In the quiet meditative moments with myself, I fall in love with myself with a true inner intimacy. In sitting, breathing and stretching into a posture..I stretch into my body, into my deepest being. I experience myself fully and feel fully alive, from a peaceful place within.
I practice a slower meditative yoga...the same way I have taught it too. To find and resonate with the still place within myself. We all have it. I have found that slowing down is where I meet spirit, the universe, or God. Each soul has different experience of the oneness of all.
When I first started teaching yoga I was told that my teachings were too advanced because people wanted to just 'do yoga' without slowing down, without diving deeper within, without unwinding the emotions, fears and dreams stored in body/mind.
How is that yoga I thought?
Yoga is union. The unity of mind, body, spirit. How can you have union when you are working to just do it? Unwinding the body is more than simply doing a stretch. It's about unwinding from the deepest place within yourself, and it takes being still to get there.
Yet...there is no one right way I have realized. Each person will gravitate towards whatever path their heart calls for.
I have found that slow meditative yoga gets me in the space to slowly feel into my body in a profound way. Sometimes I am feeling into my pain, my fear or doubts. Sometimes I am simply feeling into my joy and love. It is possible to commune with my muscles, tissue, cells in such a way that I can slowly expand myself through all of it. I can move into the moment and feel every ounce of it. I think of it as the soul of the moment.
In my 10+ years of being a massage therapist I have noticed how difficult it is for many to be still within themselves, because usually they are avoiding uncomfortable feelings within and usually aren't aware of it.
Awareness is the key to unlocking an inner portal of tremendous bliss.
During my yoga practice, many times, I have experienced that simply being present with the more difficult emotions can be powerful tools for transforming them. There is something magical about being with the pain or fear from a place of acceptance. It allows the moment to unfold organically. With a quiet stillness the more difficult emotions can actually be consciously stretched through and moved out. Or in others words, they can be processed and let go of.
And on the other side of that, is that bliss I just mentioned. When we aren’t resisting, we are open to an incredible flow of life force energy. That energy feels good.
When we slow down, we see more, we feel more and we can actually BE with ourselves more.
We spend so much time living outside of ourselves. So much time up in our heads and not in our bodies.
Yoga can teach us to traverse our inner landscape and teach us to be with ourselves from the inside out.
It can teach us to get out of our heads. Using our body to synch into our vibrant beings. This is the place where we meet our inner beauty and feel the shine of our soul.
Therapeutic Massage for CouplesIn the Massage and Yoga Sanctuary in Redding where I have a massage office, both men and women come into buy massages for their significant others. The intent of these gifts are wonderful. The significant others are always grateful. However, there are times in massage sessions where a client will say, “I wish my husband or wife could massage me the way you do“ . They say, “you have this way of connecting to my body that my partner does not“. Those comments illustrate what is often times missing between many couples- a deeper, loving, physical connection.
Because they want that level of connection with each other, many couples are requesting that I teach them how to massage each other. There is a deeper message that is being communicated to me from couples, not just male and females couples either, all variation of couples, gay or straight. Women tend to receive massage more, so for their men I teach them that one of the greatest gifts they can give their woman is the magic of being a man who gives touch and massage with the intent of having her feel good, all without wanting sex after wards. This intent can apply to any variation of couple. It’s simply genuine intent and open heart space that people wish to feel, whether they are consciously aware of it or not. This is why professional massage feels so good. Many of us massage therapists have trained ourselves with that level of intention and presence. I teach clients that giving your partner loving, therapeutic touch is much less expensive(and more fun) than buying “things” like an expensive dinner or flowers, especially if funds are limited.
Lately, stress levels for so many are higher than ever. For couples though, during high stress times, the physical, intimate connection is what often times gets neglected first. Luckily now in society it is becoming widely accepted that therapeutic massage and touch are ways to decrease stress levels. Loving, therapeutic touch can always be available between two people. The benefits of massage are infinite; physiological, emotional, and physical. In addition the boundless loving energy that can be exchanged between two people is amazing. Everything is linked. The mind/body are one, when you affect one area, you always affect the others. Here are just a few of the benefits of massage; A physiological benefit is that touch releases serotonin in the body, and serotonin is the “feel good” chemical. This connects right to the emotional benefit of touch, it feels good, it brings happiness. The physical benefit when the body is touched, is that muscles will relax, thus decreasing tightness. This decreases pain in the body. It’s always a cyclical effect.
Clients will say to me, "I can’t massage my partner because I don’t have strong hands or my partner just doesn’t know how to get to those tight spots." There are ways to train oneself so those problems do not affect the level of connection between a couple. The real goal is staying connected with the intent of love and presence, because energy goes where thoughts(intent) flows. You can have tiny hands and still give an excellent massage.
Like I mentioned above, nothing beats getting a high quality therapeutic massage. You get presence, experience, plus the breadth of knowledge of a professional massage therapist. All this, without having to give back. You lay on the massage table and drift off into dream land, trusting that the massage therapist will attune to you, your body and give you the love and focus you need. If you have a truly skilled massage therapist, then he or she will know the power of giving massage from an open heart. You can sense in anyone’s touch what their intent is. The warmth of their heart will flow through their hands.
Imagine that you and your partner have all those qualities. It is possible. This is where intent comes into play. In your mind’s eye imagine how wonderful it feels receiving loving, therapeutic touch from a trusted partner. You can still drift into dream land. Trust that your partner is giving to you because they want to make you feel good and you don’t have to give back. Then practice giving touch to them the same way.
There are many skills and techniques one can learn to give excellent therapeutic touch for helping each other de-stress and relax. First though it really comes down to heart space with the ebb and flow of giving and receiving. Like I said, energy flows where intent goes. If you want to make your partner feel good, then your partner will feel good. This open heart space coupled with communication are keys for navigating the art of giving and receiving.
Especially during stressful times, staying lovingly connected is one of the most important things we can do for each other. This loving connection replaces material things. Plus that abundant energy is returned to us in profound ways. Next time you are stressed, maybe just let that stress go. Focus with your partner on giving and receiving therapeutic touch. You might be surprised at how it can relax both of you.Please check out my website for more information!
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