A Talented Touch

Mindful Living Solutions Website, 2013

 

The touch is personal. The massage practitioner is fully present in his touch. You feel as though you are being touched as an individual, with feelings, needs and unique considerations. Steer away from the touch that treats you like an object or a job, upon which massage is being performed mechanically and mindlessly.

The touch conveys its experience and knowledge. Gently probing, it searches for areas that need attention. You sense that your body is being mapped in the practitioner's mind. The way it glides around a muscle group, and is aware of its distinct elements. The practitioner varies the pressure in his touch - and the pressure is nearly always just right. Whether strong or light, his touch is confident.

The touch is healing. You are treated like a living entity, that feels both pleasure and pain. When the talented touch is working therapeutically, you sense that the discomfort is purposeful, and therapeutic. Its aim is to rid tension from your muscle. Your inner alarm bells are never triggered. Then after working on a stressed area, the healing touch makes movements on your body that counteract the uncomfortable ones, spreading healing and providing a tingling sensation to sore muscles. It gives energy, radiates warmth, and caresses with nurturing.

The touch is sensual. The touch gets into pockets and corners of the body that are intimate, without ever being invasive. It creates waves of healing pleasure in your body, that tingle or sweep you away into a moment of bliss. When you leave, you are in an altered state of consciousness, moving on a different but parallel plane to everyone else, due to a natural high made up of endorphins, and other feel-good chemicals produced by your body.

The talented touch conveys the maturity and experience of the bodyworker.You get a sense of the practitioner's maturity, wisdom, heart and soul. You feel safe under his touch, and are able to relax deeply and surrender.

 

 

 

The Lotus Flower Hand Stretch

This technique stretches out one's entire hand - the fingers and the palm. The first time this Shiatsu technique was performed on my hand, I had a clear visual in my mind of a Lotus flower suddenly blossoming, its petals opening wide, in response to the warmth and energy of the noon sun. The Lotus Flower Hand Stretch helps to keep your palm chakras open and connected to the energy of your heart. I have consistently found that academics, and only academics, always groan in pleasure whenever this technique is applied to their hands. They love this stretch! I think it's because they spend much of their time at computers, typing theories, and rarely get to see their creative outcome manifested.