In Eastern forms of bodywork, there can be a type of right-brained wholeness that pervades the whole view of health and disease. Meridian pathways or channels of energy flow through the body like rivers carrying nutrients to organ body systems just like rivers carry food and water. In the Western European world, it goes without saying that we are good at dissecting the whole into various parts. Both Trigger points from the West and Acupressure points from the East are manually stimulated in massage in a similar fashion, but the Western systems tends to lack a truly holistic view of body, mind and spirit. I for one like to combine the wisdom of East and West.
Nothing beats the precision of Western anatomy and physiology. Yet it's difficult for me to deny the feeling of chi in my hands or the feeling of pulsating chi in other people. Take the example of treating a local area of the body, such as the low back, treating the problem where the pain is, pressing trigger points and releasing them, or releasing specific muscles such as the quadratus lumborum, the hamstrings, the "glutes" and the erector spinae. All of this is great but if you study the Thai Sen lines, which are acupressure meridian lines, that pass through the low back but also travel up into the head and neck, then from this point of view relieving the low back pain may involve treating the head and neck, which might seem illogical or unrelated from a left-brain view of bodywork.
The proof is always in the pudding. I believe that many bodyworkers have probably had the experience, like I have, that working the Whole, as in doing a whole body massage, while also addressing the local specific point of dysfunction, such as frozen shoulder for example, is more effective than only working the local area. Just working where the problem is locally doesn't necessarily solve the problem. In my case, I might work on the associated muscles relevant to frozen shoulder, then address the Thai meridian lines, giving Acupressure to the whole body rather than to just to one isolated part.
Bodyworkers differ in their approach. Some are simply better at or more comfortable with a Western European mindset approach to their work. This particular therapist excels at working with the forms of bodywork that acknowledge the existence of chi and the presence of the Whole, while utilizing the specificity of Western anatomy and physiology, and even Western techniques like Trigger point therapy and Orthopedic massage, to guide his work.
Nothing beats the precision of Western anatomy and physiology. Yet it's difficult for me to deny the feeling of chi in my hands or the feeling of pulsating chi in other people. Take the example of treating a local area of the body, such as the low back, treating the problem where the pain is, pressing trigger points and releasing them, or releasing specific muscles such as the quadratus lumborum, the hamstrings, the "glutes" and the erector spinae. All of this is great but if you study the Thai Sen lines, which are acupressure meridian lines, that pass through the low back but also travel up into the head and neck, then from this point of view relieving the low back pain may involve treating the head and neck, which might seem illogical or unrelated from a left-brain view of bodywork.
The proof is always in the pudding. I believe that many bodyworkers have probably had the experience, like I have, that working the Whole, as in doing a whole body massage, while also addressing the local specific point of dysfunction, such as frozen shoulder for example, is more effective than only working the local area. Just working where the problem is locally doesn't necessarily solve the problem. In my case, I might work on the associated muscles relevant to frozen shoulder, then address the Thai meridian lines, giving Acupressure to the whole body rather than to just to one isolated part.
Bodyworkers differ in their approach. Some are simply better at or more comfortable with a Western European mindset approach to their work. This particular therapist excels at working with the forms of bodywork that acknowledge the existence of chi and the presence of the Whole, while utilizing the specificity of Western anatomy and physiology, and even Western techniques like Trigger point therapy and Orthopedic massage, to guide his work.
No comments:
Post a Comment