We live in a society where we are recognised and rewarded for our function or what our bodies or minds do. Our education system, our working life and our relationships promote and encourage our doing-ness and ability to achieve. It is hardly surprising with all this emphasis on function, doing and outcomes that the bodies that we live in are rarely noticed until they cannot perform as we desire.
An increase in illness and disease
In our modern world we are experiencing an increase in illness and disease such as ischemic heart disease, lung cancer, stroke and diabetes.* Most people are living with exhaustion hidden by stimulants such as alcohol, caffeine, chocolate and sugar. In Australia over two thirds of the adult population is overweight or obese and one in four children are overweight or obese.**
If we are an advanced society, one could stop and wonder how it is that these problems persist. How, with all the advances in medicine and easy access to food and clean water, are we getting sicker? What is going on?
Those who come for a massage may be asking why;
am i tired, stressed, tense and anxious?
do I work so hard that my neck and back hurt?
can't I lift my arm above my head easily to peg clothes on the line?
is my abdomen so sore?
do I clench my teeth?
can't I have a deep sleep most nights?
And this is just physical.
We could start looking into other areas of our lives and wonder why we can we fight with our families and partners, and why work is so competitive and disharmonious? Or why we can experience issues in any part of our life? Could these issues correlate to the way our body is cared for?
We might have been raised to feel that the care of our physical bodies is not of that much importance. Taking care of our body might not rate highly on the list of ‘things to do’, if it rates at all. What if we compromise how we live and treat ourselves to fit in, to rebel, to check out or to succeed? What if we have adopted the belief that there is not enough time, we have to get things done on time?
The answer to all these questions might reside within our body.
Martha Graham a pioneer of modern dance, said ‘The body never lies’ and ‘Movement never lies.’ Ida Rolf said 'I know there is more than the human body but it is all I can touch.' More recently a man named Serge Benhayon said 'The body is the marker of truth.'
And they might be right. Perhaps the answer to our increasing ailments and worsening health crisis is within our bodies. So, how do we start to listen to our body? Let's start with clairsentience.
Clairsentience
We are aware of energy around us and passing through us all the time. We can not turn this awareness off but we can dull it down. This awareness has been called our sixth sense or clairsentience. An example of clairsentience could be when you walk in a room and you feel that something has just happened or when someone says something that is logical and makes sense but you feel it is a bit dodgy. You may not have proof, but you feel something about what they have just said is not true.
We have feelings all over and throughout our body and speak about them in everyday life. There can be ‘gut feelings’ or hearing news might make us ‘sick to our stomach’ or there might be something we might need to ‘get off our chest’. These anecdotes are threaded throughout our everyday language, they are not throwaway lines, there can be a physical truth and reality to these—if we bring our awareness to it and begin to notice it more. Physical sensations can go beyond emotions… Our clairsentience can highlight the energetic world around us. The constant interplay of vibration, through situations and our environment. This is an awesome skill to have.
Clairsentience is something that every one of us has though many of us have been taught to ignore it or to doubt it. We have learnt to not trust our own feelings and instead believe the thoughts in our heads or the words of others. What if we used this innate sense as our first sense and trusted what we feel instead of negating what we feel?
The United Nations report on lifestyle diseases report that 'despite the well known benefits of a healthy lifestyle, only a small proportion of adults follow such a routine; in fact, the numbers are declining.'***. Whatever is running our choices, thoughts and actions is definitely not listening to our physical body.
So, learning to trust in our claircentience may be one way to feel what is going on around us. The next step could be putting into practice body awareness. It can be bringing awareness to everyday activities, showering, cooking, walking or driving to work. It can be using those in-between moments to clock how the body feels and what it is communicating.
Massage is excellent at developing awareness of how your body is feeling. It can support with bringing awareness to what is working and what is not working.
Massage
Physical touch in the form of massage is a very important and it is a vital tool that supports and encourages re-connection to your body. It can bring awareness and eventually bring greater insight to wisdom of your body and who you truly are.
Receiving a massage is a sensitive experience as your body is feeling energy acutely. Not only can everything be felt within your own body, but also from the person massaging you. Every moment counts. The quality you are massaged in can be felt. The intentions, the quality of how the massage therapist lives, the integrity, the care and the space can all be felt. Confirming what you as the client are reading in each moment can affirm your sixth sense or clairsentience.
The value of touch
Through this touch you are receiving valuable feedback on whether your body is relaxed, tense, guarded, painful, hot, cold, bloated, congested, tight, stagnate, experiencing heart palpations, and if your breathing is rapid or shallow and your abdomen is gurgling, fluttery or constricted.
You receive information from all the parts of your body during a massage as well as their relationships to other parts of your body
Awareness and regular massage
Receiving regular massage is a marvellous opportunity to become aware of things that could go unnoticed. An opportunity to understand more about your body and to take this awareness into the rest of your life and feel how your choices and movements affect your health.
This a very loving thing to do and for many it is often the only time they relax in their busy lives. Additionally, you are developing accurate knowledge of your physical, mental and emotional states. As well as the therapeutic benefits of massage, gaining this extra knowledge can support us to set aside the space to receive regular massages.
The awareness gained from regular massage can help us reconnect to the wisdom and intelligence of our body that then guides us in our self care as we adjust the way we live to what allows us to flourish and shine. We then become a reflection to all around us.
Increase awareness = increase responsibility
This increased awareness then becomes a call for greater personal responsibility. This increased call to be responsible is often challenging and we can often resist it. It usually shows us that our body is not impulsing our choices, thoughts and actions but that there can be many external factors and forces that impact us and our day. Being connected to our bodies can support us to feel what is true for us, to tap into what is innately our truth, and where we most feel settled, so that we are less impacted by other forces. And massage is a great way to develop this connection.
To schedule a massage for yourself, click BOOK ONLINE or contact Kevin on 0408 694 655.
*Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories,1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
Lancet.2020; 396: 1204-1222. Link for full text.
**More than two thirds of Australians now overweight or obese. 2017-18 National Health Survey released by Australia Bureau of Statistics. Link for report.
***United Nations Chronicle report Lifestyle Diseases: An Economic Burden on the Health Services. Link for report.