Break Dance

Play Patterns

Watching our two dogs play, I see a pattern. They charge, engage, parry, peak to intense excitement, and break away to regroup. Then, they repeat, and each time they rejoin, it’s slightly different.

Need For Variation

That break away to regroup is essential for effective and interesting play. After all, doing the same thing the same way gets tedious. Dogs like variation. If we’re playing fetch and I throw a ball to the same spot, after a few tosses, they get bored and stop playing. When I vary the targets, they’ll continue forever.

Breaking Patterns

There are several types of breaks. Each has its own set of implications. The first one that we just described is simply a pause in activity. It’s a break in a pattern. It’s an opportunity to regroup. Reassess. Reflect and strategize. Take a breath, shake off, and essentially, recharge.

Other types of breaks are on different levels of severity and they differ physically and/or emotionally.

Degrees of Difficulty

I break a fingernail. It’s not serious. It’s inconvenient and slightly distracting but does not have a major impact on my life and ability to perform ADLs (Activities of Daily Living). I just have to stay conscious when putting on my socks. A little clipping and filing, and by the next day, I’ve forgotten all about it.

If I break my arm, it’s more impactful. I just broke my right elbow a couple of months ago. I’m right handed so I had to learn to use my left hand – and only the left hand to do many of my ADLs. Unscrewing a lid, pouring coffee, brushing teeth, tying shoe laces, and dozens of other everyday activities all had to be relearned in light of my new inconvenient situation.

There were a couple of months spent with my arm in a cast. Then there was physical therapy where we addressed the elbow, the frozen wrist, and all the neuromuscular and fascia imbalances that had developed by the rest of my body compensating. After my 3 month “break,” my life continues. It is different now. I will forever more, have a slight residual weakness in the elbow joint. I am adapting the way I use my arm. It is just another filter through which I perceive and live my life. Other than this brief interruption and minimally restrictive diminishment, life goes on.

Types Of Achey Breakies

There are other breaks that we have, take, and carry with us. They all, to some degree, inform our thoughts and feelings for the rest of our lives. Life lessons: mistakes, misgivings, disappointments, learning from trusting the wrong people, lessons from believing the right people, views and beliefs developed in faith; these are all powerfully influential. They determine who we are, what we think, what we eat, how we sleep, who we love, and how we act.

Powerful Life Lessons

Consider the near-term, the short-term, and lasting effects of having your heart broken.

When you break from family cycles from the past, you change the direction and potentiality of your life. More than that, you have redirected the lives of your friends and family, and your progeny.

Breaking From Traditional Work Expectations

Choosing a new career, like PetMassage, breaks the boundaries of what you thought possible. Yes, you CAN have a vocation, a profession, working with and helping dogs. You can have a career that is enjoyable, fulfilling, meaningful, and lucrative. And, IT’S HELPING DOGS!

Breaks Make Us Stronger

Breaks are essential for identifying limitations. They give us the wherewithal and the whatwithal for tearing down physical and emotional boundaries that restrict our growth. That restrict our access to health and happiness.

When we get a massage, we take a “break” from our everyday routines. We commit to essential “me” time. For a few precious minutes, we release the need to control. We disrobe, lie on a massage table, and offer ourselves up to an hour of having our bodies and spirits honored and nurtured. When we return to our daily routine, we rejoin refreshed; rejuvenated.

PetMassage Break Dance

In PetMassage, when we grasp the dog’s coat and pull it into a stretch, we are giving the network of cells of the fascia beneath it, a “break” from their normal patterns. In their newly distended operating positions, they view their little worlds from slightly different perspectives.

And when we relax our grip, and the skin retracts back onto the body, it returns refreshed, renewed, recharged, and ready to share its new sense of self with the rest of the body.

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