Danielle Tursky LMT

11/20/2025

UPPER BODY TENSION: What You’re Really Carrying
Let’s talk about why your shoulders feel like concrete and your neck won’t turn.

Your upper body is the storage unit for RESPONSIBILITY - both the kind you chose and the kind that was dumped on you.

SHOULDERS (The Burden Bearers)
• Left shoulder = Family burdens, emotional responsibilities that aren’t yours, carrying weight for others
• Right shoulder = Work stress, career pressure, over-giving, feeling like you’re not doing enough

NECK (The Control Center)
Neck pain and stiffness? You’re holding on too tight. Trying to control outcomes, people, situations. Your neck literally won’t let you look in different directions because you’re rigid in your thinking or terrified of what might happen if you let go.

UPPER BACK (Between the Shoulder Blades)
This is where grief lives. Sorrow. Sadness. Feeling emotionally unsupported even when people are around. It’s the loneliness of carrying everything alone.

CHEST/HEART SPACE
Betrayal. Hurt. People who struggle to nurture themselves. The heart that’s been broken and closed off to protect itself.

THROAT
Can’t speak your truth? Swallow your words to keep the peace? Your throat holds that suppression. Judgment from others, or worse - judging yourself.

ARMS
Left arm - not receiving enough spiritual or emotional nourishment. Right arm - not doing enough physically, or feeling inadequate in your actions.

Here’s what I know after years of bodywork: Your tension isn’t just about “bad posture” or “sleeping wrong.” It’s about WHAT YOU’RE CARRYING EMOTIONALLY.

And here’s the beautiful part - when you understand what your body is trying to tell you, you can actually release it. Not just with massage (though that helps!), but by addressing the emotional root.

Your body is trying to heal you. Are you listening?

👉 I created detailed body mapping charts that break down every area of tension and what it means emotionally. Because understanding your pain is the first step to releasing it.

Drop a comment with your biggest upper body tension spot - shoulders, neck, upper back, or chest? Let’s decode what your body is saying.

11/19/2025

Left Side vs. Right Side: What Your Body Pain is REALLY Telling You

Ever wonder why you always get pain on one specific side of your body? It’s not just “how you slept” or random bad luck. Your body has a language, and it’s trying to communicate something important.

LEFT SIDE = FEMININE ENERGY (Receiving)
Your left side holds emotions around:
• Receiving (or struggling to receive)
• Family concerns and relationships
• Feeling unsupported
• Trying to be perfect
• Money and security fears

When your left side is screaming at you - whether it’s your shoulder, hip, or lower back - ask yourself: “What am I trying to receive that I can’t allow in? What family pattern am I holding onto? Where am I playing small?”

RIGHT SIDE = MASCULINE ENERGY (Giving)
Your right side carries emotions around:
• Giving (often over-giving)
• Work, career, and productivity
• Feeling like you’re not doing enough
• Guilt about what you “should” be doing

Right side tension? Your body might be saying: “You’re giving too much. You’re carrying responsibilities that aren’t yours. You’re depleting yourself.”

Here’s what’s fascinating:
Most of us are imbalanced. We’re either over-giving (right side dominant) or struggling to receive (left side blocked). True healing happens when we bring both sides into harmony.

I created these body mapping charts because after 15+ years as a massage therapist, I kept seeing the same patterns. The person with chronic right shoulder pain was always the one sacrificing themselves for their career. The left hip pain? Almost always tied to family dynamics and feeling unsupported.

Your pain has a purpose. It’s your body’s way of getting your attention when you’ve ignored the whispers.
So tell me - which side do YOU carry your tension?

Drop a comment: Left side, right side, or both? Let’s decode what your body is trying to tell you.

(And if you’re a massage therapist or bodyworker, save this post - this is the kind of somatic education your clients need to understand their own healing journey.)

09/25/2025

This! After my lumbar fusion, I was told not to take NSAIDS for at least 6 months - my body needed the inflammation to heal. So I went down some rabbit holes about inflammation and pain.

Not all pain is bad. Some pain is necessary to stop is from continuing to injure .. pain is the red flag that something is wrong. It is there to STOP you from what you’re doing wrong. If we use this as a tool, imagine the possibilities to heal the ROOT CAUSE and not just the symptoms.

7 Things to Know About Inflammation, Pain, and Common Medications

1. Your body uses inflammation to heal.
When you get hurt, your immune system releases chemicals called prostaglandins. These cause swelling and make the injured area more sensitive so your body can protect and repair it.

2. Inflammation also causes pain.
The same process that helps you heal can also make you feel sore or achy.

3. NSAIDs can help manage pain.
Medicines like ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen (Aleve), and aspirin can reduce pain and make movement easier.

4. But they may slow down healing.
Because NSAIDs block inflammation, they can sometimes delay the body’s natural repair process.

5. Use the lowest dose that works.
Doctors recommend taking the smallest amount that helps your pain while still letting your body heal.

6. Take NSAIDs with food and water.
Eating and drinking plenty of fluids lowers the chance of stomach upset or other side effects.

7. Different NSAIDs work differently for people.
Some people respond better to ibuprofen, others to naproxen or aspirin. Switching between them can sometimes help.

Bonus tip: Aspirin has two roles.

•In low doses (81 mg), it helps protect the heart by preventing blood clots.

•In higher doses (325 mg), it works more like other NSAIDs to reduce inflammation.

09/16/2025

I wish we knew sooner that chronic illness came from how our body protected us from the hurt we experienced in our life (and not from how our body broke, attacked itself, and let us down).

We’re taught to believe that illness means weakness, that our body somehow failed us, or turned against us. But in reality, so much of what we call “chronic illness” is the body’s brilliant and desperate attempt to keep us safe when our mind and heart were overwhelmed by pain.

Every symptom, every flare-up, every unexplained exhaustion or ache—it isn’t proof that we’re broken. It’s proof that our body absorbed the weight of experiences too heavy for us to carry consciously. It’s the body saying: “I’ll hold this for you. I’ll protect you the only way I know how.”

The trauma, stress, and emotional wounds we couldn’t process at the time often settle deep in our nervous system. They shape the way our immune system responds, the way our muscles tighten, the way our gut reacts, the way our energy drains. It’s not sabotage—it’s survival.

What we interpret as betrayal is, in many ways, devotion. Our body was never against us. It was adapting. It was shielding us. It was helping us endure what felt unbearable.

And yet, because no one told us this truth, we grow up blaming ourselves. We look in the mirror and wonder why we are the ones suffering, why we can’t just “be normal.” We internalize shame and frustration, thinking our body is the enemy—when really, it’s been our most faithful ally.

Healing doesn’t come from hating our body into submission. It comes from understanding. From realizing that our body deserves compassion, not punishment. That those symptoms are messengers, not curses. That the aches, the fatigue, the illnesses are evidence of how much we’ve endured—and how hard our body has fought to protect us.

The shift begins when we stop asking, “Why is my body broken?” and instead ask, “What has my body been carrying for me all this time?”
When we see illness not as failure but as survival, we stop living in blame and start moving toward healing.

Because our body was never the problem.
It was always part of the solution.

09/16/2025

https://a.co/d/enJurMw

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09/11/2025

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8SjSqR3/

Check out Blue Heron Apothecary’s video.

09/10/2025

A major component to how well we succeed at what we do is PROPRIOCEPTION... It's never talked enough about, but it controls all we do.

Do you know where your body is at all times? we assume its attached to us, but how well?!? You can improve your skillset at anything by working on proprioception.

I have created a course to evolve your pickle ball game (and save your rotator cuffs!!) tremendously!!!

check it out

COURSE OVERVIEWWelcome to Your TransformationThis comprehensive online course is designed for pickleball players of all levels and ages who are ready to develop superior court awareness and consistent performance. Through 12 detailed modules, you'll discover how to develop your body's internal navig...

09/05/2025

Hi there, fellow bendy human. If you've found this course, chances are something in your body isn't quite right, and you're tired of being told it's all in your head. You've probably been told to "just stretch more" or "strengthen your core" for the hundredth time, and surprise—it didn't magically fix everything.

This course will teach you why your hypermobile body works the way it does and, more importantly, how to work WITH it instead of against it. You'll discover that you're not broken—you're just wired differently, and once you understand that wiring, everything starts to make sense.

What You'll Learn:
🧠Why your nervous system is constantly in "survival mode"
🧠How to retrain your internal GPS system
🧠Movement strategies that actually help instead of hurt
🧠Daily life modifications that support your unique needs
🧠How to build a healthcare team that understands you

Welcome to Your Hypermobile JourneyHi there, fellow bendy human. If you've found this course, chances are something in your body isn't quite right, and you're tired of being told it's all in your head. You've probably been told to "just stretch more" or "strengthen your core" for the hundredth time,...

08/27/2025

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8BC17fQ/

Check out Blue Heron Apothecary’s video.

08/25/2025

Here is a printable full body check in for chronic pain journaling

Full Body Check-In Health Tracking FormThis comprehensive daily wellness monitoring sheet features an elegant script header and organized layout for holistic health tracking. The form includes:Key Features: • Date field for daily entries • Overall wellness scale (0-10) from “The Worst” to .....