Witness

So I have been talking about movement and my theories pertaining to it for a few weeks now. Today I want to get back to massage. I want to talk about what I believe is at the core of all healing that happens through massage.

Over the years of doing massage, I have witnessed many bodies. Literally thousands. Each body is unique to itself. Each body has its own likes and dislikes. Each body has its own particularities. Every body each holds tension in a way that is slightly different than all other bodies. If all snowflakes are unique expressions of frozen water imagine all the diversity within human bodies which themselves are majority water. Despite all the variance within everyone's body there seems to be a commonality, an etiquette in how bodies communicate with us.

Before any massage starts there is dialogue that needs to happen. I have to know what somebody is looking to get out of a massage. I have to know what someone is comfortable with and what they are not comfortable with. I need to know any health issues that someone may have. Without this information, I lack the ability to optimize the massage.

Sometime during this time, people will express they have no issues and only want to relax for a bit. Sometimes people will almost feel guilty that they don't have a grievance which is its own topic for another day, but most people will tell me what's currently bothering them. Sometimes their ailment comes with a story. They fell on a step, slept in a bad bed and so on. Often though they will tell me something hurts and have no idea why.

There always a reason though. Bodies just don’t hurt for no reason. They are trying to tell us something. They are letting us know that we are not treating them with the care they deserve and need. Now it's not my job to tell anyone what that reason may be. I have enough trouble trying to find the reason for my own aches and pains. As for anyone else's pain at most I will have a hunch or two. Even if I have a strong hunch, the most I feel comfortable doing is presenting questions to someone. Sometimes these questions resonate with people. Sometimes they lead to some better story of why someone has pain. And sometimes they are just wrong. But the truth is I simply don't know anyone day to day life well enough to cognate the reason for someone's pain. I don’t have to live with other people pain, and I feel it would be irresponsible and dangerous to pretend I know something to which I don't. To something that I simply cannot know.

What I do consider my job and the fullest expression of my work is to provide the space where someone body can tell its own story. To facilitate the communication that we can have with there bodies. All our bodies have patterns and grooves that are the physical results of all our various movement choices. We have places that are weak from underuse, places that are tight from overuse, and places that are rigidly locked in place from trauma and fear. Our bodies don't hide secrets. Once we are in a relaxed state our body will display to anyone paying close enough attention to how it moves through the world.

I feel the most beneficial thing I can do as a massage therapist is to use my professional knowledge to attune myself to these messages. Consciousness can be contagious. As more people become aware of an idea the easier it is to spread that ideas to other people. If someone notices a pattern within us it's easier for us to notice that same pattern. The more we have seen the easier it is for us to be seen. By witnessing someone pattern those patterns become easier for someone to see themselves.

Once this connection happens I have found people are able to form their own reasons for why they have pain. They can remember old injuries that are the foundations for damage inflicting patterns they reenact. They can discover newly acquired habits that are not working out physically for their bodies. They may learn of old patterns that are catching up with them. Whatever story they craft will reveal what they on some level already knew. It is this recognition that allows us to step out of our patterns and create newer hopefully more beneficial ones.

Anthony Bruni