How Massage Can Touch Bodies, Hearts And Minds

Come with me on a mind opening journey. It’s a story about heartfelt touching, about moving energy in everyday life and in massage therapy in a way that is more fulfilling and that will benefit both your happiness and your income. You might find it fascinating.

We are all born with a need to be physically touched.

This is quite obvious when you watch young children play or interact with their parents.

But very quickly most cultures train us to not touch each other. It might be a cultural taboo or even a religious injunction.

A touch experiment

A number of years ago a team of researchers conducted a ‘touch’ experiment. They traveled to several countries, and sat down in cafes or restaurants. Then they counted how often people touched each other.

The results varied widely according to country. Brazilians and Italians touched over a dozen times per hour, Americans only a couple of times per hour at best, and in England there was no touching at all.

If you break the touching rules of a culture, people will see you as strange or even threatening.

Unless you are in the company of good friends, family, or you are in a profession like massage therapy, touching is often not acceptable.

I know this very well since I live in Thailand where hand shakes, hugs and most forms of heartfelt touching are mostly taboo, even within the family.

Although there are some people who manage to break cultural rules with their enthusiasm and heartfelt sincerity, for the most part we have to live within the rules of our cultural environment in order to get along without friction.

Touching is not only physical

Now let us expand the definition of touching. Touching is not limited to physical touch.

You can touch someone’s heart by offering a sincere compliment or a kind word, by offering a helping hand, by listening patiently. You can consciously send loving energy from your heart to anyone you meet.

On a subtle level such messages are getting through. The really interesting fact is that when we touch others with our intentional positive or healing energy, this energy instantly returns back to us. It is like a boomerang effect.

A personal story

I am going to share something rather intimate with you. I am sure some people will think I have finally lost it. If that’s the case you are welcome to read some clinical studies about chemical changes in the body during massage therapy which can be measured in a test tube or under a microscope, or through double blind studies.

You won’t find those on this site, though. This is not my focus. The scientific results may be interesting and useful, but they cannot reveal the kind of energy which I am talking about here.

I live in Asia where energy based therapies have been accepted and practiced since thousands of years. For me this energy is real. I have seen it and felt it many times.

Besides practicing and teaching Thai Massage for 18 years, I have been studying and practicing yoga, Qigong and energy healing concepts my entire life.

Many years ago I had a dramatic experience when I was walking around in Oaxaca, Mexico. For some reason I felt drained and depressed, something which hardly ever happens to me.

This was a very unusual feeling for me, and so I decided to try something at least as unusual to change my sorry state of affairs.

I kept walking, but now I pictured in my mind that little hearts were floating on a stream of loving energy from my heart to the heart of everyone whom I passed on the street.

After sending out a few dozen hearts in this way, I noticed that my depression had lifted and my own spirit felt light and open again. I began to feel love in my heart and my mood totally changed.

Energy can be moved with our thoughts

I was truly amazed. What a simple, quick and effective way to turn my negative energy around within minutes by simply taking charge of the content and flow of my energy!

It worked a lot better than moping and complaining, getting drunk or taking other abusive substances, or spending lots of money on counseling or therapy. And the price was right – free.

We can make a habit of consciously touching people with our energy. In this way we don’t have to worry about cultural rules, and it helps us to keep our own energy level high.

You become a more loving person by touching others with your loving energy. What you give comes back to you. Just imagine that this energy is very real – because it is!

You cannot measure it or observe it under a microscope, but you can change how you feel, you can lift your spirit, improve your health, fill your heart with love and your mind with kindness by touching others with loving energy.

An easy technique for touching with energy

I know it might sound weird, but you can try this as an experiment.  Sit in a public place like a mall or a park and try to pick out a person who could use some good, calming, healing energy. You won’t have any trouble spotting lots of candidates.

Then visualize in your mind that you are giving this person a hug or put an arm around their shoulders. Or just send out a bubble with some loving, healing energy.

Try to really feel it. Imagine yourself really doing it. Of course you won’t be sure if there is any effect on the other person, but you will notice very quickly that there is an effect on you. You will feel calmer and more peaceful and more loving.

How does all this apply to learning massage therapy? This is where it gets really interesting.

Thailand is a country where most forms of touching are taboo. However in Thai Massage there are quite a few techniques which involve a lot of body contact between therapist and client.

Students who learn Thai Massage have to get used to this close contact. It requires a really clean and professional energy on the part of the therapist, and at the same time an open, loving and caring attitude and touch.

It’s an interesting combination and can be challenging for new students in the beginning.

The Asian concept of ‘energy anatomy’

Especially in the western world we have been indoctrinated that massage is something you do with your hands – you manipulate someone’s anatomy. However in Asia the concept is taken further.

• Instead of just manipulating someone’s physical shape, you also activate their subtle energy
• Instead of moving just bones and muscles, you are moving energy as well
• Instead of working just with your hands, you also work with your mind
• Instead of just relaxing someone’s muscles, you open up an internal energy flow.

If you are not used to this energy concept, how do you learn to feel it? It’s really not so difficult. Just try to apply some of the ideas that I outlined in this article and you start feeling energy and you will learn how to move it.

Advantages of using energy in massage therapy

As long as you massage only with your hands, you will mostly move and affect muscles and bones and tissue. When you learn to include energy, intuition, and feeling in your massage work, you will still move your client’s anatomy, but in addition you will move their energy and touch their hearts and minds along with their bodies.

Your clients will feel it and wonder what is so special about you. You will feel it because your work will be like a meditation. Your business will feel it because your massage practice will attract and keep more clients, and they will be happy to pay you.

By touching bodies, hearts and minds, you will be more fulfilled, happy, and driven by a sense of purpose. With every massage session you do, you will make the world a little better and a little happier place. You will feel that what you do really matters in the greater scheme of things.

Thai Healing Massage Academy offers a large selection of Thai Massage online study programs. The training is highly detailed, easy to follow and guaranteed to work.

If you are interested in learning how to greatly increase the effect of your massage by using energy techniques along with physical techniques, you can learn it in our MAGIC TOUCH SECRETS video training course.