Bodywork, well-being, and high performance are linked and obvious. Why define it? Defend it?
Before massage and bodywork were part of my life when I saw massage listed as a method of healing, I shrank from it, avoiding it while admiring other methods. But my own experience has demonstrated that expert conscious touch has been integral to my living a change, embodying a change, getting change on its feet through the ease and body-felt confidence I experienced.
So why the adverse reaction to the word?
In an earlier life I was a 7th & 8th grade teacher. Teachers are also undervalued in our culture for their contribution to a student’s quality of life.
The common notion of massage in our consumer culture doesn’t do it justice either. It seems inconsequential, a feel-good frill, a form of personal hygiene or maintenance – like getting a haircut or a manicure. It isn’t even regarded as necessary upkeep of our physical vehicle which we drive relentlessly every day. I want to defend conscious, intelligent, compassionate touch as crucial and indispensable to the human body & soul as are words of wisdom, as clear thinking and communication, as good meetings about problem solving and even as integral to our well-being as the practices of good nutrition, movement and meditation.
Body held tension and pain originates from thought and emotion held tension… with conscious touch you can let go of the held, limiting energy of your discomfort. Live more freely, lightly, comfortably in your body, your mind, your heart, your relationships, your job, your life.
gabrielle laden healing arts 
Use your voice! It is strong and beautiful and works wonders!! Suzan
Thank you. I appreciate and encourage the possibility that this blog will be a chorus of voices – a discussion forum on various healing topics. Your thoughts are welcome here. May understanding grow…Gabrielle
It is good, Gabrielle. Receiving healing intentional touch because of its potential to affect all levels of our being should be a weekly or bi-monthly event. And why is it that healing touch is so hard to do and or receive from our partners? Is it because each is so worn out from everyday living even when loving the work we are doing? Or is it from hearing the traumas large and small that clients or partners share? Karen Kiener and I were discussing similar things this morning and she said that when she worked at Central Wisconsin with DDMR residents, she had to learn to deal with those who were tactilely defensive. What if that is what is going on in that people are tactilely defensive on one or more levels of their beings- physical, mental, emotional and spiritual and cannot receive all the benefits of massage? Perhaps everyone these days is suffering from vicarious PTSD with the constant bombardment of devastating news and crazy politics. Just some thoughts to ponder….more to come…
Thank you. Your eloquent comment rings bells. Especially at this time of re-occurring “distance”. We need to stay “in touch.”