“If one works well in a potato field, potatoes will grow. That’s reality. The rest is smoke.”
–Danilo Dolci
Yesterday I received a very good massage. Afterwards, I felt smoothed out, muscles more relaxed and my nervous system was decidedly more parasympathetic dominant.
Yet I still didn’t feel deeply affected. It was like she’d massaged my skin and muscles, yet a whole deeper layer was untouched.
I wouldn’t have wanted her to press harder, that would have just hurt.
So to have gotten a deeper result, what could she have done?
Basically two related things.
She could have done more stretches of some sort. Stretches, tractions, and more complex movements result in relaxation happening more on the level of the skeletal system. If you want deep, you need ultimately to affect bones and their connections.
She could have paused more often, during and between her strokes. This would have allowed the time needed for my nervous system to let go, for the effects of the work to sink into the whole bodymind.
Therapists think relaxation is up to them and their strokes. That would be like a farmer assuming continuous tilling of the soil is the key to growing crops.
You have to let the crops grow!
To have a good harvest, to have a deep result in your cultivations, you have to have a good knowledge and faith in nature. As a therapist, have faith in your client and give them the gift of time in which peace of mind, body and spirit can grow.
Then the client walks away with something that is theirs, that is new, and that has, like a fruit from the earth, just come to life