AppId is over the quota
I read a posting somewhere that made me think this would be a great discussion piece. The posting reminded me of something an Esthetician said, while fishing for information regarding my massage practice. She had done my facial during which I continuously "grounded myself" because I can usually tell when I am under someone's "microscope" and I can't always tell whether it's just curiosity. I can usually tell by the way the question comes out, whether there has been discussion and the questions are solely for verification purposes. Prior to her working on me, I had given her a massage and breathed deeply throughout, as is my custom. "Some people have this weird way of huffing and puffing and heavy breathing. I'm not sure what that's all about..." she wondered. I was a little surprised she had no idea about energy movement, since she is touching people's faces, etc. all day and had been doing so for years. This, I thought, would have been something learned along with anatomy and physiology.... Come on! I live in Los Angeles County, the land of the fit and "yogadelic"! The client who hasn't had any schooling in body work has an excuse, but I don't understand why someone who's sitting over someone's face etc. for much of the day wouldn't know about breathing, grounding, shielding and in essence, energy movement and it's importance. Then again, many massage therapists and body workers who have studied still don't know so I blame the schools....
Anyway, without bragging, I confess that I am a "deep breather." My resting heart rate is between 42 and 52, which is well below the average person in my age group. My heart rate, depending on anxiety level, will only be at about 72. Why? First, I am a former track and field athlete who has maintained a certain fitness level over the years. Years of training and exercising this awesome muscle, keeps most athletes under the general heart beat requirements. Secondly, I have practiced "meditative breathing" as a result of my acquired belief regarding the importance of self-care. Grounding and shielding has been necessary for my own health through various situations. This practice has also helped me become more attuned and sensitive to the needs of my own body and that of my clients. So, I breathe deeply in general, not because I am in session.
I consider myself a "natural intuitive" and as such, I am sometimes very conscious of the energy of others around me. This might cause my heart to start racing, depending on what "information" is being received. So, perfect time to breathe deeply, in all awareness, to address this internally. Every day, we face situations where we just feel weird, scared, hesitant, excited, mortified, challenged beyond our abilities, etc. We are "put on the spot" as I was in the case of the Esthetician above. The body's natural and amazing ability to go on "high alert" in these cases should never be undermined. However, sometimes it's inopportune. You can't, don't, won't, or shouldn't want to show fear, or that you are spooked, so you hold your breath?...or someone you know or sense doesn't like you, needs to touch you or perform a service on you, and you "hold your breath"... Same thing, except, I realize that holding my breath prevents me from accomplishing the "I'm not scared" look/response. Holding your breath also deprives your own body of the oxygen needed to carry out the general involuntary or voluntary options. Wouldn't it be cool if you were in the habit of slowing down your own heart rate by breathing deeply? This way, you appear calm, cool and collective.
In body work, this is extremely important. I don't know how many times I am massaging someone and have to remind them to breathe. Clients are in a very vulnerable position, every time they allow another person to touch them. Most generally, they are naked on a table with nothing but a sheet separating them from a stranger who's about to rub oils, maybe stones, etc. all over them. That requires a lot of trust, and sometimes the client is not yet comfortable with the therapist. Sometimes they are comfortable and this too is frightening. Sometimes the massage is awakening things in the client that propels them into an emotional place...maybe where some hurt or past deed is buried. It's a place that needs attention, but one he or she was not prepared to go to or address...not with a stranger while lying partially naked in a tiny room. So, they hold their breath, and every muscle in their body tense up and the fear of appearing stupid, rigid, or whatever else takes over and they clamour for control. A good therapist will know and understand not only what might be happening, but what to do to reassure the client...who now needs to be coached into breathing properly so as to regain the control they are clamouring for.
A professional therapist will take you on a journey, allow you to experience what you discover there, and resolve it however you wish. They'll bring you back and when they're done, you won't feel out of control. You may feel you have made a new friend. You may feel "wow" that was too much information, but I can't let him or her know that I feel this way....so breathe through it. They'll feel so happy to have explored or had this experience with someone they now feel they could trust and they might want to hug or say I love you on the way out. Yes, this has happened to me more than once. I have had people start crying, tears of sadness...it's been a while since they've been touched like someone cared that they were human...tears of joy...it's been a while since they've been touched and they are happy they've found me. These feelings are overwhelming and powerful. So I breathe through it and allow the feeling of love I provided in the session, to transfer to the person and they go away feeling that familial bond they've probably spent years without.
Breathing from the client's stand point accomplishes much, including providing needed oxygen to the body. Remember, your circulation is being stimulated, lymph is being manipulated, the parasympathetic brain is active, so breathing nourishes the process and propels things along. Breathing helps the exit of toxins, and excretions and is part of the reason we recommend that you drink plenty of water, maybe some hot herbal tea before and/or after your massage... and continue "breathing with purpose".
Breathing for the client is also meditative. Proper deep breathing serves to provide enough oxygen to the brain that the heart doesn't need to work as hard and the client gets to be in a relaxed state. The mind also slows down, the deeper you breathe. I have taught many of my clients how to shut the brain down by breathing. It's something I learned in school that affirmed my meditation. If you're lying there, unable to get to sleep, or to relax in your massage session, try to find a pleasant thought...one that takes you to a peaceful place mentally. Then inhale while counting to 3 or 4. Hold it briefly, then exhale slowly, making the exhalation last to the 6th or 8th count. With practice, you can extend this exercise, always extending the exhalation to double the count of the inhalation. This not only distracts the mind, but it gets you to focus on one task, while giving the brain enough oxygen. The heart then becomes slower, as there's less need for oxygen. You'll find that you become very relaxed and may even fall asleep, i.e. after the tingling from the constant flow of oxygen! Still, the client needs to breathe, especially if the therapist is going in deeply into a knot, or if they are working a ticklish area or an area requiring touch that you don't like to have touched. Just breathe into it and it will be over soon.
The therapist needs to breathe and "breathe properly". If you believe you are a conduit between the universal energy and the client, then you should be centered, grounded and available to be the best, purest, cleanest conduit for your purpose. Breathing is necessary to pass this through you with limited transference; which is when "things" stick to you. How many times have you, the therapist, massaged someone who came in with a headache and when they leave, you suddenly have a headache. What about someone who came in coughing and when they leave you're coughing. What about the client who has bad back acne and when they leave feeling awesome from your massage you're itching all over and have a zit on your face or back. This happens. What about massaging a pregnant woman and when she leaves, you are emotional and don't know why? For me, I can be loving and giggly and want to cuddle everyone, or I want to crawl into a corner and cry, or I want to sit on the ground somewhere quiet with a cup of herbal tea and meditate for 20 minutes, having all these emotions although I took care of my body while taking care of the clients'. Sometimes your client may be an "energy vampire" and you do feel empty, drained of your "self" afterwards. It's worst for you if you were not breathing properly throughout the session.
Transference happens especially when you are sharing space with another person so you don't have to be touching. Ever been in a room and someone walks in and the "energy" in the room suddenly changed? It happens most especially in massage therapy, but is not limited to your being touched. A therapist's hands can transfer the energy, good or bad from the client to self and back. The therapist, however, being in the "control position" needs to take care of self before, after and during the session to make sure that what's being shared/exchanged is healthy, regardless of the condition in which the client came. A huge part of this care has to do with "breathing properly". The deeper your breaths, the more oxygen your heart gets to pump and the faster the exit of energy flow to the universe. Whether your client hears you breathing or not is not important. You must be committed to these tasks, taking care of your own body, while taking care of theirs. Sometimes they will repeat the breath after you have taken yours, as this sound was a reminder that they were holding their breath. Don't be shy about "allowing for proper exit" of their toxins and energy from your person. You wouldn't run a marathon without breathing. You wouldn't run on the treadmill without breathing, or any other exercise. Body work is no different. Protect and procure your health by giving new life, clean life, positive energy to your muscles and do this while giving energy, clean, positive energy to the client on the table.
I had a client recently whom I realized was wondering why she could hear me breathing at intervals throughout the session. She started to "project negatively" and her body language and spirit said "stop breathing on me." I knew I wasn't "breathing on her" but had to keep breathing so I made mental note, checked myself, and kept on working. Manners are very important to me in general life, so I knew from her "vantage point" she couldn't feel my breath as it's usually directed to the heavens or towards the floor, NEVER, towards the client. I was working on her stomach, "flushing the kidney channel" and stirring the solar plexus and essentially a little energy work there. This is especially the place one needs to be breathing deeply. The stomach is the anchor of all the channels in the body and having therapeutically massaged everywhere else, guess where the bulk of the toxins and unwanted energy is stocked up waiting to exit? Yes, in the stomach, the solar plexus. This is why at the end of your massage, whether you ate before or not, you may need to go to the bathroom and eat shortly thereafter. I sometimes advise clients to stay close to a bathroom and drink at least 32 oz of water within half hour and to up their volume so as not to become dehydrated, in which case they'll get a headache. At any rate, doing energy work on the stomach, I stand to the side and in the beginning I breathe across the room. However, as I begin to sense the stronger flow between us, I direct my breath heavenward, or across the room away from both of us. The client can't really see this, as their eyes are closed mostly and they've probably never had this done in session so maybe a little freaked out about the energy movement and the sounds their stomach makes. Please be assured that I don't "breathe" on my clients on purpose.
Sometimes, while working on the neck and clients are supine, it's difficult to not get a little wind from our breaths. I then breathe to the side over my shoulder so it goes towards my back, but again, you don't know that. Don't assume, because you heard me breathe, that I am "breathing on you". Here's a thought. Your therapists are exposed to everything you have brought in to the session. Your colds, et al drainage, your yawns, your farts, your dirty feet, uncut nails, your problems, emotions, among other things I want to keep professionally private. If your therapist, albeit accidentally, blows a "huff" of breath in your face/direction while doing some hard work for you, that's a tiny thing, compared to the energy they have expended taking care of you at sometimes very little pay, especially if they work for a spa where the pay is less than $20 per hour before taxes,...then you either don't tip or put the tips on the card too, so that get's taxed along with everything...which is fine... I'm just saying you are being blessed, even with a little "breath" on you. Also notably, we have had to deal with your breath ever since we turned you over and must reserve our comments/reaction, not to mention the other involuntary "energies" that have exited throughout the process, which we haven't even reached once for the aromatherapy spray to attend to. We suffered in there with you like a professional, saying not one word. LOL
So then, if you hear me breathing deeply when I am massaging you, please know that I am a very clean vessel. I want to transfer only the cleanest, purest life force to you and I know I can only do this if I breathe properly, deeply. Breathing deeply also serves to keep me grounded and there are times during the massage that things happen to distract; whether it's the client talking, my checking in to make sure you are comfortable, your energy becoming intense or fading.... Whatever it is, I must be "present" at all times and committed to the process of giving you a blessing and possibly a healing in Christian/Universal love, so that when you leave, those loving feelings will resonate deeply. My intention is for you to feel rejuvenated to take on the world with the issues, that day and the next.
Whenever a client responds as this woman did, I know she doesn't understand (as do the majority of patrons) the importance of breathing properly, both as the subject of the massage and the one doing the work. I suggest that you be wary of the therapist who doesn't breathe during session and the one who talks with you the whole way through. You can tell, just like you can tell they are really "not connected" to you nor acknowledging your needs. Yet, not all body workers are that committed and not all body workers are "energy workers"....and not all energy workers are good therapists or wholesome ones. I start my sessions saying "if anything feels uncomfortable, please speak up and I'll fix it right away. Sometimes, what your body is asking for is more than you are prepared to handle and I need to know when it's too much so as to make the adjustment". Sometimes I will remind you to breathe. However, I basically am so committed to your therapy that I won't interject throughout, and need you to remember to alert me, nicely, when you don't like something.
Deep breathing sometimes is interpreted as a sigh, or that I'm tired, upset, frustrated, or some other thing. Rest assured that I am simply taking care of myself, as you should too. Sometimes I have had to explain this to a client who asks whether I am "OK" when they have heard me breathing deeply. Some, aware of this will even become offended that I am sensing and breathing out their toxins, virtually calling them toxic in a negative way. The human imagination is fascinating! It is true that I don't want your toxins and neither do you want mine, but I would rarely ever say that to someone I don't know who came in to get loving treatments. I have chosen this profession because I believe I am "strong enough" to take care of myself and you and give great positive things back to the cycle and flow of energy throughout the universe.
Hopefully, this has enlightened and helped you to understand why you might hear what sounds like a sigh, but isn't. Welcome the sound, knowing that a knowledgeable, skilled, grounded therapist is working hard for and with your body to make sure you are refreshed with great, clean, positive energy leading into a very "zen" week and beyond. Think of occasions in which you might need to increase your own oxygen in your daily routine, so as to slow down your heart, mind and reset your energy...and just breathe!
JL Campbell is a CAMTC Certified, Licensed, Therapeutic-Based Massage Therapist and Owner of Health Conscious Spa & Wellness, which will reopen shortly in Sherman Oak, CA. Current independent practice is "in/out," private, legal and professional, and as needed at a local spa. Please visit http://www.healthconsciousspa.com/ for massage and body scrub descriptions, hours of operation, travel requirements for out calls and pricing.
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