Perhaps the most serious energetic imbalance is the excessive, upward displacement of attention to the upper half of the body. In our culture the face and head get an exorbitant amount of focus.
We tend to identify ourselve…s with and by our facial appearance. Plus we have a culture that is almost insane in its distorted over-emphasis on mental education and mental work.
This creates a problem for everyone! The education and employment of the mind takes a front seat with emotions and body almost totally neglected. This has resulted in a culture of psychophysical illiteracy.
The lower half of the body gives us so much and asks for little in return. Taking us gracefully from one place to another; balancing our whole structure on the ground; providing feelings of strength as well as sensuality, reaffirming that we have an animal self as well as a human one – we share these beautiful, powerful legs with panthers, storks, frogs, and bears.
So often though, these parts of us are related to mechanically, if at all. Many of us ignore our legs unless they become a source of pain.
Yet, the legs and feet – precisely because of the roles they play in our lives and this upward energetic displacement – deserve a far higher level of attention and care.
So when you work with the legs, bring a heightened appreciation with your heart for all you do and are as legs. With compassion in your hands, and profound respect for their roles in our lives, the legs, through deep massage, can have a completely different experience.
Sometimes I work feelingfully with the face or hands but get mechanical when working on the legs. Has that happened to you?
From now on, let us work with a much heightened awareness of the critical necessity to achieve a new balance in life, by restoring the feeling of receiving care for and through the legs and the feet.
Then our every step becomes a coming home.
“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals…and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency…in every motion and joint of your body.”
–Walt Whitman
(illustration by Christy Krames, MA, from The Deep Massage Book p. 75) Order the book from http://www.redwingbooks.com/sku/DeeMasBoo
