Optimizing sensory awareness
This is one of the most common questions that arise when we present this still novel technique in Spain.
We will be answering it in a series of articles where we will go through the tools that this massage has: conscious touch, the hara, breathing … but this first article will be devoted to its main approach: optimizing sensory awareness.
The key differential starting point, which will distinguish how it is performed and how it is perceived, is the holistic vision with which we work, which is why this technique is defined as a type of “body work” rather than a “massage”.
What does this holistic view imply?
To attend to the awareness of all that we are: the energetic body, the emotional body, the physical body with all the systems that are part of it, the mental body, the spiritual body…
When we prepare to give a massage, we understand that in addition to a physical body lying on the massage table, there is a whole emotional experience that accompanies it, a more or less active mind, a more or less stressed nervous system and an energy field that surrounds it all.
The holistic vision implies touching with the knowledge that when we touch a person we touch all that he or she is.
It is thanks to this wide range of levels in which we move that we can benefit from this technique to treat contractures/blockages, relieve or reduce pain, accompany emotional processes, reduce stress…
As you can see, this massage works simultaneously from different fronts to become a truly holistic treatment. The importance of keeping body, mind, emotions and consciousness in harmony and balance is becoming more and more consolidated since most of the diseases begin in the emotional level -as confirmed every day by studies in the field of psychoneuroimmunology-.
Californian massage contributes to the expansion of consciousness using the language of the body.
We spend most of our time running away from feeling, occupying every moment so as not to connect with ourselves…eventually we become deaf to what is happening inside us. Through the Californian Massage, our rhythm is slowed down, we open this listening. Massage helps the person to readjust to him/herself through this contact with what is happening inside him/her. Without questions, without intellectual answers, but through experience, contact and presence. Because of its deep form of contact, it reaches the most essential part of the person, something that awakens a great sense of peace and well-being.
With this massage, the energy of each cell is modified by returning nourishment to those areas that have been closed by certain experiences that have generated tension -both physically, mentally and emotionally-, the first step towards disease. Once again the energy flows again in those spaces where it had been blocked.
During the Californian massage, the person is accompanied on a journey that allows him/her to understand him/herself on an organic level. The masseur provides confidence, contact, accompaniment and presence. He says to the person: “I am here. I accompany you to hell and I accompany you to return from there as well.”
I end this article with a few words from the director of Spazio Massage School of Californian Massage, which has more than 15 years of experience and offers the only training in Spain with Esalen Certification.
“It is a profound experience in which the masseur, through his gentle and respectful touch, through his presence and the accompaniment he provides, allows the person to explore parts of himself that he could not reach on his own. This form of deep contact modifies the person’s consciousness, promoting self-healing as well as a better perception of oneself.“Sujati Lacanna
Maria Lucas
Esalen Californian Massage Therapist and collaborator of the Spazio Massage School.
Contact Espacio Calithai Massages: 667.40.65.41 www.masajeterapia.net
Spazio Massages: www.masajecaliforniano.com