Chapter 110
Well, I opened and read my article in last month’s HCN and chuckled – I certainly gave myself license to wax lyrical and ramble on a lot. I hope you found it entertaining too.
A couple of feet of snow or so later, gone in a flash of melt and magic, another kiss of summer and then back to snow piling up all around. I’m busy building new adventure pathways between synapses, bouncing from place to place around Calgary and Bragg. I find myself meditating on an array of unanticipated happenings and mystical moments. We never know what is around the corner. A walk along the river’s edge had me enjoying the rich scents of Autumn – the ripe, fruity flavours of berries bursting on bushes and trees, the smell of the leaves and shrubs as chlorophyll makes its exit and the steady progression of decay lend a sweetness to the evening air.
This to loosen limbs and stir the blood after spending an hour or two on the mat.
Having gently revamped my Thai Massage practice, the universe obligingly providing me with exactly the necessary in terms of people and time. I am enjoying the liberation of being back in my studio. Kneeling, squatting, sitting, standing on the mat, working magic with energy, body-weight, gravity, and a subtle array of wonderful secrets gleaned over the past 16 years’ of study and travel, finding the ebb and flow of movement in my body after a long hiatus heals both ways. The true beauty of Nuad BoRarn is appreciated when reaching back, drawing growth and knowledge through the generations of amazing teachers and inspirations around the world that have contributed to this unique form.
I realize that you may not have yet been blessed with a Thai Massage Treatment. This is something that your life is heading towards. It will come at the right time.
Why Thai? It’s fun, it’s close to being the best thing you can experience with your clothes on. On a cushioned mat on the floor, fully clothed… all you have to do is lie down, close your eyes, take a deep breath and let go of all that stuff that clutters your mind all the time, let go of muscles – they don’t have to exert any effort for the next 90 minutes, just chillax. Thai has been called Lazy Man’s Yoga, but more delightfully and coincidentally, not only in literature, but by recipients, as a beautiful dance. This is the sublime achievement – when rhythm, feel, pressure, posture, all flow seamlessly one to the other. Sometimes the body on the mat loses sensation of time and space, loses track of hands or feet or… what is she using to do that now? It’s such a luscious sensation of being rocked, stretched, occasionally twisted delightfully, then lowered, ever- so-gently with supreme care, back to a place of safety and soft relaxation.
Not only that, but in Thai Massage we have the freedom to address the body from any number of angles and techniques to open joints, free muscle tension, liberate blood flow, relieve headaches, untie those snow-shovelling knots, accelerate post-surgical healing and on and on…
I love the sweet, soft energy of my studio with Thai silks on the walls, aspen-slate altar, honey candles glowing in the corners. Every time I return to my practice, I revel in its utter simplicity and infinite complexity. Every other form of western bodywork is incorporated, some way, into Nuad BoRarn (Thai Massage). I have studied or sampled so many healing modalities & there are wonderful and profoundly therapeutic aspects everywhere. Most of the time I believe the efficacy and degree of enjoyment you have in such a treatment is largely determined by the simple exchange of energy between you and the ‘giver’.
Think about the moment you meet a new person. Your initial ‘gut reaction’ is your body’s energy reacting to the energy of the other person. If it rings true, you like, if it doesn’t – regardless of how fabulous the other person is, how much you respect who they are and what they do, how much you think you’d like to work with them – if you don’t get that like sensation, chances are, whatever you do together will not reach the heights you’d prefer it to.
On the other hand, that could all be codswallop.
We are watery beings, constantly in motion within ourselves, full of ebb and flow. It’s a bit daft to think we think and act and transmit emotions the same way all the time. It might not work today, but it may be the perfect and only solution tomorrow.
With gratitude and love,
Kat Dancer
bodymudra@gmail.com
www.kat-dancer.com
415.525.2630, ph/txt/wtsp
