Every culture has its own tradition of healing touch. In Bali, the massage I recently received at the Ritz-Carlton Bali in Jimbaran Beach was an international hybrid – a blend of techniques borrowed from diverse cultures and performed in a uniquely Indonesian ritual.
Golf is a unique physical activity in that it is all “one way.” That is, right-handed golfers are constantly rotating from left to right, and vice versa for lefties. This puts strain in certain muscles, such as the obliques, which can pull the spine out of alignment. Every swing creates torque on the spine, as well as shifting the sacrum.
Here “it” comes — holiday stress. As families negotiate where to spend Thanksgiving, and millions of us are making the empty promise to ourselves to start early on holiday shopping, the anxiety begins to build. And it only gets crazier from here. Choir practice for the kids, family gatherings at every turn, office parties, treks to the mall, baking...you know where this is headed. So what can you do about it? You may not be able to control the chaos of the season, but there are some steps to make sure you survive it unscathed.
"The map is not the territory."
“If you let go a little you will have a little peace; if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace; if you let go completely you will have complete peace.”1
— Ajahn Chah
“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
— Genesis 1:2
Long before Therapeutic Touch became a popular adjunct to Western medicine, shamans of the ancient Americas were healing the sick with the laying on of hands. They used their hands to cleanse the body, to remove heavy energy and to restore physical and spiritual balance. They used chants, drumming and singing to align themselves and their patients with the energy spirits of earth and heaven.
I have hair that must be the best hair in the world, because nothing gets rid of it for more than a short time. I probably have tried every depilatory cream made... Most all have a foul smell and leave me with a painful rash that lasts for days. By the time the rash goes away, the hair is returning. Shaving gives me razor burns, irritates my skin and seems to make the hair grow back thicker and faster than ever. Plucking, waxing and electrolysis were, I’m sure, designed as some sort of medieval way to torture people. For me they have been expensive and painful.
The other day, one of my patients said to me, “Now that you have erased the wrinkles on my face, what are you going to do about these hands. They look as though they should belong to someone else, the person who used to have my face.”
We wash it day in and day out. We protect it from the sun’s harmful rays. We rub everything from baby oil to the most expensive potions on it. But are we forgetting one of the healthiest things we can do for our skin?
Skin brushing can sustain or reestablish the skin’s functional integrity and youthful glow. It aids in waste removal, helps slow the skin’s aging process, increases circulation, even improves digestion and alleviates muscular tension. As such, skin brushing is a particularly powerful therapy which can positively impact the entire body.
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