During one and a half decades of practicing and teaching Thai Massage, I have learned quite a lot about the magic of touch. I know it is there, I have seen it, felt it and experienced it, and I don’t need any more proof other than my experience.
The magic of touch
Massage To Counteract Depression
What does massage have to do with depression? Massage seems to be about the farthest thing from depression which you can find. And that is exactly my point.
A sad and unnecessary story
Recently I got an email from a friend of mine. She told me that her doctor decided that she had a case of depression, and he put her on heavy anti-depressants. He told her she should keep taking them for several years!
She complained to me that the drugs had strong side effects. How come I am not surprised!
Now, I know this person well enough to know that she is not a seriously depressed person. She never had a big problem with depression until she was told that she had it. And now she is popping pills like candy. Quite a sad story, really.
Massage And Relationships
Massage for couples, friends and family
As a professional massage therapist I tend to write about subjects that fall into the “professional massage” category. But I am also a husband and a father and a friend.
In this article I want to take massage out of the professional context, namely the kind where you make an appointment with a therapist, go to their office, fill out the forms, and pay a fee.
How has the human touch become repressed?
One big reason why I became a massage therapist is because I always loved and enjoyed the human touch, both giving and receiving it. I am pretty sure that all humans love this touch, but unfortunately all too often it has become repressed by our cultures, religions, and social environments.
Abdominal Massage Magic
Abdominal Massage is a holistic system
Abdominal Massage is much more than just a localized application. Western massage therapy emphasizes benefits that are specific to this area, like working on the intestines. Eastern therapy however extends the benefits of abdominal massage to the entire body.
The body is a totally interconnected system. Whatever happens in one area, affects the whole.
This concept has been slowly squeezed to death by western medicine which increasingly specializes in smaller and smaller areas of the body and attempts to treat them individually and out of context.
Traditional eastern medicine is based on a much more holistic model that sees the body as a pulsating, vibrating, and interconnected system. This approach is also often used in western alternative health care.