Thoughts : on the practice of Massage
- Mar 12, 2022
- 2 min read
1. Ancient wisdom clarified by modern science
As early as 3000 bc, the Chinese practised massage to cure ailments and improve general health. In the Iliad and the Odyssey the massage is indicated for warriors after battles. Massage as a daily health routine for Hindi, Massage as a craft in Thailand, Leaf « smacking » in Russia’s banya … Throughout history exemples of methodic passive mobilisation of the soft tissue are numerous. And using tools that stood the test of time is wisdom. Massage includes a variety of techniques that have shown to be efficient for a numerous of conditiond : it is a pressure-tested traditional practice by modern science.
2. A tool
Quality and length of sleep, breathing practice, shaking and oscillating, meditation, sauna-cold exposure – and more … should also be found in our « softening of the tissue » tool box… Each of these practice receive more and more attention these days and deserve their own article and will be discussed further in future article.
3. Ownership of oneself
I am an advocate and practitioner of movement in a broad sense. My dogma is that we have to take ownership of this atomical spaceship made out of star dust chemically bonded that is our body.
Ultimately life is a journey and there is no magic powder to go around the fact that one have to move things and one’s body around things to Be. What it means is sufficient training of the body and mind has to be achieved to unlock possibility in the potential to interact within one’s environment and surroundings with awareness and quality.
We have to thrive to be capable individuals, mentally and physically reliable within our communities. And as far as my own little experience of life goes, I have yet to see a wise person volontarily neglecting this aspect of life.
Movement. We owe this to our body. We owe this to those who die from not being able to do it anymore – illnesses, accident, etc.
It is why I find so powerful the idea of self dominance, a term coined by Ido Portal to name the must to be trained ability of an individual to be in control of his body -and mind- rather than the opposite, too often seen these days unfortunately.
4. Investment in health ; exponential return
Getting massaged is rewarding. An investment in health. The ability to slow down, stop and relax, Be in the ever present here and now is totally overlook in this busy day and age. Bombarded by daily information we get the overloaded mind underloaded body syndrom.
And the inability to rest and recover takes its tol. Studies are unraveling the link between lack of rest and modern chronic disease epidemy (read « why we sleep » by Matthew Walker).
I work to be competent in my domain as a Sport coach and a Manual Therapist.
A well rounded approach to Passive & Active mobilisation of the body, this is what I pray and act for myself and the people that come to see me.
See you soon then,
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