Hi Everyone,
How has your week been? Melbourne’s weather certainly is keeping us on our toes lately. Bucketing down rain last week, 34 degrees yesterday and 17 forecast for today. It’s quite a roller coaster ride, hey? I’m pleased it was reasonably nice weather over the weekend as we had a stall at the Tibetan Buddhist Spring Festival. It was so interesting!
I was there together with one of our practitioners, Kesang Wangmo. Kesang was born in Tibet and her family fled the country when she was a baby. She grew up in exile in India and attended a Catholic school. Later she learned more about both Hindu and Muslim religions and was fascinated observing and attempting to make sense of the various practices and beliefs. Her story reminds me of The Life of Pi. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie you’ll know that as a child Pi embraced all religions and couldn’t understand why he should only choose one. I personally believe “God” is too big to fit inside one religion but maybe that’s a discussion for another day.
Kesang explained to me that as a child she observed her parents spiritual practices each morning and evening. It was an important part of their lives but she was never forced to participate. Everyone, including children, were free to make their own decisions. They were also encouraged to question and test all teachings not to just blindly follow what they were told.
Like most Tibetans, Kesang learned therapeutic massage and meditation from an early age. This is simply to maintain and promote good health. Unlike Western medicine, Tibetan medicine doesn’t separate the body and mind. The purpose of traditional Tibetan medicine in general and Tibetan massage in particular, is to support the dynamic, interconnected flow of energy between the mind and the body.
Through massage, physical relaxation, removing distracting pain and creating emotional peace a person actually becomes more and more receptive to mind therapies. Mindfulness and meditation also become easier.
Recently I’ve been referring many of my clients for massage with great results. Although hypnotherapy and intuitive counselling can uncover and resolve lots of deep-seated emotional issues I’ve found that tension or trauma can sometimes stay locked in the muscles. It can simply become a habit to chronically hold tension in certain muscle groups. This can create postural changes and cause stress on joints. According to our Remedial Massage Therapist, Nicholas Kanaris, postural habits can also be learned from unconsciously copying parents or other significant people in our lives. As soon as he said that I stood straighter in case my daughter was looking!
Whatever the reason for holding tension in the muscles, massage is a fabulous way to remind the body that it can let go of that habitual tension. It then becomes easier to correct the posture and remove stress from the joints.
And just like changing a behavioural or mental habit, sometimes changing the habit of holding physical tension in a particular muscle, or changing a postural habit, can take time. Typically it takes 28 days to change a habit so we recommend a series of 4 or 5 weekly massages to release chronic tension in the body and maintain that change.
This then allows the energy between the mind and the body to flow freely. I’ve seen profound changes in people when they start to take massage seriously and incorporate it into their health care practices. These benefits apply to most types of massage including reflexology, remedial massage and relaxation massage.
Kesang’s Tibetan Peace Massage is like other hands-on full body massage techniques. It also incorporate Trigger Points, Energy and Sound Healing. Kesang takes herself into a state of meditation and creates a very scared space.
This technique is derived from the Tibetan science of rejuvenation. While it’s a hands on technique and will ease physical tension in the body, the main focus is to release negative energy and mental suffering. It’s based on the theory that when the body, energy and mind are in balance it will generate wellness.
The foundation on which Tibetan medicine theory is also built is the idea that the root cause of all diseases ultimately stems from the lack of awareness within the mind regarding right actions, diet, seasonal changes, behavioural habits, thought patterns and negative energies. You don’t get much more holistic than that.
Kesang gained her formal qualifications in Dharamsala, India and completed her training in Therapeutic Massage and 3rd Degree of Reiki Healing here in Australia. She teaches Mindfulness Meditation as well as practicing as a Massage Therapist and has a commitment to helping people find inner peace regardless of their culture or religion.
“I had a Tibetan Peace Massage this morning with Kesang and I have to say that it is the most enlightening experience of my life. Not only does her massage technique rejuvenate and energise the body but her spiritual lessons also energise the mind and soul. I am forever grateful for the compassion Kesang has shown to me and I look forward to being further enlightened by her in the future” – Bruce Williams
5 WEEK MINDFULNESS MEDITATION COURSE
Kesang’s Meditation Course is an introductory course on basic Buddhist meditation techniques for complete beginners. It doesn’t assume that those who come for this course know anything at all about meditation or about Buddhism. It also doesn’t assume that those who take this course are even interested in learning more about Buddhism. It simply assumes that those who come are interested in learning something about meditation and that Buddhist meditation has appealed to them and has brought them to the course. If you’re interested in joining the next course please let us know by reply email. Her next course will start in the New Year.
That’s all for now. Have a great week,
Warm Regards,
Alison Burton
Health and Happiness Guru
Simply Natural Therapies
41 Tunstall Square
East Doncaster
VIC 3109
03 9842 7033
info@simplynaturaltherapies.com.au
www.simplynaturaltherapies.com.au
