the points were likely to cause miscarriage, it would be through the skilled application of Chinese point work techniques, not through random massage. And if pressing on a point near the ankle caused miscarriage we would have acupressure abortion clinics; not only would women prefer a lovely foot massage to a traumatic D&C, but someone would realize they could profit from this. This said, because so many people have the idea that foot massage can cause miscarriage, I advise my students not to massage feet on pregnant women. I do not think that there is any real danger of causing miscarriage, but since miscarriage is quite common, there is a danger of being incorrectly blamed.

* A note on the term “detoxification”

I know that it has become popular in massage circles recently to say that there is no such thing as toxins and detoxification. I believe this is a misunderstanding of recent writings that put forth that many of the modern health industry diets and products marketed as detox methods are not in actuality creating any great cleanse in the body. This does not, however, mean that there is no such thing as toxins or detoxification. Feces, left too long in the body, are toxic to the body, and pooping is a form of detox; to put it overly simply. Vomiting up food that had harmful (or toxic) bacteria in it is detoxification. There are a great many toxins in the world that can get into our bodies in a huge variety of ways, and a great many ways that we get them out; including via the increased blood and lymphatic circulation that can result from bodywork.

* And finally, a word about gender

I use the word “women” in this blog and I want to acknowledge that there are people who identify as male, yet have bodies that are capable of pregnancy, and people who identify as women who do not. Language is complex and growing and changing, but all beings are included and welcome. Much love to all.

Special thanks to Khun Nuan, Khun Nat, Mae Nong, Mae Nit, Mae Lek, Khun Homprong, those whose names I do not remember from too many years ago, and especially, gratitude to Tevijjo Yogi.

A Virtual Move: or, Ethics, Facebook, Staying in Touch, Triple Bottom Line

When I stared The Naga Center I based it on the idea of the “triple bottom line”. It’s a concept thrown around by a lot of businesses such as the original Ben and Jerry’s, that strive to be ethical and good. What it means is that while for most businesses profit is the only bottom line, the most important guidepost in business decisions, businesses trying to do better have two other bottom lines: Community and Environment. Every business decision has to be weighed not only in terms of “will this help the business stay alive financially”, but also in terms of “is this of benefit to my community?”, “could it hurt my community”, “is it neutral to my community?”, and “is this of benefit to the environment?”, “is it harmful to the environment?”, “is it neutral to the environment?”.

I have, over the years, made many decisions that from a pure money driven business marketing perspective would be considered stupid, but that from a taking care of the environment and my community perspective were the only option. Because honestly, I’d rather do something different with my life than do something that depends on slack ethics.

And so, here I am again, planning on doing something that perhaps isn’t a good business choice, but that I feel I must do because of community and ethics. I’m going to leave Facebook. Not right away, because I want to take the time to try to get as many of you to move to different ways of staying in touch as possible, but I’ll be leaving sometime in the relatively near future.

So, if you want to stay in touch and be notified when new classes are offered, or when I write a blog post, or when something pertaining to Thai medicine comes along in the news, I invite you to do the following:

• Sign up for my newsletter. I haven’t written a newsletter in ages, but with this upcoming change I plan to start. Most likely they will be seasonal. I won’t bombard you with e-mails, I’ll just send out some news when I know I have something of interest to share. I’ll entice you with yummy Thai food recipes. For those of you who are interested in classes, especially my 300 hour program which only takes 8 people per year, definitely sign up for the newsletter as you’ll want to know as soon as registration opens.

• Find The Naga Center on MeWe. MeWe is the social media platform I’m moving to. It’s very much like Facebook, only cleaner. No ads, no algorithms manipulating what you see, no data mining. And it’s easy to use. It’s not perfect though; like Facebook, it has people creating hate groups and all of that even though they aren’t supposed to. But it’s much better, or it will be if people from Facebook make the move over to it. Right now it’s a rather lonely place. If you join, you could be the beginning of a much needed exodus. I looked at a LOT of social media alternatives to Facebook before settling on this one. There were some that met my ethics better, but they were complicated and I didn’t think they stood a chance of people actually moving to them. MeWe seems to be mostly good, with good ethics. It makes money by having some of its features cost, such as my business page, which I’ll happily be paying $2.5o a month for rather than have the site make its money off of selling my data like FB does. But for personal pages, it’s free.

• Maybe try Twitter? I’ve never managed to relate to it in the past, but I’m going to give it a go again. I’d say don’t make that the only way we stay in touch, but I’ll try to wrap my head around it.

For anyone wondering why I am leaving Facebook, here is what I said in a recent personal FB post upon being asked:

Individual users are not evil, and can use Facebook for great good, however, the company is very very bad. A high up exec sent out a memo clearly stating that so long as they maintain growth, it doesn't matter if Facebook causes people to die via bullying or the use of FB to promote terrorist attacks. They actually said this. They directly steal personal data, they access your friends through your phone who aren't even on FB and create fake accounts under their names that are used to advertise products, they have been directly linked to the election of Donald Trump, they do nothing about stopping fake news (despite their claims), they allow for hate speech and the spread of our new Nazi era, and FB has probably been the single most divisive influence on our culture - firmly dividing people at least as much, if not more than it unites us. Plus, Cambridge Analytica. I could go on and on. It's not just that it can be used for good or bad, but that the root of it, the company itself, actively uses it for bad and does nothing to stop the spreading of hate. You Probably have a very nice circle of friends on FB and you see people sharing messages of love and hope and activism. But there is a whole other side to it in which people are sharing messages of hate and violent activism and this is equally allowed. Sure, freedom of speech, but FB is a privately own company that can choose what it allows just as a store can kick out a customer who comes in and starts shouting racists or sexist bile. Facebook chooses to allow Russian election interference, racism, sexism, all of it. This most recent scandal about them hiring PR firm to use an antisemitic narrative to undermine critics is just the newest thing in an ongoing wave of horrible things that FB does or allows. But the goodness that you see in Facebook is real - we individuals have incredible potential to use social media for wonderful things. We just need a better place to do it. We must move.



Saving animals, plants, oceans and ourselves

A couple of weeks ago my teacher asked me to put together some information about the loss of animals on our little planet and what we can do to help, so here I am, writing about what I think is the single most important topic there is; the environment/animals/climate change/oceans. Please forgive me if this is not my most flowing bit of writing. I just want to get the information out there. I want to empower people to save the planet as quickly as possible. If you want to get right to it, you can skim down to the bullet point list of what to do, but I really recommend reading the intro here, and especially reading the article linked to below about stopping climate change in the paragraph about hopelessness.

On October 30th The Guardian published an article stating that since 1970 we have lost about 60% of the animals on earth.  Yes, we have 60% less critters sharing this planet with us today than we did when I was a baby crawling on the floor.  This is a tremendous loss.  It’s also about traditional medicine, because medicine comes from nature, and the reasons the animals are dying off is because we are not taking good care of nature.  From climate change to deforestation, to all of the toxins we create going into the sea, our actions as humans are having a direct impact on the very existence of nature.  It’s not just the individual animals, it’s the habitats they are in that are dying.  Which ultimately connects to human health, as we cannot have health without clean air, water, plants; a thriving natural world. 

Before moving on I want to immediately address hopelessness.  Climate change, the topic that should be dominating every single concern conversation, is not only stoppable, but is directly linked to how we vote, our personal habits, and even to social justice and even feminism (women with access to education/healthcare/viable jobs have less children, hence less overpopulation). The media focuses only on the doom and gloom aspect of climate change science, ignoring the most important part, which is how we can still change the path we are on. The media tells us over and over again that our future is hopeless, with headlines of impending doom. But the very studies that the media takes that message from also map out exactly how we are NOT doomed.  Journalism loves the idea of “if it bleeds it leads” meaning that only horrible news catches the public interest, and so we are only presented with horrible news.  But the truth is, there is still time to save our forests, save our animals, save ourselves.  We believe the stories we tell, and we manifest them.  So it is important that we spread a story of hope.  A story in which we make change.  We must reject the media narrative that tells us to surrender to a bleak dystopian future. This narrative of hopelessness makes us lazy and complicit in the destruction of nature.  Stories of how we can make change invite us to be active and to co-create a world in which our children can imagine also having children.  Please read this article the does a much better job than me of explaining why there is hope, and the media’s role in making us think there isn’t, and please, share it with everyone you know.  

Okay, so what do we do? 

• Vote for politicians who believe in climate change, understand science, and have an environmentally friendly political agenda.  This is one of the single most important things you can do.  Personal shopping and action habits are important, but they are small compared to wholesale governmental policy change.  Laws surrounding industry pollution standards, car emission standards, logging, mining, coal use and many other aspects of human life that impact nature are what lead to big changes.  It is imperative that every single person who has the ability to vote, uses that ability and votes for leaders on local and national levels who will implement policies that will protect nature and slow climate change. It’s also important to vote for politicians who support education. The more educated people are, the less babies they have (reducing population problems) and the more likely to make sustainable choices they are.   Helping people of all income levels and varying demographics to have equal opportunity to become educated helps the world. Keep in mind that you most likely will never agree with everything a politician does; the very nature of their job insures this. Don’t throw away the good for the perfect. Just vote for the politicians who will support environmentally friendly policy and have a real chance at winning. We are on a train headed for a cliff and we need whoever can stop the train. We can worry about finding people who match more of our ideals later. It is the tendency of the left to sit on the train that is about to go over the cliff and argue about gender pronouns and whether or not a politician ever took a donation from a corporation; but again, we are on a train headed for a cliff! Pretty much nothing else matters other than stopping this train. Stay focused. 60% of the animals stopped existing in the last 40 years. We are animals too. And we are equally endangered.

• We can give money to organizations that are working to protect the environment, and I will include a list of some good ones at the bottom here; there are many very good ones that really and truly need all you can give, whether it’s very little or a lot.  But we have to do more than just give money.  We have to address our daily actions.  There are big and small things we can do that will help if enough of us participate.  

• Don’t buy products that contain palm oil.  Palm oil is one of the leading causes of rainforest deforestation as vast swaths of virgin rainforest are being mowed down for palm oil plantations.  There are entire species of animals that are dying off largely because of palm oil, which is an ingredient in about half of the pre-made food products on shelves in grocery stores.  Here is a very good article about palm oil .
Palm oil is found in packaged foods, cosmetics, toothpaste, shampoos, all sorts of things.  So read ingredients, and refuse to buy products that are made with palm oil.  It is often listed under different names as companies strive to hide the fact that they are using palm oil. Here is a list of alternative names used for palm oil. There are also apps you can install on your phone that help you to know if you are buying a product with palm oil in it.  Don’t be fooled by products that claim to use “sustainably harvested” palm oil, or other such greenwash wording.  There are no sustainable palm oil certifications that ban destruction of rain forests.  100% avoid palm oil.

• Buy organic foods and other organic products.  The majority of animals being lost from the planet are from the earth’s water systems.  One of the reasons for this is over fishing (we’ll get to avoiding participating in that in a minute), but another is because the ocean receives all of our human crap.  The pesticides, herbicides and fungicides that we spray on our crops all end up in the rivers and eventually in the sea.  And of course, many pesticides directly or indirectly kill land and sky animals as well. 

• After you vote, bug your politicians.  It’s not enough to just vote the right people into office.  Send them thank you notes when they advocate for good changes.  Send them letters and e-mails and call their offices to let them know, over and over again, what is important to you, their constituents.  Keep the pressure on.  It’s incredibly easy to send a message.  Most of the messages I send to my local and federal government leaders take less than 2 minutes.  I look up their contact information and make a call or whip out an e-mail.  Or I sign a petition.  I do it all the time, it’s easy. 

• Buy sustainable Fish (or don’t eat fish) - here is a list from the Marine Conservation Society of fish to eat and fish to avoid, based on the sustainability of how they are obtained. 

• Eat less meat, and never eat factory farm meat.  The meat industry is the single biggest contributor to climate change on the planet, according to a recent Oxford study . Rainforests are being leveled for cattle grazing land, meat industry carbon emissions are incredibly high, and the meat industry uses massive amounts of water. You can stop showering for an entire year and save less water than if you just don’t eat 3 pounds of beef.  If you eat meat, reduce your consumption as much as possible, and get your meat from small local private farms, raise your own (and treat the animals well), or wild caught (so long as it’s done sustainably).  I know that this can be difficult, but seriously, reducing meat consumption and buying meat from non-factory farm sources is right up there with voting as being one of the single most important things you can do for the environment. You could stop driving a car, stop showering, and recycle all your garbage, and still not be doing as much good as just dramatically reducing meat consumption.  Not only that, but both fishing and factory farm practices involve a lot of human rights violations with work conditions that have more injury, disease, and death than any other industry and usually rely on vulnerable human populations such as illegal immigrants, refugees, and other people who cannot get better work.  

• Dramatically reduce your use of plastic.  We all know it; plastic is ruining the world.  Animals are dying with bellies full of plastic instead of food.  Do everything you can to avoid plastic.  Especially single use disposable plastic.  Use bar shampoos instead of ones that come in plastic bottles.  Use reusable storage containers instead of plastic wrap on food.  Look for items that don’t come wrapped in plastic when you shop.  Buy groceries from stores that have bulk sections so you can bring your own container.  In the U.S., don’t buy produce from places like Trader Joes, where it is almost all in plastic. And of course, bring your own reusable bags to the store.  Also, make your own stuff whenever you can.  I make my own dish soap and household cleaning fluids in order to avoid buying more plastic containers.  I get tofu from a local tofu factory where I can bring my own container.  These are just examples of steps one can take to avoid plastic.  Please let me know if I can help you in this endeavor.

Also, for all of you who travel to Thailand a lot, the magic words when shopping are “mai sai tung” (ไม่ใส่ถุง), meaning, don’t put it in a bag. You all know how easy it is to leave the guesthouse for 20 minutes and come back with 15 plastic bags.

• Demand less plastic every time you go to the store.  I do not understand why health food stores are still full of plastic.  Public demand starting back in the 70s for organic food caused stores to change their buying practices and provide us with what we want and now there is organic food almost everywhere. So now it’s time for us to let the stores we shop at know that we do not want products packaged in plastic.  Put notes in the suggestion boxes, e-mail the company, tell the managers.  And don’t stop.  Keep the pressure on! 

• Avoid plastic water bottles. Whenever possible, drink tap water. In most modern environments tap water is just as safe to drink as bottled water. In some cases it is more safe, as plastic water bottles leach xenoestrogens and other nasty things into your water. When on the move, use a stainless steel or glass water bottle that you can refill.

• Use non toxic products - whether we are talking about cleaning products, lawn/garden products, pool/hottub products, wherever you can make a choice, go for biodegradable, non-toxic, recycled etc.  

• Educate - tell others about things that you are doing to save the planet, the animals, the plants, the oceans.  Be an inspiration.  Help others to make changes.

• Use public transportation, walk, and bike - reduce vehicle carbon emissions.

• Reduce, reuse, recycle - Use less stuff, reuse the stuff you have, and recycle whatever you can.

• Plant trees.  If you have property, plant trees on your property.  Or volunteer with local tree planting groups.  Trees provide oxygen and habitat for animals.  They also help to lower the temperature of the earth. 

• Compost your food waste. Composting is good for the earth and reduces land fill garbage.  

Okay, here is a short list of organizations to give money to.

Of course there are many other wonderful organizations out there. These ones are solid, long last lasting, and cast a broad net. You can also look up specific organizations, such as groups helping to save orangutans, or rainforests in Madagascar.

• The Nature Conservancy - They have been around for a long time, and they work hard to protect nature by straight up buying land for the sole purpose of conservation.
• The Sierra Club - Protecting land and working for political policy change

• Greenpeace - Another long standing environmental protection group that does good work directly protecting wildlife, working for political policy change, and educating about

• World Wildlife Fund - Saving endangered animals is their goal, but of course these days this always means working for all of environmental protection and stopping climate change.

• The Ocean Conservancy - The name says it all, they fighting the good fight to protect our oceans.

• 350.org - 350.org unites climate activists into a movement, with a strategy of bottom-up organizing around the world. Activists in 189 countries have organized 350.org’s local climate-focused campaigns, projects and actions. In India, for example, organizers have mobilized people to speak out against the country’s dependence on coal for growth. In the US, the group has campaigned to divest public institutions — such as municipalities and universities — from the fossil fuel industry, and to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

• Union of Concerned Scientists - Today, the majority of the UCS’s areas of advocacy focus on climate change. The group is responsible for groundbreaking research on sustainability standards for vehicles and the disastrous affects of climate change

Healing Arts Isn't Just Doing Massage ~ please help these children

I should be correcting final exams for my online class right now.  Instead I'm taking just a moment to ask anyone reading this to please read this article about immigrant children coming up from our southern border (or raised here in the U.S. by parents who don't have legal status) being separated from their families, lost, abused, and detained in terrible conditions.  Toward the end of the article is a list of things you can do to help the situation.  

Thank you,
-Nephyr

Connections

Lately I’m thinking about my students a lot, and the connections they make (when I say “my students” I’m referring to all who have studied with me; I’m not laying claim; they could be other teacher’s students as well). About ten days ago one of my students arrived for class with a bleeding seagull who had been hit by the car in front of her on her way in. The seagull’s wing was mostly torn from its body. We triaged with gauze and hospital tape and then my husband and student drove the gull to the wildlife care center. The gull did not survive, I’m sorry, but the caring of my student is not diminished by the outcome. Then 3 days ago a student of mine messaged me from Paris, where they were taking an injured baby pigeon to a veterinary hospital that has a wildlife care center; and two days ago a student of mine in Montana sent me a video of her husband giving water to an injured lady hawk before taking it to a wildlife care center there. The birds seem to be seeking Naga Center community for help this month so if you are a student of mine, be aware of those around you with feathers.

There is a connection in this. A connection of coincidence, a connection of compassion, a connection of beings who step up and take action to help another being.

I set about many years ago to teach Thai healing arts workshops. I didn’t think about how this would affect people much beyond that they would learn Thai massage and Thai herb lore. I hoped they would love it. I hoped they would help people with it. I hoped they would have thriving careers. I didn’t know they would form the connections they have formed.

Students who met in classes at The Naga Center have married and had children. Others have formed dear strong friendships. Many of my students have gone into business with one another; more than one of these businesses happening in states entirely different from where the students lived when they came and studied with me. Many have traveled to the other side of the world together. 

Some of the connections that started at The Naga Center have taken on lives of their own to a degree such that some now involved don’t know that this is where it started. In the first few classes I ever taught, back in 2005 when I taught out of the basement of Common Ground Wellness Center, I said multiple times “I’d like to see people form a community Thai massage clinic that is low cost, with therapists working the way they do in Thailand, side by side, no walls”. One of my students ran with this and started Path With Heart, a group of Thai massage therapists who meet once or twice a month to create a sliding scale community Thai massage clinic, working side by side, like in Thailand, with no walls. There are people who do bodywork at Path with Heart now who I have never even met, for it is a creature that long ago grew its own wings. 

I love to hear about the connections.  To find out that two people whom I had forgotten were in the same class, are now helping each other to sort through life challenges.  Or how they are teaching each other.  I love to watch the web of Facebook connections, seeing a student in London commenting on a post made by a student in Texas, or watching as people promote one another's massage practices in loving support.  I love that I could tell my student in Montana with the crow about my student in Paris with the pigeon and she knows who they are, can picture them with a little pigeon in a box; these two students, one rugged and shiny with mountain country light, the other glittery and metropolitan; both healers. 

Keep sharing your connections with me please.  And carry a towel; they are the best tools for picking up injured birds.  

* Addendum: The day after writing this I realized there is another bird connection that I forgot to include because I was so focused on thinking about my student community that I forgot about my own house.  I was recently asked if I would take care of a little parakeet who had been in a situation where he just sat in a little cage all day long, all by himself.  I loathe the idea of birds living in cages, but I took him home with me to live in my office where I could keep him company while I work (my office also has a steady flow of family activity, so he gets lots of attention).  I don't like the idea of any critter being the only one of its kind, especially a flock animal like a parakeet; so, not wanting to contribute to the breeding of birds in cages, I started looking for another rescue parakeet.  Three days ago (about same time the hawk was being rescued in Montana), we adopted Smidgeon from the Humane Society. He is singing his little heart out as I type this.  I hope that Smidgeon and Pippin will be great friends. 

UPDATE: Smidgeon and Pippin are great friends! Pippen was a sad little bird who just sat in once spot and never sang. Then came Smidgeon, who is a happy little fellow who plays and sings and has been teaching Pippin how to do the same. Pippin adores Smidgeon and likes to feed him. They are adorable together.
 

Regarding Cameras & Recordings in the Classroom

A few thoughts: 

• A Thai medicine/bodywork classroom is a healing arts learning space.  People need to feel free to get things wrong, break down in tears, and be messy unguarded humans.  While I love the art of film and photography, taking pictures, videos and audio recordings can inhibit this dynamic.

• A good teacher must bend instruction to meet the students where they are at.  Sometimes we show someone a workaround for a technique, in order to accommodate for specific body needs but if that workaround ends up in a photograph on Facebook, it teaches the world something that is incorrect for most, perhaps only correct for one.  We often share information in a way that isn’t our normal pattern.  We read the classroom and sometimes say things only meant for those specific students.  This time together is special and even if we have taught this class a hundred times, it is uniquely tailored for you in a thousand tiny ways.  Teachers being filmed feel they must teach to a generic catch-all population rather than the individuals in front of them.

• When teachings are being filmed and photographed, the student steps back from learning.  A part of the brain thinks “it’s okay, I’ve got that saved for later, I don’t have to work hard to learn it now”.  The problem is that looking at a photograph later will never replace the level of learning that can be accomplished by being present in the moment with your teacher.  

For these reasons, I ask that my students always ask permission before recording any part of class, and that they understand that the answer might be no.  It depends on the moment, but in general I appreciate students keeping their recording devices away during class.