Meet Brenna Dee of Meaningful Movement in Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brenna Dee.

Brenna, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was incredibly fortunate to grow up in a small town in the mountains of Colorado where the stars are incredibly bright. The massage part of my story began ten years ago in Crestone, where I completed my initial training. I remember telling people that the program would provide a great foundation for a future in the healing arts.

At eighteen years old, I had no idea how right I was. For the last decade, I have been practicing massage in different settings and different styles. I have taken the opportunity to embrace every bit of continuing education that has come my way and now work in a style that is a blend of all that I have learned before. A typical massage with me is nourishing and challenging, helping each body to open up to less restricted ways of moving.

I am very excited to be taking all that I have learned and opening a small office in Boulder! This new space will allow me to offer a wider array of bodywork services, including personal yoga sessions. Many years of personal practice and my recent 1000 hour certification through Naropa University have left me well equipped to help people to develop a home practice that is perfect for them. I believe that the practices of yoga are immensely powerful allies on the path to wellness and with personal instruction, people are more able to connect to what may be unfamiliar. I find that people are more stressed than they may have taken time to realize in this pandemic, pre-election landscape. Tapping into the body can be immensely restful after spending so much time in the mind, dropping into the present moment can be a huge relief after all the worry and weirdness of this time.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
While aspects of my journey have been blessed, there have been challenges. A recurring obstacle is the reality of the human body, which has its limits. When I was starting my career, I injured myself significantly on more than one occasion. Through the course of healing from these injuries, I have learned so much about cycles of pain and how to work with them. I have learned firsthand the tremendous effort it requires to focus when pain is happening in the body and am always looking for more effective ways to diminish discomfort. Running a touch-based business in the time of COVID-19 has introduced challenges I could have never imagined but I am embracing the change and looking to expanding into the virtual realm. Currently, I am in my final year at Naropa University where I am studying Yoga and Art. This has been both blessing and challenge as 15 credits on top of building a business including my own website is a lot to juggle.

All of my previous obstacles became small in the face of our sister’s suicide in 2018. The pain of her death is beyond anything I have ever imagined. It was, and is, the most difficult challenge to overcome. We tend to not talk about death and great grief and the absolute agony of that experience, but I will say there is nothing to cut through bullshit like the death of someone dear. In one moment, I had absolutely no time or energy for pretenses. The most basic functions, like breathing, seemed to be miraculous feats in the time following her death. My foundation in yoga and meditation have been such a blessing, teaching me to turn towards the sadness and sit with breath until the waves pass. It is my connection to and understanding of body that has turned this greatest tragedy into a learning experience. Through my work, I hope to inspire others to connect more deeply to their own body and use it as a vehicle to fulfill their dreams.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Meaningful Movement story. Tell us more about the business.
I am an independently practicing bodywork practitioner and yoga instructor. My bodywork is known for its ability to reduce pain and speed recovery. I work with bodies post-surgery helping them to regain confident movement and good alignment on which to build strength. My focus as a practitioner is always the big picture and I connect to the body as a whole, working to bring better alignment to the entire system. To that goal, my work as a yoga teacher is focused on educating and creating deeper understanding for the body, in all its weirdness, and through that understanding, grow deeper compassion for the self and the world at large.

At this moment, I am most proud of my new office!! I have certain things, books and art, that I have carried around for most of a decade for just this purpose. I am so excited to have a space in which I can offer a wider array of massage services. My time in spas have given me great fondness for little luxuries like hot towels and stones. The foundation I learned at Crestone Healing Arts Center is what sets me apart from others. The teachings from that school have helped me to create a sustainable practice, in which I have no illusions about being a healer. I am not a healer. Our bodies are capable of great feats of healing when offered the right tools, the right environments. I am merely a guide, making suggestions to the body, offering safe space for all that arises. I attribute my dedication to the healing arts to that original training and am grateful every day for the lessons I learned there.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Wheeew… I am a lucky lady! I also would like to acknowledge the privilege that comes with looking the way that I do and having grown up in the mountains of Colorado. I was incredibly fortunate to grow up in close relationship to nature, seeing the stars every night. I believe in my business luck, not as a chance occurrence but as a direct result of energy invested. I have dedicated myself without reserve to this endeavor. Literally emptied my bank account of the few hundred dollars that I had last May and poured myself into my business. I believe so fiercely in this, in the benefit and the necessity of such work in this crazy time, I create luck. Like fairies, I believe so fiercely, it can’t help but live!!

Pricing:

• 90 Minute Massage – 100 dollars
• 60 Minute Reiki Session – 60 dollars

Contact Info:

• Address: 1650 38th Street
  Suite 100E
  Boulder, Colorado 80302
• Website: www.meaningfulmovement.me
• Phone: 7207245595
• Email: meaningfulmovementllc@gmail.com
• Instagram: @meaningfullmovement

Image Credit:
D’Layne Kerr-Layton

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