Ever looked at a crack in the wall of your house and wonder when did that happen?  For some people the fix is quick and easy, patch it and forget about it.  A few months go by and lo and behold another crack needs mending.  Maybe a few more months later and you wonder when did that door become hard to open?  For the average Joe, the thought that they need to deal with their foundation doesn’t hit until well after every room in the house is impacted by the shifting forces.  Left unattended, we have all seen old houses whose walls are gone and roof is so pitched, it would be unsafe to walk under it!

Ever have a moment getting out of a chair or up out of bed and wonder, is that a new pain? When did that start?  Well your body has a foundation also, the pelvic girdle.  It connects with the legs at the hips and also the spine at the SI (sacroiliac) joints.  So if the hips have “shift”, it is not unusual for the forces to be off all the way up the spine!  Your body has a goal for your head to remain facing forward and to keep your eyes fairly level.  So if one side of the pelvis changes position, there is an alteration in the “foundation” and the rest of the body has to adapt by shifting as well.  You may experience this anywhere in the kinetic chain; meaning that you may feel tightness and pain in your shoulders, neck, head or even the jaw.  Yes, your “TMJ” issue may be coming from your hips and pelvic girdle.  Think about it, your “foundation” shifted and left unattended your “roof” can no longer handle the change in forces.  Most of the time these “compensatory” injuries show up on the opposite side of the body.  Try a little experiment, stand up and place all of your weight on one leg.  Feel how the rest of you has to move to keep the balance?  Why would anyone not notice? In the course of a life you have to get things done so you keep going.  Most of us wouldn’t recognize this shift as an injury.   We begin to consider it “normal”, and don’t seek to correct the foundation problem.  So the next time you get headaches a few days in a row or your shoulder “suddenly” doesn’t want to do what you ask ~ have a professional check your hips/pelvis to make sure you don’t need a “foundation repair”.  And, oh, by the way, taking a pain killer is like patching the crack, sure you don’t see it anymore but that doesn’t mean you’ve fixed the origin of the problem! 

Ever looked at a crack in the wall of your house and wonder when did that happen?  For some people the fix is quick and easy, patch it and forget about it.  A few months go by and lo and behold another crack needs mending.  Maybe a few more months later and you wonder when did that door become hard to open?  For the average Joe, the thought that they need to deal with their foundation doesn’t hit until well after every room in the house is impacted by the shifting forces.  Left unattended, we have all seen old houses whose walls are gone and roof is so pitched, it would be unsafe to walk under it!

Ever have a moment getting out of a chair or up out of bed and wonder, is that a new pain? When did that start?  Well your body has a foundation also, the pelvic girdle.  It connects with the legs at the hips and also the spine at the SI (sacroiliac) joints.  So if the hips have “shift”, it is not unusual for the forces to be off all the way up the spine!  Your body has a goal for your head to remain facing forward and to keep your eyes fairly level.  So if one side of the pelvis changes position, there is an alteration in the “foundation” and the rest of the body has to adapt by shifting as well.  You may experience this anywhere in the kinetic chain; meaning that you may feel tightness and pain in your shoulders, neck, head or even the jaw.  Yes, your “TMJ” issue may be coming from your hips and pelvic girdle.  Think about it, your “foundation” shifted and left unattended your “roof” can no longer handle the change in forces.  Most of the time these “compensatory” injuries show up on the opposite side of the body.  Try a little experiment, stand up and place all of your weight on one leg.  Feel how the rest of you has to move to keep the balance?  Why would anyone not notice? In the course of a life you have to get things done so you keep going.  Most of us wouldn’t recognize this shift as an injury.   We begin to consider it “normal”, and don’t seek to correct the foundation problem.  So the next time you get headaches a few days in a row or your shoulder “suddenly” doesn’t want to do what you ask ~ have a professional check your hips/pelvis to make sure you don’t need a “foundation repair”.  And, oh, by the way, taking a pain killer is like patching the crack, sure you don’t see it anymore but that doesn’t mean you’ve fixed the origin of the problem!

 Matthew Nolan B.Sc., LMT, MTI, CEP, CPT, holds a Bachelor of Science from State University of NY, College at Cortland, 1982.  Major:  Physical Education (Kinesiology) with emphasis in Exercise Science, and is a Certified Personal Trainer, Licensed Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy Instructor, and Continuing Education Provider, Texas.  Matt has over 1,000 hours of training in a variety of massage and bodywork techniques.  He has taught in Texas, Montana, and Wyoming, and offers continuing education classes and consulting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.  Specializing in Clinical and Orthopedic Massage, his practice is located in Richardson Texas (a northern suburb of Dallas) both in private practice as well as partnering with area chiropractors in assisting their patients. Clients include athletes as well as people from all walks of life.  Contact Matt at www.p2kfitness.massagetherapy.com, email p2kfitness@aol.com, or 214-676-8512.  His office is located at 2060 N. Collins Blvd, #201, Richardson, 75080.

- Anonymous

The structure of the Eiffel Tower was based upon the structure of the human body.

By Matthew Nolan B.Sc., LMT, MTI, CEP, CPT 

Ah, Paris in springtime, and what would a trip to Paris be without visiting the Eiffel Tower?  The creation of Gustave Eiffel is the tallest building in Paris at a height of 324 meters (1,063 feet for Americans).   Gustave sought a way to build a large structure of iron that would not collapse with the weight of iron required to build it so tall.   Few people realize that he turned to the human structure for his answer.  He studied bones, primarily the femur (thigh) bone for inspiration and answers.  The end of each long bone is made of “spongy bone” or trabecular bone tissue.  This particular bone tissue is less dense than the bone making up the shaft of the bone and it has more surface area.   One of the amazing factors of the design is the ability to withstand the forces of gravity on the body in motion.  The trabeculii help to dissipate the forces so that we don’t break our legs every time we jump or run!  This is what Gustave understood and used to design a tower that although is made from iron has “a lower density than a cylinder of air occupying the same dimensions as the tower”[1]  Truly amazing and wonderful.  Our human body is an architectural wonder from the arches of our feet to the pulley systems of our tendons.  Take your form out and say thank you, perhaps by sipping French Roast in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower?

[1] Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower

 Matthew Nolan B.Sc., LMT, MTI, CEP, CPT, holds a Bachelor of Science from State University of NY, College at Cortland, 1982.  Major:  Physical Education (Kinesiology) with emphasis in Exercise Science, and is a Certified Personal Trainer, Licensed Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy Instructor, and Continuing Education Provider, Texas.  Matt has over 1,000 hours of training in a variety of massage and bodywork techniques.  He has taught in Texas, Montana, and Wyoming, and offers continuing education classes and consulting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.  Specializing in Clinical and Orthopedic Massage, his practice is located in Richardson Texas (a northern suburb of Dallas) both in private practice as well as partnering with area chiropractors in assisting their patients. Clients include athletes as well as people from all walks of life.  Contact Matt at www.p2kfitness.massagetherapy.com, email p2kfitness@aol.com, or 214-676-8512.  His office is located at 2060 N. Collins Blvd, #201, Richardson, 75080.

Rendering and aerial photography blend show the vision for First Baptist Carrollton's Sports Ministry Complex

This 3D rendering over an aerial photograph shows how First Baptist Carrollton’s Sports Ministry Complex will provide the church and community opportunities for family and fellowship!

‘Reach out and touch someone’… some of you may be old enough to remember when AT&T used this as their marketing slogan.  In these more modern days we have a number of technological advances that allows for us to remain in ‘contact’ with our friends, families and well, just about anyone and everyone!  While high-tech has made it possible to keep up minute-by-minute with the world, our need for plain, old-fashioned touch is just as important.  In his landmark book, ‘Touching’, Ashley Montagu calls touch the ‘mother of the senses’ and states that it is the first of our senses to become ‘functional’ during fetal development.  He also recounts how in the early 1900’s doctors in medical institutions could not understand how mortality rates for infants admitted was almost 100% for each institution.  It wasn’t until Dr. Fritz Talbot was visiting a hospital in Germany that he discovered a ‘secret’.  He witnessed an old woman carrying around a baby on her hip and when he inquired as to who she was, found out that when a baby wasn’t doing well and the medical team did everything they could, they called her in and she would ‘turn the child around’.   Dr Talbot brought back to the U.S. the concept of touching infants; holding them, rocking them, stroking them.  Amazingly infant mortality rates dropped from about 35% to just10% in one year!

Dr. Tiffany Fields established the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School Of Medicine in 1992.  Her goal:  to really understand the importance of touch by creating studies that look at the impact of touch throughout a lifespan.  Touch is so powerful that she list the benefits on the website (www.miami.edu/touch-research) and includes this statement:  (touch) “enhances attentiveness, alleviates depressive symptoms, reduces pain, reduces stress hormones and improves immune function.”

In 1996, a study was completed that looked at the effect of a 15 minute chair massage vs. just relaxing in a chair for 15 minutes.  The study compared EEG patterns and math computations.  The results showed that while both groups showed signs of relaxation, the massaged group increased their accuracy on math computations as well as the speed of the computations!  Additionally, the massaged group scored lower on job stress at the end of the five week study.  

Even ‘casual touching’ can be important.  In a study that has been replicated numerous times in different settings, people rate service higher if there is some form of touch involved.  In one such study, cashiers are instructed to place a person’s change directly in their hand and for the next customer just place the change on the counter.  Researchers then stop the customer and ask about the service they have received.  People receiving the change in their hand rate the service higher than the person who had to pick up their change from the counter.  An article published in the New York Times (Feb 23, 2010) outlined even further evidence of the power of touch.  In that article they describe a research paper that studied NBA teams and the interactions within teams.  The authors of the paper, Mr. Michael Kraus, Ms. Cassy Huang and Dr. Keltner reported that ‘good teams tended to be touchier than bad ones.  The most touch-bonded teams were the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.’  

I dare say that if the better performers are touching more than lesser ones, perhaps we should emulate the winners… can I get a high five here? 

 Matthew Nolan B.Sc., LMT, MTI, CEP, CPT, holds a Bachelor of Science from State University of NY, College at Cortland, 1982.  Major:  Physical Education (Kinesiology) with emphasis in Exercise Science, and is a Certified Personal Trainer, Licensed Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy Instructor, and Continuing Education Provider, Texas.  Matt has over 1,000 hours of training in a variety of massage and bodywork techniques.  He has taught in Texas, Montana, and Wyoming, and offers continuing education classes and consulting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.  Specializing in Clinical and Orthopedic Massage, his practice is located in Richardson Texas (a northern suburb of Dallas) both in private practice as well as partnering with area chiropractors in assisting their patients. Clients include athletes as well as people from all walks of life.  Contact Matt at www.p2kfitness.massagetherapy.com, email p2kfitness@aol.com, or 214-676-8512.  His office is located at 2060 N. Collins Blvd, #201, Richardson, 75080.

Computer Model of Phase One

MASTER PLAN

FLOOR PLAN

First Baptist Church of Bells, Texas is working with Brown, Brown & Associates – Architects to Master Plan their new church as they relocated to 6.5 acres of prime land on Highway 82 in Bells, Texas. The church projects needing seating for 200 members and plans to build and appropriate Phase One building including:
• Worship Area (seating 200)
• Gathering Areas
• Kitchen
• Administration Area
• Classrooms
• Parking

The Brown, Brown & Associates’ architectural team specializes in new and revitalizations of church construction in the Dallas area, maintaining a tie to many local ministries. With over fifty years of experience, Brown, Brown & Associates, Brown, Brown & Associates enjoy a positive reputation that continues to grow. Their successful new or revitalization projects in the Dallas, Richardson, Carrollton, Frisco, Southlake, and other surrounding areas has secured Brown, Brown & Associates as the leading architectural firm for church construction in the Dallas metroplex.

Works for the premier church architectural firm include Custer Road United Methodist Church and First Baptist Church of Carrollton, along with construction projects outside of the city itself such as Grace Evangelical Free Church in Lucas, First Baptist Church in Red Oak, Stonebridge United Methodist Church in McKinney and many more. These outstanding church designs provide physical evidence of the excellence created when a congregation works in tandem with the visionaries of Brown, Brown & Associates.

The firm focuses all of its energy on one project at a time in order to ensure the highest quality and total client satisfaction for each and every job, taking on only three to five large projects a year in order to completely devote itself to the requirements of the ministry at hand. J. Hardy Brown works as the lead designer for each project, meeting frequently with clients during every stage of new church construction and ensuring that a congregation receives exactly the building it desires. Hardy Brown oversees every aspect of the work, directing each aspect of the construction process and guaranteeing the accurate execution (and complete satisfaction) of a congregation’s vision for their church.

Any congregation will be delighted with Brown, Brown & Associates’ passion for its work and dedication to a church’s vision of their new church construction or revitalization project in the Dallas and surrounding areas. To contact the team at Brown, Brown & Associates to discuss details of your church construction project or for more information on Brown, Brown & Associates past projects, pricing and available services, please visit www.BBA-A.com.

New digital sign provides direction, information, and updates.

Holy Covenant United Methodist church lights the night with new sign technology to provide direction, updates, and announcements as well as focused lighting to brighten the visits of guests and members.

Exterior lights brighten paths and parking areas