March 8th 1998
"KEEPING YOUR SACRUM MORE SACRED" PART 3
It is very difficult to massage your own back and there are some places you will never reach. When we massage ourselves we can never fully relax.
If you want to give a back massage to somebody else to stimulate the breathing muscles of mostly the lower back it is best to work on a table. Start the massage with long soft strokes with both hands up the spine and along the arms. Then just take lots of time to explore the back with feedback from the client. Start with spotting the "strings" on either side of the spine from the lower back upwards on one side with the fingertips of the right hand. Find out how much pressure the client wants to take. The "strings" are a bunch of muscles all along the spine which can be numb or sometimes very sensitive. If they are numb they are usually surrounded by tissue armour. You have to add quite a lot of pressure to reach through this muscular armour and cause the tense "strings" to relax. It is usually felt as a big relief to be touched at exactly the right spots and it makes the client breathe into the lower back. If your fingers are not strong enough you can use the nuckles or elbows.
Go all the way up and down the spine on either side. Once you come to the shoulderblades you can look for the "ego point" which is a point on the inside of the shoulderblade where two muscles cross. Massaging and pressing the right point can cause feelings of electricity all along the arm. Spend some time on neck and shoulder muscles. You can work on the strings of the neck and then massage the neck and the shoulder muscles with the whole hand. Push with your fingertips into the shoulder muscle to soften it. It is good to stir things up with pressure and hard massage and then to distribute everything with soft connecting strokes.
In the end massage the whole spine all the way up with the fingertips with a firm rubbing and polishing movement. The spine can feel numb to start with but it will always get sensitive after a while. In the end hold the lower back at the sacrum with both hands for a few minutes and encourage the client to try and breathe into your hands. Afterwards give them a few minutes to relax.
There are a few ways you can learn to feel the lower back again if it is numbed and insensitive. One of them is to take a deep breath and hold it for the count of five. Then take a deep breath and start panting ten times before you breathe out again. Panting is a way of moving the breathing muscles inside the body and always using the same air. That will create a pressure on the lower back muscles and make them more sensitive. You will get dizzy so do not overdo it. Dogs use this kind of breathing and it is also used by pregnant mothers to ease the birth.
Now take a deep breath and imagine that you were in the threatening situation where someone might punch you in the belly or imagine that you are swimming really fast and swallowing so much water that you are afraid of drowning. Both times you would take a really deep breath automatically. Now try to hold this deep breath for a while before you let it out. You will soon feel the pressure on your lower back. All these exercises are just ways to make you feel the lower back. Once you feel it you will try to keep this feeling alive and take care not to loose it again.
Our next sequence of workshops will bring us to the ear.
"LISTENING TO THE WAVES" PART 1
Our ears have got the shape of a baby lying in the womb. This image is helpful for finding the acupuncture points for different parts of the body. When my sons were young I sometimes used to lie between them and rub their earlobes. That usually made them go to sleep very quickly.
Behind our ears there is usually a lot of tension. This place is also called the "psychic wing". It is the place where upgoing energy can still be stopped before it goes into the brain - a kind of a safety valve where the energy tends to get blocked. If someone is shouting at us from the back and we do not want to listen we block the energy there. Thus feelings of fear and guilt prevail in this area. You will often find fluid cushions which you might be able to dissolve by applying pressure to the painful swollen bits and keeping the pressure there for a while, and at the same time breathing and relaxing. If the bone feels sensitive to pressure then rub and polish the bone.
Blockages in the ear can go back to childhood. A strict parent or teacher ia quite often the reason for early hearing problems. Couples sometimes consist of a talker and a more quiet person. I once had to counsel a couple with problems. I realized that she was talking a lot and did not give him enough space to say something. She often kept talking for too long so he did not listen to her anymore. I could see it when his inner child started to withdraw.
I told them both about my observations. She tried very hard to talk less and give him space in between to say something. When the other person stops listening and we are not aware of it, our ego has taken us over. It takes some practice to find out when our inner child or the inner child of the other person is just about to disappear and make space to the obedient functioning "shell" of us.
Too loud music can damage our ears. Some people are forced to constantly listen to noise which they find disturbing. They will enentually find ways to block it out to the cost of their hearing.
The music we tend to like most is usually connected with some emotional background or memory from childhood. But there are of course sounds that are particularly healing. Bach's music is supposed to be good for meditation. Natural instruments are to be preferred.
It is a good thing to improvise on a piano without any notes or known melodies. More sensitivity is needed to improvise well with other people.
If someone finds it difficult to sing the right note they usually need to practise their sensitivity in different ways. They need to learn how to listen and tune into a different frequency.
You often find people now running around with head phones or mobile phones. There is a tendency to numb oneself and not take the full reality in with one's ears.
To listen to the inner intuitive or inspirational voice needs practice, trust and a lot of sensitivity.
Gem and Flower remedies for the ears are:
Scleranthus for emotional balance and making choices, Cerato to listen to the voice of intuition.
This list is to be continued next time.