Massage and Movement

• *Stand on some real earth (vs Sidewalk) for a few minutes, barefoot is ideal, but it still works with shoes on. This is part of why you see folks practicing Tai Chi etcetera outside in the parks--these practices connect with the elements, and help facilitate our balance, harmony, and connection with our bodies, the earth, and the world around us.
• *Make a conscious connection with that Earth, by, on each Exhale, visualizing/feeling a cords going from your head, down your spine, to your sacrum, down each leg, thru your feet, and down into the earth. Try increments of 10 feet at a time until you are 80 feet down. On each Inhalation, 'drink' in the nourishing energy of the earth.
• *Eat Rice and/or root vegetables (yam, potatoes, carrots, daikon.....)
• *Do activities that put you in your body more: walking, stretches, yoga. If your energy is low, gentle yoga or simply being aware of your body can help alot (ie: as you inhale and exhale, feel the breath going down the airways, and notice the movement at your belly and lungs).
• *Splash some cool water on the back of your neck, forehead, and hands

April 1, 2012

Stone Ridge, NY @MaMA, Marbletown Multi-Arts

"We start with the body, your Body, tuning into its connection with the earth the sky, and the space around you. Feel your feet on the floor, sensing through your crown the space above you. Feel your heart beating--coming more inside, strengthening your ability to embody, to be in this body. To sense through it, perceive/propreocept via it...to smell, see, hear, sound, and touch. These senses that we are blessed to have alive and functioning...the information that we glean through them is helping us to use different parts of our brains, and shifting how we experience the world.

Remember to Breathe! Here's a great tip I learned from Thich Nhat Hahn, Zen Monk and teacher extraordinaire: next time your phone rings, instead of answering it right away, take a breath in and out. Then answer your call on your next exhalation. Use your phone ringing as an Awareness reminder. Be Present. Take that moment to breathe, and you may find that you have a little more space to bring to that phone conversation.

This painting is from Janet Morgan's Healer Series (www.JanetMorgan.net), it's hanging just outside the door to my office right now. The serenity and peace in this healer's face, is the perfect image for my clients to to see as they walk out of the studio, after a session. I've been working with energy in my sessions for many years, but one in particular this past year stand out.

One man, who has had trouble sitting for 2 years, comes in for treatment. He is unhappy, not sleeping well, uncomfortable for most of the day. I treat the muscles of his legs and suggest he see a chiropractor, as his legs splay out. He comes back one week later, with a hopeful diagnosis, from the chiropractor. The chiropractor believes it will take a year for him to get better. But with each weekly massage session, this man changes profoundly. His discomfort lessons, his attitude changes, his posture improves, and he comes to the door a friendly upbeat human vs the grumbling man who first came to the door. There is light in his face.

Last June I left New York City for the Berkshires, for 12 days, for a 'leg' of the Somatic Education program that I am in. I was so looking forward to being in the country--to sitting in the sun on my friend Deborah and Davio's deck in between classes, to visiting local nature spots, and to enjoying the light streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows of the dance studios at Earthdance.

It rained almost every day.

 (forest illustration: painting by Heidi Smith:"Spring Runoff in Santa Barbara Forest", http://heidismithartist.com/)

I've been doing energywork for over twenty years ( I just thought back to my first class, and realized its been that long, wow.)  It's a part of every session I do and every class that I teach. But I don't always talk about it. Its simply part of how I work. Some people do not understand it, or are unsure that it exists. Even so, it is an important part of every session. When a client brings up the subject, it is always nice for me, to be able to talk openly about energy--discuss it, answer questions about it, etc. 

Just a quick thought here, on the connection between Authentic and Jung. I guess one  of the main reasons why it is so easy to jump to Jung when doing Authentic Movement, is that we do the movement in a dreamstate. Movement is usually done with eyes closed, and after a few minutes, if not immediately, most practitioners have moved into an altered state. The focus that is active in Authentic Movement, like the focus required in meditation, changes the physiology of the body, bringing one into this trance state.  So naturally, after moving, then writing or drawing, thoughts often go to symbols, to interpretation  of this movement time/this trance, as if looking at a dream.

Go to the Rubin. Museum that is, in Chelsea, here in the city. The exhibit on Carl Jung's Red Book is there for a bit longer, and it is special. For me,  the connection between Jung's work and Authentic Movement is imprinted yet again. In seeing the exhibit I am reminded of how related the two are, and am newly inspired to dive into moving/dancing, with Jung's drawings and work with the unconscious, in conscious mind.

Just to see that book, in the glass case, is worth the trip to the Museum. This large (1 and 1/2 by 2 feet?) leather bound book is nearly 100 years old, and full of what many say are the richest words and images in the history of psychology. It has been locked away in a vault in Switzerland by Jung's family, for decades, and was just unveiled, for the first time ever in public, at the Museum, this past Fall. I was there, and it was a momentous occasion.

This is a book Jung wrote, in 2 hour periods if I remember correctly, in the privacy of his office, during a period, when he was in crisis. Some would say he was going crazy. This is what his family was afraid of, and thus the lock and key. But what Jung was doing, brilliantly, was documenting his process. In large, colorfully illustrated drawings he shows us what he experienced in the journey into his shadow side/the unconscious/the underworld/the rabbit hole. The drawings are amazing. 

A new client, a dancer, just asked me today, "How is a Thai Massage different than a regular Massage?".  We talked about the differences, and the similarities, for awhile, and it strikes me as a totally relevant topic to blog on to you now. 

Thai is different in that it is a three dimensional massage. As you receive you are being moved, turned, and stretched. As the receiver you are feeling many of the ways your body can move. During a regular Swedish table massage you are still/passive as you receive the massage strokes, kneading, and pointwork. Both treatments leave you feeling relaxed and refreshed. The Thai also energizes you. Thai is especially good for the joints, as it mobilizes each one, getting the synovial fluids going. Table very thoroughly moves your lymph and your blood--this is especially good if you are achey before the massage. Of course, then there is that you are fully clothed during a Thai, whereas you are unclothed during a Table massage, covered by a sheet for your privacy.

A Thai massage is a cultural experience that goes back literally 2,000 years to its inventor, the Buddha's doctor.  Swedish Massage, like allopathic medicine, is a more modern field in Western culture, though it also has roots going way back in countries like India.