David Lauterstein
Massage and Meditation: The Necessity of Beauty
Meditation and Massage allow us the “vacation” and “vocation” to be affected by and to affect the beauty which lies within each person. Here is a wonderful passage excerpted from Thomas Moore’s book, Care of the Soul. “Beauty assists the soul in its own peculiar ways of being. For example, beauty is arresting. For the…
Read MoreMassage & Meditation: The Evolution of Slowness
“Deliberation is born of joy.” Rumi The Evolution of Slowness Andrew Taylor Still, Osteopathy’s founder, said the body contains all the healing substances it needs. And indeed humans have within their nervous systems equally the antidote we need to the social epidemic of excess stress. The autonomic system embodies the advantage of a speedy, whole…
Read MoreMassage and the Joy of Standing!
Today we began a new class. Something my Co-Director, John Conway, said at the orientation introduced an idea that I had never quite as precisely verbalized. He was beginning to guide the new students in an exchange of shoulder massages. He was talking about what to do as we stood there, even before we put…
Read MoreMassage Therapy and the Cymbal Crash of Dis-ease
Last weekend I took an intense course in back pain taught to me by my lower back muscles and ligaments. I did kung fu on Saturday morning and, intoxicated by a renewed sense of power, later did a vigorous swim in Barton Springs. Came out of the water, then in the dressing room I leaned…
Read MoreMassage Philosophy: Loving Time
I was teaching a massage business class about office design, time management, policies, procedures, etc. We had just touched upon the elegant Buddhist concept that 60 percent of healing is environment. Some spaces you just walk into and immediately feel better; some you walk into and just feel the energy sucked out – like where…
Read MoreThe Deep Massage Book – It’s a Process!
Ten years ago Lippincott Publishers was interested in me doing a book on the method of Deep Massage I teach. However the further we got the more they wanted me to write case studies, tone down the poetic language, and make it more textbook-y. That’s not my spirit so I dropped that project. Then last…
Read MoreShe’s Motivated!
In a staff meeting at our Lauterstein-Conway Massage School, I recently noted a colleague promoting a course we had never offered. I said, “She’s smart.” Our Marketing Director, Jennifer Shaw, never being one to mince words, said, “Intelligence’s got nothing to do with it! She’s motivated!” I was delighted. She was right in so many…
Read MoreArt and Massage: Ode to Kung Fu and Massage
By David Lauterstein, 4/22/10 People make fun of massage And also of martial arts. Both do attract people in love with fantasy land. I have the fantasy I am a healer. I have the fantasy I am a warrior. Yet the desire to be a healer and warrior are two of the highest goals we…
Read MoreLauterstein-Conway Massage School: Earth Day
The biggest puzzle seems to be – here we are alive improbably on a planet teeming with nature, surrounded in our whole solar system and way beyond it with no other life forms. What did we do to deserve this? Each of us knows on some level that naturally we ought to bow down each…
Read MoreMired in the Truth: Beauty and Massage
Plato identified the three realms of virtue: goodness, truth and beauty. Massage has been, to some extent, lately mired in truth. So-called science-based or orthopedic approaches have been extremely popular. The “facts” are trotted out as the rationale for how we should approach client’s neuromuscular symptoms. But what people most respond to is quality of…
Read More