Hey there friends and fans! I hope life is treating you well. I want to talk to you today about our signature service – Lazy Girl’s Yoga. What it is, why I call it that, and my inspirations for choosing the name.
Why is it Lazy?
To start with, nobody has to take off their clothes! Just pop your shoes off and store them on the shelf outside the room. No need to apologize for your body hair – 1) it isn’t an issue for any massage and 2) there’s no lubricant used, so you won’t leave feeling greasy either!
Lazy Girl’s Yoga allows me to make use of many tools: hands, elbows, knees, feet – I even sit on people sometimes! All you have to do is practice “corpse pose” AKA lay there and I’ll twist, compress, push, pull and stretch the pain, stress, and tension away. I get to relax and lean back, using my feet for much of the work I do – so the “Lazy” can apply to me just as much as you sometimes!
How does it work?
My basic philosophy is to reduce stress, create movement and positive change in the body, and provide effective bodywork through deep relaxation. I accomplish this a few ways – atmosphere, booking options, and self-care suggestions.
When you walk into my studio, you’ll notice that it always smells clean*. The space is quiet and homey despite being right off the freeway, and the waiting area has incredibly comfortable chaise lounges for you to relax and sip a glass of water, or cup of tea. After slipping off your shoes, you’ll enter the heart of Pixie Bodyworks – a cozily appointed room filled with comfortable pillows, a cushy bench to sit on or leave your personal effects, and a large, dense, kapok-filled Thai Massage mat wrapped in layers of quilts to bring it all together. As my suitemate likes to say, it’s like walking into a genie bottle.
*Sometimes it smells like burgers. I’m sorry, P.Terry’s is delicious and within walking distance!
As far as self-care goes, after your first appointment, you’ll receive an e-mail with my standard tips – Drink plenty of water, eat a small snack, have an epsom salt soak, and do your homework! Homework is often basic stretches, yoga poses, or exercises that I feel will help you accomplish your stress and pain relief goals. Realistically I can’t MAKE you do any of the things I suggest; however, many of the option I recommend are steps I’ve taken to alleviate my personal aches, pains, and postural issues.
I know a ton about massage – what modality is this?!
I’m not a one-trick pony, or a pony at all – that’s not the point. I pull techniques and ideas from every modality I have studied, including books I’ve read, videos, in-person classes, and personal experimentation. These include Shiatsu, Thai Massage, Trigger Point Therapy, Deep Massage – The Lauterstein Method, Myofascial Release, Orthopedic Protocols & Assessment, Swedish (western bread & butter massage), Deep Tissue, Zero Balancing, and several more.
What my clients (ideally you!) receive is an integrated, intuitive session. We start by discussing what your goals are or what areas of the body you’d like more attention. I use that information, what you provide on your intake form, your feedback while receiving, and what I feel in the muscle and joint structures when they are moved through range of motion, stretched, or compressed. It’s fairly common for me to zero in on discomfort that my client wasn’t even aware of previously!
Why don’t you just call it Shiatsu or Thai Massage?
Do you have a FAVORITE traditional food from where you grew up? Be it chili or tacos -speaking to my native Texans here – we all know that you’d be hard-pressed to order Tex-Mex anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line, or the eye-rolling that accompanies the question “but isn’t queso just cheese sauce?”
Well, I don’t want to give that same kind of disappointment to someone looking for a traditional Thai massage or Shiatsu massage session. To put it simply, that just isn’t what I do. Lazy Girl’s Yoga is an All-American style of bodywork – I pull from all different cultures and branches of medicine and put it together under a different name.
As one of my mentors Robert Gardner would say, I made it a brand. I would be remiss if I left him out of this post due to his huge influence on my practice. I studied Thai massage with Robert this summer, but he’s the one that put the idea in my head to create something uniquely branded, put it on video, and throw myself out into the world. I also kinda stole the name too, if we’re being completely honest here – some mat-based practitioners will describe Thai or Shiatsu as “lazy man’s yoga” or “assisted Thai yoga” or “Thai yoga massage.” I love being silly, so I was drawn to lazy man’s yoga immediately – but that didn’t quite fit for me. Swap a word out and you get Lazy Girl’s Yoga! Thanks, Robert!
Ok ok, so what can Lazy Girl’s Yoga do for me?
A whole lot! Lazy Girl’s Yoga provides the time and space to unwind and receive incredibly effective bodywork. I’ve had clients express that these sessions have left them pain-free for up to a week and created significant postural changes – such as feeling taller afterward, able to twist their torsos, reach behind their backs, or finally feeling their hips aligned and balanced.
This bodywork may feel like magic, and sometimes I really think it is, but it’s the combination of my receiver’s personal efforts, time, comfort, and therapeutic soft-tissue work that genuinely creates positive change.
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