There are many ways to experience and to explore one‘s own spiritual nature and develop a connection with the Divine. But how can we make others experience a glimpse of it as well? When we come to the point where we have had certain experiences and reached some understanding of ourselves. When we have seen and felt a higher Truth, Joy and Beauty. Not everyone is willing to practice or recognizes the value and depth of spiritual practices like Yoga, Meditation, Prayer or Rituals. How can we share the effects we perceive with others? There are many ways for personal practice, but only a few ways to enable it to others. And one of the most powerful ways I have found are specific types of Massage and Bodywork.
It can remove blockages very effectively.
It can open and heal the chakras, with all its functions — from root to head and beyond.
It can let you experience the connection of body and mind.
It can trigger mystical divine experiences beyond your imagination.
It can activate bliss.
Since I started the journey of really exploring spiritual practices, I had many beautiful and deep experiences. Sometimes almost too intense to handle or express in words. But some of the most powerful and precious ones were happening during massages.
It teached me about our energy bodies and centers, and how they can be worked with. It made me understand better how Yoga, asanas and meditation work. It even let me understand homeopathy better, and how things manifest between body and mind. All those practices are very much related.
The Power of Massage
Massage and Bodywork can heal and transform you on all levels of the being. It can activate energy centers like the 7 main chakras. Your third eye can be opened, making you able to experience visions or extensifying your perception. Your internal power and connection to a higher source and state of being can be activated. Your heart centered can be opened and nourished, realizing and remembering the universal love we are made of and destined to experience. This is the power of massage.
Massage can and very often will trigger and release stored up trauma in the body, which can lead to emotional releases and removing of blockages. Or it can heal or let something blossom in a very peaceful way. It can sublimate the energy and activate the whole body, putting the being into a whole new state of experience. It triggers bliss and beauty and can open the heart and ability for deeper experiences on all levels. It can dearmour parts of the body and within us that are tensed up or numbed out and put back into life and able for harmonious experiences again.
Giving and Receiving Massages
Even mainstream science knows the value and importance of touch and how it affects our hormonal system and wellbeing. It can loosen our fascia, muscles and tendons, and improve our bloodflow, which then result in a higher wellbeing. But working with the body can go much deeper to what most people are aware of.
Receiving massage can improve not only your wellbeing and functions of the body. It can also improve and support spiritual practices like yoga s nd meditation. Sometimes even replace it.
Giving a massage lets you learn a lot, not only about the other, but also about yourself. You learn hands-on how energy works, how emotion gets stored in the body, how chakras function, and so on. It is a big service to the other. To hold space and give something beautiful that can only be received and experienced through another person.
Giving massages even without having a university degree in physical therapy still can have all the great benefits like a regular massage. Sometimes even more, as you already know each other. There can be trust on a different level, and you know already a few things the other likes or does not like so much.
Generally I found it to be most efficient to get and receive a massage by someone who has a similar body type as you. If you want to work on all the layers of the being, an felt-sense understanding about the person you are giving a massage to, should be there. A very thin person for example, might not be able to tune into the needs of the body of a heavier person. And the other way around as well. A very heavy person might not be tuned to the sensitivity of a more leaner person. Actually I found body compatibality to be way more important and effective than anything else. Many times I had been surprised about a massage given by someone I expected not too much beforehand. Similar body types simply seem to understand the needs of the other better. Of course an attitude of selfless service and devotion should be there and always expected. So much for the beginners. It changes with more practice and experience, and you will be able to tune into other bodies easier as well.
Different Massage Styles
There are many styles of massage, and all are beautiful and important. But especially effective are those who incorporate a devotional approach and metaphysical knowledge.
When we incorporate the knowledge of the Chakras and Energy — points, lines and centers — magic can happen.
Even many practitioners dont know that their techniques actually come from similar roots like Yoga or other energetical sciences. The famous Thai Massage is one of them. Originally it started from supporting the proper flow within the energy lines of the body. The practice was strictly reserved for members of the royal family, and was done by specific doctors with priest or saint like status. Today many varieties of Thai Massage exist with many therapists developing their own styles. Not always with an energetical approach in mind.
Similar to that, but much more faceted are the indian styles of massage and bodywork. Mostly coming from Ayurveda or Siddha Medicine and Science. A treatment takes the whole cosmos and the specific constitution of a being into consideration. It can reach from just rinsing oil to the body without touch, regular oil massage, up to just focusing on energy points (Marmas) and incorporating them into prayer-like rituals. All depending on the constitution and need of each specific person.
Some styles do not even touch the body and purely focus on subtle energy. Reiki and pranic healing being probably the most famous ones. Even prayer or distant healing can be put into this category as well. Really powerful it gets when you combine all those practices together – the physical body with all its aspects, and the energy body, with all its levels and subtleties.
The Wisdom of the East
Especially eastern traditions know very well how the mind and body is connected. Traumas and impurities can get stored up in the body and manifest all kinds of illnesses and problems. Therefore working on the body affects the mind — and working on the mind affects the body. This is no secret, and everyone has had experiences that clearly showed it. How sicknesses disappear when we are on holidays or change something in our lives. How our psychological state gets affected when we fixed something within our physical body. The feeling in our stomach when we are in fear or in love. And how this in turn affects our experience, abilities and even our health more to the positive or more to the negative.
This shows that there is much more that plays into the effectiveness of massage and bodywork than just tendons and blood flow.
Final Words
Anyone can feel the difference when he received a massage from someone who cares and from someone who doesn’t.
It is very important to choose a practicioner who is devoted to his practice and ideally to something beyond himself and to you as the receiver as well. Someone who sees the value and importance in his practice, and sees and respects the nature of each individual.
It is a divine practice. To touch anothers body in a deeper way requires personal discipline and a reverance, as it can affect the whole being. It is the temple and vehicle of God — our own Real Self. The vehicle to reach back to it, to where we came from. So it should be treated as such.
