Nurturing Touch Is
* Powerful medicine
for our mental and emotional health
* Essential for babies
to thrive
* Reliable support for keeping a healthy immune system
Healing Touch Can
* Improve both chronic
and acute aspects of some common problems such as back pain and sports injuries
* Dissolve many of the
pains of the body and ease others of the mind.
Practitioners of massage who are experienced, caring, and aware can provide healing touch.
Recipients can often get relief from:
pinched
nerves
achy or twitchy muscles
headaches
circulation problems
many immune system disorders
Some Modalities:
Okazaki Shiatsu/Acupressure
Reiki Lymphatic
Circulation
Cranial-Sacral Oncology
Reflexology Rolfing
Feldenkrais Thai
Bowen Alexander
Swedish Deep-Tissue
Lomi Lomi Myofascial
Researchers have found that massage can improve almost anyone’s quality of life due to its consistent power to lower the stress hormone cortisol.
Healing touch has also been shown effective for:
eating disorders – hyperactivity – autism – carpal tunnel – arthritis – chronic fatigue syndrome – fibromyalgia – hypertension – quitting smoking – diabetes – PMS – PTSD
**
Bear in mind some basic principles of healing touch:
1.
Pressure applied to the body should be inversely proportional to the
speed of (and friction from) motion across the skin.
Corollary:
Pressure perpendicular to the body should be proportional to distance
from the bone, and thickness of muscle.
2. It is
very easy to give a massage too fast but it is almost impossible to give one
too slowly.
3. Be
aware of breath and use its gentle movement to nibble away at suitable aches
& pains. *
4. Avoid
small talk.
Both hugs and massage
can help provide your RDA of Vitamin T, human touch.
We live in a
society where many are starved for touch.
Yet sharing touch is almost as essential as food and water.
Many also equate touch with sex, especially if
they don’t share touch for any other reason.
You can do a lot of things without touching, but not sex. And our culture subconsciously tells us that
sex is shameful. So some of the angst
about sex poisons friendly touch. However, sex is not therapy. Sex is an energy exchange, while in therapy the energy and care comes from the therapist and is sent to the recipient.
But the
world of touch is far larger than just sex.
To begin with, it includes all parts of the body, not just the reproductive
or erotic bits. And it includes the rest of the planet.
Besides, sex is a good thing. It’s masochistic to think that something so
wonderful is actually evil or sinful.
The real sinners are those who deny healthy pleasures of whatever kind.
And real
wisdom is in understanding those pleasures which are healthy and which are not.
You are also capable of
learning and offering healing touch.
Cherish your body mind. Listen deeply to how your body responds to
gentle hugging and stroking. Study what sciences have explored and inferred
about our human realities.
Read the principles herein and try them out. Experience
the touch of several skilled bodyworkers and key modalities, so you have
something to calibrate to.
Experiment with self-massage on your body wherever
you can comfortably reach. Pay attention to how different manipulations feel.
Imitate what your massage therapist does that
feels really good or makes the pain go away.
Try lying on a tennis ball (on a soft carpet or futon) for those
hard-to-get-at places.
* Be aware of the boundary of the country of
pain and position yourself so your breath gently pushes you up against the pain
and pushes it away. When I am working on myself, I use one of several sizes of
dead tennis balls to apply pressure on strategic locations where my breathing
will induce the gentle deep pressure that relaxes knots. The I relax my body as
much as possible, other than breathing.
Practice on interested friends and family. Take some workshops. Respect the wishes of those who really aren’t
interested. Save your efforts for those
who like it.
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