How Massage Works - Part 3.

This article concludes the three part series on "How Massage Works" by Gerry Pyves, the founder of No Hands Massage.

"Thanks to getting regular massage your body is beginning to remember the power of touch from when you were a baby and your life revolved around simple touch. You have established that primal connection with yourself – a connection that will reawaken every time you get on the Massage table.

All your sessions after this have the potential to be as significant as anything else you have ever experienced in your life. Providing you do not let that gap go longer than 2 weeks. Each time you receive a Massage you start the session where you left off. With all the knowledge and memory of every session etched into your
psyche and tissues. This is because the experiences are so profound that your body now has no problem remembering.

It is as thrilling and as exciting as meeting your lover, only without all the difficult bits! It is not the Massage therapist you are falling in love with – it is your connection to your wisdom that you are falling in love with. Something is blossoming within you – something that every single human being has. Your truth!

When you feel this you are scoring 100 units on the Massage scale! Only now, you are becoming so used to such powerful experiences it only feels like a one or two! It is rather like this: having accelerated to a thousand miles an hour you are travelling so fast there is no sense of acceleration at all!

When touch is transforming your life so much, it is not possible to increase it much more than this. Massage cannot have much more of an impact on your life than this - unless you begin to levitate, perhaps!

The transformation that you experience after every session confirms the wisdom of choosing such a deep and natural therapy as opposed to those quick fixes people rave about. You also notice that all of the niggling little health problems you used to have are disappearing. Actually they have just fallen away so naturally and so quietly you probably haven’t even realised it.

You now know that what works is actually oh so simple… The more you let go each session, the more benefits you feel in your whole life, not just your body. The more you release, the more you discover there is to release. You are like a traveller who has been carrying so many bags of tension and disease for so long that it just seemed normal to walk around with so many bags of luggage under your arms and on your shoulders.

Each time you have a Massage you let go of another bag and as it slides to the floor you say “Damn! I had no idea I had been carrying that one for so long….” And when you get off the table and walk around the room you feel lighter and younger than you ever believed possible. You begin to expect the miracles that touch can provide...touch has become as much a staple diet for you as your food, and all your friends are remarking how well you look and ask incredulously “what are you on?"

Remember, total health and well being probably requires TRANSFORMATION at every level of your being, physical, emotional, energetic, mental and spiritual. If you wish to change anything, it takes commitment and persistence.

Real and lasting change is only achieved GRADUALLY, OVER TIME, WITH SUPPORT AND THROUGH REPETITION.

This is the ancient 'cumulative principle' on which the touch therapy of Massage is based. Massage practitioners who promote this free book on their web sites understand and honour this principle. They probably have some favourable pricing structures that reward your commitment to this 'cumulative principle'. They also have a commitment and dedication to the simplicity of healing touch.

.........Uncomplicated. Persistent. Powerful...........

All you have to do is keep turning up, and doing the work of BREATHING, FEELING AND RELEASING. Your Massage therapist will do the rest.

An ancient healing formula: The cumulative principle."

How Massage Works - Part 2

Following on from my previous post here's an opportunity to learn more about how massage works, based on cumulative touch. Written by Gerry Pyves the founder of No Hands Massage

"If you were wise, you booked this second session for just 1 week after your first, so you could get all the touch benefits properly locked into your body before it 'forgets'. This time, you know the answers to all of the initial questions and you already feel more relaxed about this second visit.

Within 5 minutes of this second Massage session, you are already achieving a higher level of relaxation than you did at the end of your first session! Because only a week has passed, your body instantly remembers the level of relaxation you achieved last time and you now become much more open to the full power of touch.

If we give this second session a unit score, it would probably be much nearer 10 units. This might be comparable to spending aday in a health spa or walking on the hills for a day.

Then you come for your third session...

If you are wise, you have booked this session for just one week after your second… Why? Because this means that your body remembers the effects of your last 2 Massages much more easily and by now you are feeling the effects from your previous session even as you travel to your appointment!

You get on the table already releasing tension you have accumulated over the last week, out of your whole being and you are already looking forward to what is becoming the most important hour of your week. You are beginning to understand that even with the best practitioner, it is up to you to let go of tension and your body is ‘remembering’ something you knew as a child.

Touch and healing is natural and normal and you are wise enough to know exactly how to release any tension you have accumulated. At the end of this session you have experienced amazing depth of touch and in terms of units are probably scoring 20 or 30 units. That is like being away on holiday for a week and it is ten times the power of your first Massage!!!

When you get onto the Massage table for your fourth session (still booked for 1 week after your last session!), within 5 minutes you have reached the level of release and rebalance that you ended the last session with…and the touch just pours into your life and you now understand how to focus your mind during the Massage on the 3 golden rules of Massage: BREATHE, FEEL and RELEASE!

You do this like you have been doing this all your life...

You are already becoming a Massage expert...You know how to get the most out of your session...you focus your mind on your breath, on the touch and on letting go....It is like a meditation...a meditation of touch...it is the place of healing, the place of your own personal journey.

The cumulative effect of 4 weekly Massage sessions means that you are probably getting 40 - 50 units of value from this one session, just like going on holiday for 3 months – still in just one hour, still just for a few quid!"

How Massage Works - Part 1

In our current social climate geared towards quick fixes and instant gratification it's good to take a step back and realise that there's hardly ever such a thing. Unless you're talking about mending your broken glasses with some sticky tape.

I'd like to quote from Gerry Pyves - the founder of No Hands Massage, he says it so well!

"Massage is a natural therapy that works on the ancient 'cumulative principle'. This ancient healing principle has almost been forgotten in our modern age of 'quick fix' and instant gratification.

Yet Massage was being used thousands of years ago – in a time when there was a greater understanding of the natural rhythms of the world, the psyche and the human body.

Massage works because you literally accumulate touch. Touch is the missing link in health. There are libraries of research papers documenting the phenomenal power of touch to heal disease and illness as well as prevent innumerable conditions from ever developing. Of course they don’t earn drug companies any money so we don’t hear about them, do we? Only Massage therapists seem to take action on this research.

The loss of touch in our families and communities, in the workplace, in schools and would you believe, in our hospitals is a subject that has occupied this author for his whole life. Massage redresses this in the simplest and most direct way imaginable. It does it through this ancient principle of accumulation. What this means is that your first Massage session is probably your least effective! That is why the really deep power of Massage still remains a very well kept secret – even some Massage therapists have not yet discovered it!

You see, the real power of touch happens at a deeply subconscious level and this takes time and repetition to truly embed. Most people do not realise this and only go for an occasional Massage. The secret remains safe…

All ancient healing disciplines that have remained unpolluted by our very modern need for everything to happen in a rush work to this tried and tested formula:

HEALING = SLOW + REPETITION + SUPPORT

The human psyche is a profound and complex mechanism and does not respond well to ‘quick fixes’. Even the most profound and dramatic changes in our lives only have a permanent effect if reinforced by this formula. Healing is like a good marriage. It often takes time and persistent work to last beyond the first dramatic and exciting whirlwind of the romance and falling in love. The only real change is change that lasts.

Here is how Massage actually works for you as the client:

You come for your first session and you are a little apprehensive of the unknown. If you are wise, and follow the advice of this book, then once you find a therapist you feel safe with, you will book yourself a series of 10 Massages over a period of approximately 10-20 weeks. It works even better if you have managed to find a regular slot (not always possible) and a regular day. This regularity also helps your subconscious to programme you for the very best results.

At this first session, you probably ask yourself "Is this practitioner a good Massage therapist? Will I feel comfortable and safe? Will this person pry into my personal life? Will the practitioner respect my privacy? Will the practitioner be sensitive to my needs? Have I made the right decision coming for a Massage? Will they give me the Massage I want?"

During this, your first Massage session with a new practitioner, everything is new: the room, the decor, the smell, the oils, the system (where do I get changed? do I have to take all my clothes off? Where will they start? How will I know when they have finished?

It is not so easy to completely let go fully in this new setting because it is such a new experience. Your Body and Mind have no reference points, so they stay alert and in a learning mode and in a protective mode. This is natural and instinctual. During this session, these fears should be assuaged and your body will let go. But it is still only the first session. You are still just a Massage Baby! (If your fears are not assuaged, cancel all future sessions and look for another therapist!)

So how do you measure the effects of this first session? If it has been a good first session, then you have only experienced the smallest nibble of the hors d’oeuvres of the full menu that touch actually has to offer you!

If we could give the impact and effectiveness of Massage in unit values, let us say this first Massage scored a 2 or 3. Let us say that a single unit is like a great cup of coffee or glass of wine, or a blueberry muffin . . . .and the most powerful experience you have ever had in your life scores 100."

Next week you can find out what happens in session two ...... it just gets better!

How To Be A Good Client

Yes, you read it right – you, the client, has a responsibility to get the best out of your massage treatment.

One of the first things we learnt on the No Hands Massage Course was not how to be a good therapist. Instead it was how to be a good client. I love it when established methods of looking at something are turned upside down.

As a therapist how can I expect my clients to just breathe, relax and release if I don’t know how to do it myself? As a therapist I not only have to talk the talk but walk the walk.

So what does a client have to do?

3 rather difficult things:

FOCUS ON THE BREATH – notice the breathe entering and leaving the body

FEEL THE TOUCH – that’s easy right? Wrong! If you’re not focussing on the breath, you may be thinking about the row you had with your boss or the chores you need to finish later. You won’t be truly feeling the touch. You’re not in the present but mentally in the past or the future

RELEASE – through focussing on the breath, feeling the touch and staying in the present both muscular and mental tension will melt away.... as if by magic!

Like most things this takes practise. The more massage you have the easier it will be to switch into “good client” mode and reap the benefits of transforming touch.

Look Mum .... No Hands!

Well, I survived my No Hands Practitioners Course and then took a week off. Then I started a new part-time job which has been hectic…… hence the big delay in posting anything new here.

I could regale you with horror stories of 11 hour days, tears and aching muscles but instead I’ll cut to the chase. A friend of mine asked me what the main thing was I’d learnt on the course. I have to say the first thing that sprang to mind wasn’t about the amazing new massage strokes I’d learnt. It was somewhat more profound and I rather surprised myself with the answer I blurted out…… IT’S NOT WHAT YOU DO IT’S THE WAY THAT YOU DO IT!

Ever had a massage when you’ve sensed the therapist wasn’t in the room with you? Where you felt no connection with them? You could have been anyone lying on that couch. The therapist was thinking about what to cook for their dinner and mindlessly kneading away at your muscles. Now, their technique may have been spot on.…. however, something vital was missing from their treatment.

As Gerry Pyves [that’s him with me] said many times throughout the course – it’s not just a body you’re massaging it’s a life! A person’s body is in constant flux and how you feel at any given moment is an accumulation of what has gone before and what is still to come. What makes a good practitioner into an OUSTANDING practitioner is being present with the client for every moment of the massage. Give your client 100% of your focus and energy.

I’ll be writing a series of short articles about No Hands Massage in the forthcoming weeks. So for those of you wondering what this No Hands malarkey is all about .... all shall be revealed soon.

I'm taking the plunge!

After weeks of indecision I've decided to follow my heart, throw caution to the wind, take the plunge and book myself on the No Hands Massage Practitioners Course. It's a tough four days - with up to 11 hours of massage a day. It's not for the faint-hearted!

After completing the course I'll be a fully fledged No Hands practitioner. I'll be qualified to perform the flowing, powerful and transforming No Hands massage approach on the whole body.

I'm excited and also a bit nervous..... a bit like going to the dentist for root canal work. You know it's necessary and good for you but it's definitely going to hurt. Four days of massage boot camp and my thighs aren't going to know what's hit them.

No Hands Massage works very much on correct body alignment - both to save repetive strain injury for the therapist and also to give the client a wonderful gentle, yet powerful massage. All the momentum and power of the massage is driven from the core muscles in the trunk, hips and thighs. The flowing movements of the massage literally are a tai chi, yoga and legs, bums and tums class rolled into one. Who needs the gym?

I know for sure that my enthusiasm and committment to massage is going to increase exponentially to the fatigue I'll encounter during the course. Best of all, I'll have a whole new massage sequence to use on my clients.

Watch this space..........

Ever wondered how and why massage works?

In March this year I attended a wonderful massage course called No Hands Massage. It revolutionised my practise and Gerry Pyves, the founder of this approach, truly inspired me.

No Hands? Massage? Is that possible? I hear you thinking............ well it most certainly is! It's a revolutionary and transforming experience for both the therapist and the client.

Gerry Pyves has written a fantastic article on "How Massage Works" highlighting the benefits of regular massage.

So, if you've ever had a massage, really enjoyed it and wish you could have more but think twice about booking more............ then this article is for you.