The hectic tenants of day-to-day life can happen so regularly and quickly that you sometimes don’t realize you haven’t stopped to take a moment for yourself. Among kids and spouses, work and errands, how much of that time is tucked away just for you?
Self-care is so important, yet it is often overlooked. Aside from the very basics—eat well, exercise regularly, sleep eight hours every night—every human needs time to relax, replenish and reflect. Without taking space to care for yourself, it can be difficult to address those day-to-day tenants of life.
Harmonics 253
Meesa Pedrozo is a holistic East Asian medical practitioner and licensed acupuncturist who ensures she has time to relax, replenish and reflex for herself. From her practice, Harmonics 253’s website, Meesa “focuses on assisting healers—allopathic and natural alike, with their own self-care regime.”
Although Meesa has always been intuitive and fascinated with more of the natural ways to heal oneself, she found herself delving further into the world of energy works when she began dozing off during her desk job nine years ago. She now works to join a person’s mental, emotional, spiritual and physical bodies by using harmonic alignment, acupuncture and reiki healing as a holistic approach to self-care. In this way, she said she can help others gain access to and restore themselves.
Everybody needs to set aside this time for healing and restoration. She has a couple massage therapist and trades with other acupuncturists.
“I make it a weekly to biweekly thing. It’s without exception. I’m like, ‘Nope, this is my time. I got to do it,’” Meesa said. “If we’re not taking care of ourselves, then how can we take care of others?”
When most of the work happens between appointments, it’s up to the individual to take time from their busy lives to practice self-care. Meesa can be reached for appointments on her website, at 253-905-5848, or harmonics.253@gmail.com
Pacific Northwest Sound Awakening
Kelly Clark’s Pacific Northwest Sound Awakening focuses on sound healing, one of the portions of the holistic care Meesa implements in her work. Sound baths and healing use meditation and sound vibrations from crystal bowls to open up one’s energy and align chakras.
Kelly at first had some nerves when she began working with others with her sound bowls—the Facebook post inviting her Enumclaw community to her first public sound bath garnered 98 comments. After that first session (when a less intimidating seven people came to experience sound healing), she knew it would continue to be just as rewarding for her as the first time she encountered it herself at a West Seattle yoga studio in 2014.
“It just kind of organically turned into this wonderful thing that I get to offer to my community. It’s just been an amazing blessing for me,” Kelly said. “There really aren’t any words that really describe the impact that it’s had on my life and on the lives of others.”
She said that emotional healing self-care comes from releasing the stress and anxiety that causes havoc on human bodies, and that sound healing allows for this stagnant energy to be cleared away.
“That way, we can be our own healers and we can bring in the kind of energy that can be healing to ourselves,” Kelly said.
The sound bath events are meant to be a relaxing time for mediation. They are often after a restorative yoga session, sometimes in a pool… and even during birth.
As well as her harmonic sound bath sessions, Kelly also incorporates sound healing into her work as a doula birth support to help relax the parent and alleviate anxieties and pain. Connect with Kelly Clark through Sound Awakening Doula’s website, Pacific Northwest Sound Awakening’s website or Facebook.
More Places to Relax and Restore Yourself:
Unwind with a 30- or 60-minute Swedish or deep tissue massage in South Tacoma at One Woman Spa. Their massage therapist also specializes in pregnancy massage for the daily aches and pains throughout. Manicures and pedicures will return to the menu in April 2019. Call 253-474-3569 or stop by their location at 620 Tacoma Mall Boulevard to make an appointment.
This hub of relaxation has services for scrubs, masks, massages, facials, as well as herbal saunas, steam rooms, hydrotherapy baths, and much more. Olympus “believes that one’s true beauty can only be achieved when one feels healthy and focuses on restoring and rejuvenating one’s health comes first before achieving anything else.” Note that Olympus Spa is a traditional Korean spa and visitors are unclothed for most of their visits. Its Tacoma location is at 8615 South Tacoma Way and can be reached at 253-588-3355 or info_tacoma@olympusspa.net.
This salon and boutique offer massage, facials, life coaching, reiki, manicures, pedicures and more in a historic home built in 1889. When you treat yourself to a spa day, you might shop through goodies such as purses, jewelry, art, and skin and hair care.Enumclaw Day Spa is located at 1710 Railroad Street and can be reached at 360-825-5755 or enumclawdayspa@hotmail.com.
A new wave of meditation can come your way at one of Tacoma’s float tanks, where you can lay on the surface of a tank of water for 75 minutes. Floatation therapy can help you unwind and de-stress by letting your body relax and taking away external stimulation. You can find them at 3907 6th Avenue and reach them at 253-235-9488 or frontdesk@nwfloat.com.
What is more relaxing than a cup of coffee or tea and a good book? Put aside a few minutes for yourself at the Sequel in Enumclaw, where an espresso machine’s coughs and gasps will turn to white noise after settling in with a book from one of the various genres available for sale. Visit the Sequel Books and Espresso at 1456 Cole Street and reach them at 360-825-3144.
If you don’t care for a cup of tea or coffee, go straight for a relaxing read at a Good Book in downtown Sumner. If you’ve got a treasured book with a breaking spine, they can help you out with Pavel’s Book Repair and Restorations. Visit a Good Book at 1014 Main Street in Sumner and reach them at 253-891-9692.
