Posts Tagged ‘massage philosophy’
Massaging the Windows of Life: Where Your Muscles Meet Your Bones
When we do our strokes in Deep Massage, when we pause, particularly at the beginning or the end of a stroke, it creates a kind of “window”. These pauses naturally occur at the beginning and near the end of the muscle – at the origin and the insertion. As in most stories, beginnings and endings…
Read MoreMassage and Meditation: Sacred Science and Art
Bodywork is in some respects a sacred art form, like mandala painting. Sacred art forms are themselves pathways for self-growth, ultimately vehicles for enlightenment. In the Western world, sacred art was the predominant art style until and through the Renaissance. Dance throughout the world has been the Path of movement. I recall reading about an…
Read MoreMassage and Meditation: Touch Changes Everything
Next weekend I’ll be teaching “Massage and Meditation” a CE workshop which has become a holiday and new year’s tradition at our school. Whether we’ve been doing massage for just one year or twenty, we can always find ways to renew our appreciation for how profound, and sometimes how neglected, touches are in our lives.…
Read MoreMassage 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 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 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…
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