Marty Heffner, Author at Marty Heffner, LMT, CMLDT

The Exercise with Your Child Challenge

August 4, 2017
by Marty Heffner

Physical activity is good for our bodies. There is no question about that. The benefits of a good workout are countless. When we break a good sweat, we reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease. Our bones and muscles get stronger. We gain mental clarity and relieve stress. But I’m curious, how much are we setting an example for our children? Whether you exercise or not, your children witness your actions daily. This leaves an impression on them that could impact how they live their lives down the road. Seeing you leave for the gym or take to the streets for a good run is great but what happens when you include them? August 6-12th, we are celebrating “Exercise with Your Child Week” and we want to challenge you to one full week of exercise with your kiddo. Don’t worry if you don’t have a child, you could always reach out to borrow a friend’s, neighbor’s or take someone who needs a break from “the norm.” Physical activity is awesome. Here’s why: Combat health issues. Conditions and diseases are drastically reduced with frequent workouts. Couple that with weight loss or preventing excess gain, and it’s all around a good idea. Starting […]

11 Ways to Treat Yourself (That don’t involve money or food!)

July 31, 2017
by Marty Heffner

It’s not hard to think up great ways to treat yourself. We’d all love a spa day topped off with a meal prepared and served by someone else. Maybe a sitter for the night, so the little angels are asleep when we get home. Or just a morning where the cat doesn’t wake you up by sitting on your windpipe. But for every article I see about self care, I roll my eyes at least 12 times and think “Who can afford that?” And sure, I would love to have an afternoon to myself and a bucket of fried chicken, and a cookie dough chaser. But that’s not particularly healthy. So I’m a fan of realistic self care. That is, activities that aren’t expensive, don’t involve food, and will make you feel good about how you spent that time. Here’s a list of my favorites Meditate, the easy way If you’re the kind of person who can’t sleep during the day, napping can be more like torture. But guided meditation is a whole other story. It gives your mind something (easy) to do so the rest of you can relax a bit. There are plenty of free guided meditations online, […]

Body image risk and reward in massage

July 4, 2017
by Marty Heffner

Body image. Almost everybody has something about their body that they don’t like. For many people, it’s a minor issue, no big deal. But some people have a major issue with their body image. It affects how they live and their happiness. When I tell some people that I’m a massage therapist, it can cause a strong reaction. They tell me, whether verbally or through their reaction and body language, that massage is not for them. Their body image is such an issue that they don’t think anybody else can accept them. The paradox here is that massage can really help with body image issues. In massage school, we were all nervous about taking off our clothes and letting somebody else touch us. It didn’t take long for us to discover that bodies are just bodies and become much more comfortable with our own. We also experienced how good receiving a massage made us feel. Something unexpected happened – when our bodies felt better, we felt better about our bodies. I think there are three options to consider. Let’s look at the risk versus reward for them. Don’t get a massage.This is the easiest because it involves doing nothing. The […]

Have a little respect will ya?

People often don’t realize there is a HUGE difference between a masseuse and a massage therapist. Let me clear that right up for you now, ok? A masseuse is a sex worker. A massage therapist is a person who has gone to school and been educated in the art of massage. So when someone calls me a masseuse, it kind of makes my skin crawl. Now, I totally get that plenty of people really do not know the difference. My mother, for example, when she realized what I did for a living, was telling plenty of people that I was a great masseuse! If she only knew what she really was telling people..omg! But when I explained the difference, she immediately changed her tune and that was all there was to that. Her face went red, and she never said that word again! Thank God. But ya know what really chaps my nerves? When I’m out in public, and someone hears I’m a licensed massage therapist and they just have to go there. I realize it’s not about me. I don’t take it personally. It just amazes me how many have to go there. The numbers are staggering. It is an old joke by […]

The Blame Game

I watched a Tony Robbins video over the course of the week, it took me awhile to watch it. Not only was it long, but I would watch parts of it over and over again if it spoke to me. One part, in particular, went straight to my heart. It was about blame. Tony spoke to a young girl who was very angry at her Father because she loved him so much, yet he was a drug addict and difficult to love and hurt her very much over the course of many years. I think a lot of people have someone in their life that they love despite the hurt they receive in return. I’ve had this. It’s an interesting thing to think about, blame. People place blame on parents for how they live life as adults. People blame problems in relationships on past relationships. My husband cheated, so every man cheats, therefore I trust no one, or I lie, or I cheat. Or maybe I’m just unhappy with my relationship with them because of what they did. It’s their fault. They are to blame. My parents abused me, so I do drugs, or I lie, or I cheat. Often the hurt is […]

Learning to slow down

I’ve been rushing it seems. Rushing thru massage school Rushing thru boards Rushing thru work Rushing thru days Rushing thru the first year of him gone Rushing thru the seasons Rushing to find why I am still here Why am I still here? How is it we can hurt so badly yet still be here? Our hearts don’t actually explode in our chests? We continue to breathe, our hearts continue to beat. We wake up, often in pain, and continue our day. Our life moves forward. The sun comes up and goes right back down, even when we hurt. Now that hurt can be like an ocean wave. The first wave knocks you down so hard you lose all sense of control. Breath is knocked right out of you. The struggle to survive is well known. The next wave may not be as bad, and you may have awhile in between waves, but be sure they will come back and when you least expect it you will get hit with one so hard, you will lose your footing for awhile. Maybe you rush to regain your footing like I do. Feeling if you rush, you will survive the next wave, and the […]

Women, and their hair…

I’ve never been one to think about my hair. When I started working in a hair salon, it became well known I did not know what I was doing with my hair, I barely knew how to curl my bangs. (thats a lie, Thelma showed me how to properly do my bangs and I still suck at it) But I love watching stylists do hair. It’s magical. When I’m not working I’ll often sit in one of the chairs and observe. I call it supervising (huge joke here). Its like watching the food network without calories or fat. Women come in one way, and leave looking brand new, put together, feeling fabulous, gorgeous, maybe even younger. They get a new cut, a new color, something different, something exciting. They’ve visited their favorite stylist, told a bunch of stories, caught up on whats new, laughed and been pampered. It’s a service beyond anything else. Women seem to love it! I certainly have grown to enjoy sitting there and being part of it. The relationships I’ve witnessed between a stylist and her client when cancer appears is like none other I’ve ever seen. It’s a soft, supportive holding of space. A helpfulness, a […]

So how did I get here?

I tend to be a very outspoken person, it often gets me in trouble. But sometimes it pushes me to do better. After massage school, the first year I had 6 cancer clients. One bone, one kidney, the rest were breast. I didn’t have much of a oncology class, in fact, I don’t remember the class at all, except to be careful and get a doctor note. I was terrified of hurting all of them. So I thought to myself, omg, I’m going to have a ton of people with cancer, I need to know more. I knew we had a cancer center here and from what I’ve been told, it is wonderful, the nurses, the oncologists, everyone. But they don’t have anyone massaging chemo patients, or have any oncology LMT’s on staff, at least that I could get any information on. (I really hope to change this) Anyway, I just knew I had to get more education. So I did. I tend to seek out the best, because if you’re going to pay for it, get the best. I found Tracy Walton’s class Oncology Massage Therapy: Caring for Clients with Cancer, I was not disappointed. The class changed everything I thought I knew […]