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Bodywork
Explore the benefits of bodywork for healing, stress relief, and whole-body wellness. This category covers therapeutic massage, stretching, and integrative techniques designed to support your body’s natural function and restore balance. Learn how bodywork can relieve pain, improve mobility, and help you reconnect with your body in a meaningful, intentional way. Whether you're managing chronic tension or seeking deeper relaxation, these insights support your journey to feeling your best.
Lowering Cortisol Without Diet Culture: Gentle, Body-Led Ways to Support Stress Recovery
You’ve probably seen the headlines:“10 foods that lower cortisol!”“Hack your stress response in 5 minutes!”“Cut this out of your life to...
Shannon Smith
Aug 13 min read
The Cortisol-Fascia Connection: Why Your Body Feels Tight, Tired, and Stuck
Chronic stress doesn’t just feel mental. It settles into the body~ quietly, persistently, and often without clear origin wrapping around muscles, bones, nerves, and organs.
Shannon Smith
Jul 313 min read
Guilt for Needing Rest? Your Body Isn’t a Productivity Machine
If you’re always exhausted but can’t seem to stop, you’re not broken. You’re likely in a prolonged state of survival mode, and what you need isn’t more discipline. You need deep, supported rest.
This is where therapeutic bodywork, energy balancing, and red light therapy can help.
Shannon Smith
Jul 272 min read
Grief Lives in the Body Too: How Therapeutic Massage Supports Healing After Loss
Grief doesn’t just happen in the mind. It lives in the body. And it changes you. After loss, you might feel tired in a way you can’t...
Shannon Smith
Jul 263 min read
You’re Not Too Sensitive: How the Nervous System Stores Past Experiences in the Body
The body stores experience. Especially overwhelming or unresolved experiences. And it speaks to us through tension, fatigue, guarded posture, chronic pain, or emotional release.
Shannon Smith
Jul 253 min read
The Detox System No One Talks About: How to Know When Your Lymph Is Overwhelmed
Your body is wise. If your lymphatic system feels overwhelmed, it’s not failing, it’s communicating. The question is: are we listening?
Shannon Smith
Jul 243 min read
How Chronic Stress Reshapes Your Fascia~ and What Massage Can Do About It
Chronic stress doesn’t just change your mood. It changes your fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds and supports every muscle, organ, and joint. And the hormone most responsible for this shift? Cortisol.
Shannon Smith
Jul 233 min read
The Hidden Drain: How Chronic Stress Slows Lymphatic Flow~ and What You Can Do About It
One of the least understood effects of chronic stress is what it does to your lymphatic system, the body’s natural detox and drainage pathway.
Shannon Smith
Jul 223 min read
Fascia, Trauma, and Touch: How Emotional Memory Lives in the Body and What Massage Can Do About It
Many clients come into my practice with chronic tension, unexplained pain, or an intuitive sense that their body is holding onto something they can’t quite name. More and more, research is affirming what massage therapists and somatic practitioners have witnessed for years: the body keeps the score.
So what does that really mean? And how can therapeutic massage play a role in releasing that stored trauma
Shannon Smith
Jul 213 min read
The Lymph-Brain Connection: How Lymphatic Drainage Supports Cognitive Health and Mental Clarity
We often think of the lymphatic system as the body’s sanitation crew~ clearing waste, supporting immunity, and reducing swelling. But...
Shannon Smith
Jul 172 min read
The Science of Stillness: How Massage Therapy Transforms the Body and Brain
Discover the science-backed benefits of massage therapy—from stress relief to immune support, and why intentional touch is essential to whole-body healing.
Shannon Smith
Jul 132 min read
Breathe Better, Live Better: Why Proper Breathing Matters for Your Mind, Muscles, and Mood
Most of us take around 20,000 breaths a day, but very few are truly aware of how we breathe, and how much it matters. At Intention...
Shannon Smith
Jun 152 min read
How Massage Therapy Can Support Depression and Anxiety
Healing doesn’t always start in the mind. Sometimes, it begins with the body. Many people think of massage as a way to release muscle...
Shannon Smith
Jun 112 min read
How Massage Therapy Helps Lower High Cortisol and Soothe the Nervous System
Cortisol is not the enemy~ until it’s in overdrive. Cortisol is your body’s natural stress hormone. It’s meant to help you stay alert and...
Shannon Smith
Jun 112 min read
Treating Low Back Pain with Massage, Stretching, and Red Light Therapy: A Holistic, Evidence-Based Approach
Low back pain is a leading cause of missed work, discomfort, and chronic dysfunction. It's estimated that up to 80% of adults will...
Shannon Smith
Jun 53 min read
Massage Therapy for Neck Pain: What the Research Says
At Intention Wellness at Sun Therapy , many clients come to me after weeks, or even years of neck tension, stiffness, or pain that...
Shannon Smith
Jun 23 min read
Medical Massage, Spa Massage or Physical Therapy and When to Choose Each | Intention Wellness at Sun Therapy
At Intention Wellness at Sun Therapy , I meet people every day who are seeking answers, whether it’s for persistent tension, injury...
Shannon Smith
May 294 min read
Massage as Medicine: How Therapeutic Bodywork Speeds Recovery
Recovery isn’t just about rest. It’s an active process that your body works through~ every time you train, heal from an injury, or move...
Shannon Smith
May 273 min read
Easing the Ache: Massage and Holistic Therapies for Arthritis Relief
Arthritis affects over 53 million adults in the U.S., making it one of the most common chronic conditions. Whether it’s osteoarthritis,...
Shannon Smith
May 273 min read
How Often Should You Get a Massage? A Guide Based on Your Lifestyle and Goals
When it comes to massage therapy, one of the most common questions I hear is: “How often should I come in?” The answer isn’t...
Shannon Smith
May 242 min read
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