Have you ever had a massage that left you with a feeling like you just went to heaven for a while? If not, you did not get enough massages, or you never found the right therapist. What is it that makes a touch magical, what is the secret? Can one develop such a great touch?
Energy transforms, and if you think that this sounds esoteric, it is not. Did you ever see someone who is deeply in love? Did you notice that the person seems to glow, to radiate happy energy? Or did you ever meet someone who is deeply depressed and you felt like a dark cloud enveloped you suddenly?
We can get a lot more scientific about this matter. Can thoughts change things? Let’s talk about Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher and healer. He developed an amazing technique that demonstrates how thoughts change the shape of water crystals.
He demonstrated that if water is exposed to negative thoughts and subsequently frozen, the water crystals look ugly. However if the same water is exposed to positive and loving thoughts, the frozen water crystals look beautiful. He managed to change the crystal structure of an entire lake that way.
He also showed that other organic substances react to thoughts. He put cooked rice in two glass containers. Then he wrote “thank you” on a piece of paper and taped it on one jar, and he taped “you fool” on the other jar. After a few weeks the “thank you” rice still looked fine, but the “you fool” rice was black and rotten.
In other experiments he showed that when water is exposed to classical music, it will form beautiful frozen crystals, but when exposed to heavy metal music it forms ugly crystals. He took photographs off all the frozen water crystals and he documented the results very accurately.
Now let us translate that into our magical massage touch. Considering that the human body consists of more than fifty percent of water, it makes you think how the thoughts of massage therapists affect their work and their touch, and their clients. It is clear from Emoto’s work that energy in its various forms, like written or spoken words, thoughts or sounds like music, have a measurable effect on water, or rice, or the human body.
We can safely say that a magical touch is not so much a technique, but it is a way of using one’s energy, one’s thought and one’s intentions. There are also clearly documented experiments which show that plants instantly react to thoughts and intentions, so again we can conclude that the same holds true for all forms of life.
Developing a great touch takes place more in the mind than in the hands. And yes, it is a learnable skill. Often it first takes unlearning the idea that it is all about technique. Actually the mechanical technique of massage is the lowest level of healing. It is the level of a “massage mechanic”. True healing skills begin to develop once we combine the physical massage techniques with a deep understanding of breath, energy, intention, love and compassion.
There is a saying “Who you are shouts so loud that I cannot hear what you say”. Ultimately our clients will not be impressed by a stack of certificates and professional memberships. They will want to like us, trust us and feel comfortable around us. They will want to sense our loving, caring attitude, and they will want to experience some magical moments during their session. It is our job as therapists to grow from massage mechanics into healers.
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