Tension and Relaxation
In Rhythmical
Massage
Often we think of massage in a limited way, as an antidote to tension, or an aid to relaxation, as if mere muscular release was the goal and object of massage therapy. Muscular injury resulting in spasm is indeed a condition that Rhythmical Massage can treat, but it is far from an end-all and be-all. In our bodies as well as our minds, tension and relaxation can also be expressed as stillness and movement, or holding and release, and it is the subtle interplay of these modes that truly reflects the state of the body. It tells us about the musical, rhythmical play of the body’s processes. It tells us if the person feels “just right” or not. A piano string that is wound too tight or too loose will not produce a proper note. Also, strings come in different lengths and diameters, and each member of an octave must be tensed to its appropriate degree, or the struck chord will not be musical. In a similar way, tension and relaxation live in different levels of the body in our muscles, mind and feelings.
Feeling “out of tune” is certainly an apt metaphor for illness, yet it barely touches the jagged suffering of severe illness or injury, when it seems that not a single piece of the orchestra is in harmony with another. In the body as in the world around us, we may feel a spot of tension that is actually a lack of flow or movement, a tightly entrapped stillness. What seems like relaxation can actually be stagnation, a state in which the parts are too loose, barely contained within the whole. Then the massage therapist momentarily becomes the conductor, first inviting each “instrument” (body, mind, feelings) to its proper pitch – the ideal balance between tension and relaxation – before coordinating all of the parts to the whole.
The basic touch of Rhythmical Massage is spontaneous, belonging to the moment. The content of the encounter between therapist and patient is new each time. The therapist must very carefully hold his or her own balance of tension and relaxation, in order to apply a treatment that works very deeply on both of them. That task is part of the inner developmental activity of the therapist, which is ongoing.
When receiving massage, the patient can physically experience the release of a muscle spasm, or conversely, the increase of muscle tone. Mentally, related thoughts may pour out in rapid succession, or one may be unable to connect even one thought to another; or one may have a strong emotional release, expressed in grief or laughter, of the depth and individuality more often associated with deep meditation or profound psychotherapy. We can see a letting-go in the exhalation of laughter, and a tightening-up in the inhalation of a sob. These musical, rhythmical, holding and releasing processes in the body represent a kind of breathing on many subtle levels of body, mind and feelings.
The way we breathe air in and out is one of most overlooked indicators of health. It is also a vehicle for healing in itself. We are intuitively in touch with message of breath. Our whole being partakes of the very lightness of breath when love overcomes us, or a scene of natural beauty draws us to stillness. At these times our breath regulates itself. It is not too tight or too loose, and our soul is not too tight or too loose. In therapy we consciously strive to assist the soul and spirit to come into a right relationship to the physical and life body as they do when we experience beauty, wonder and love. When we see the blush of health on the cheek of a pregnant mother or a young person in love, we can sense that the soul and spirit of the person loves being immersed in the body. It is as if the soul and spirit dances with the body, gladly.
Rhythmical Massage is a means of binding or releasing the emotions and spirit where they weave or dance with the muscles, organs, bones, and blood. This is a kind of breathing process too. Sometimes the therapeutic goal is to facilitate physical tension, as in the enlivening of a flaccid muscle, or the stimulation of a sluggish organ, or the stirring and awakening of a soul that has become heavy or fixed. Sometimes one wishes to help the soul and spirit be released for a time, to return home to the stars for some rest and renewal, that is, to sleep. Or perhaps one simply loosens tight muscles, so that the breathing deepens, the soul is eased and the mind remains quietly present and aware.
There is an interesting exercise that anyone can use to develop his or her sensitivity to perceiving the state of this interplay. Practice noticing conditions of tension and relaxation in all the levels discussed (body, mind, feelings) in oneself and in others.
What is being asked of the “momentary conductor” in order to invite the dynamic balance that restores well being and good relationship of body, mind and feelings to one another?
When you have become used to sensing these things, you will know that there can be much more than the sense of touch involved when a therapist places a hand on a patient, or when any one of us touches another. The ideal balance, in therapy and all of life, has the quality of music, a flow that is neither too held back nor too unchecked, as infinite and varied as the rhythms of our breath, and as filled with the light of the spirit.