Posts Tagged ‘bodywork’

What is bodywork? Who is the bodyworker?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

I was so delighted to read this next quote. It really resonates with my intentions and backs-up my belief.

“A point worth remembering here is that in this educational experience it is not the bodyworker who is “fixing” the client. The bodyworker is not attacking a localised problem with specialised tool, confident of achieving certain results. Instead, he or she is carefully generating a flow of sensory information to the mind of the client, information that is not being generated by the client’s own limited repertoire of movements – new information that the mind can use to fill in the gaps and missing links in its appraisal if the body’s tissues and physiological processes. It is then the mind of he client that does the “fixing” – the appropriate adjustment of posture, the more efficient and judicious distribution of fluids and gases, the fuller and more flexible relationship between neural and muscular responses.

The bodyworker is not an interventionist; he is a facilitator, a diplomatic intermediary between a physiological processes that have lost track of one another’s proper functions and goals, between a mind that has forgotten what is needs to know in order to exert harmonious control and a body politic which increasingly utilises disruptive demonstrations, terrorist tactics, and even the threat of all-out civil was to regain its governor’s attention. Touching hands are not like pharmaceuticals or scalpels. They are like flashlights in a darkened room. The medicine they administer is self awareness. And for many of our painful conditions, this is the aid that is most urgently needed.”

Deane JuhanJob’s Body (Introduction xxix)

Belly grumbling during massage

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Vagus nerveThere are 2 main systems in the body that we are concerned with when it comes to massage; the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

The sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response/stress response) is the system that helps us ‘keep going’ when we are under stress and the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response) is the one that helps us chill out. The Vagus nerve is responsible for the functions of the relaxation response.

The picture above shows the Vagus (meaning ‘wandering’) nerve starts in the brain and extends to all the main organs in the chest and abdomen. It is the only nerve that does this. By breathing deeply, we stimulate the many Vagus nerve endings which results in the switching on of our relaxation response.

Amongst other wonderful things, massage slows down our breathing resulting in the aforementioned: relaxation on, stress off.

So, we’re on the massage table, we’ve got a nice and relaxed stomach, colon and small intestine. Digestion is increased and our bellies start rumbling. It is therefor not uncommon to have escaping gas, from either end, during a massage. In fact, it’s a sure sign that we are nice and relaxed. Your massage practitioner won’t even expect you to stir from dreamland to excuse yourself.

As and aside, this is why massage is great of anyone with digestion challenges.

So next time you have a massage and you experience this, don’t be shy, it’s all part and parcel of our bodies amazing response to the good you are doing it by getting on the massage table.

All hail the Vagus nerve!