Our abdomen is our core, our energy center โ where vitality and depletion can exist, depending on how harmoniously we live with our vital organs on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. It is the one place where we have all lived at some point. We are all creatures of the abdomen โ the belly โ the core underworld โ the center of the universe โ the beginning of all creative human life force.
Most of us have lost the connection to ourselves from the waist down, many of us donโt even know where our vital organs are, nor have been taught how to take good care of them. Itโs actually not that hard. Just imagine that when your garbage bin gets full, you empty it and then once in a while you give it a good clean outโฆ The problem is that when itโs overflowing, things around it begin to get polluted and dirty, it begins to smell, get moldy and create an environment which breeds unwanted, smelly bacteria. Our vital organs are the same. We just need to understand how to be kind to them, how to clean them and how to give them a deep cleanse once in a while.
Our bodies are a complex labyrinth of memory and mystery, of ease and disease, of chemical alchemy and vibration. When we touch our own bodies, as well as those of others, we must come back always to this source of awareness โ that nothing is what it seems, that we should always be open to inquiry and to listen to what is being revealed, without judgment nor attachment to a particular result or outcome. The natural, perfect intelligence of our human existence shows us, time and time again, that while the geometry of our world is created with complex precision and perfection, there are no guarantees. This is the beautiful paradox of our natural world. That the only real healing happens when we surrender completely to a life-force which goes beyond all perceptions and conceptions that the human mind can create. Life is a mystery and our human bodies are simply a mirror of that journey. That journey into the unknown. If we can always stand in that space of humility, curiosity and surrender when we offer a hands-on treatment then we stand a good chance of facilitating the environment where change feels safe to take place.
Abdominal area, a place where breath and movement originate
The lower abdomen is the very center of the body, the place from which breath and movement originate. It is the structural center of gravity and the center for metabolic processes such as digestion, detoxification, and energy processing. In traditional Oriental Medicine and martial arts, this center called the โHaraโ in Japanese, or โTantienโ in Chinese, is believed to be the bodyโs center of energy, the powerhouse where vital energy originates.
The abdominal area, with the internal organs and the internal structures, holds the secrets of a person: things we hide from others and also from ourselves. The body holds all kinds of strategies for survival, for addressing conflict, for dealing with our personal history, for manifesting our personalities, for creating our tendencies, for processing (or not!) our emotions etc etc… Thus, the abdominal structure holds the secrets of the future, of a personโs life purpose. Any deviation from that purpose brings us into direct conflict with ourselves and causes illness. When we work on the structure of the navel area and are able to localize tension and obstructions, we are also putting people in touch with the direction of their lives. Abdominal work helps people to have the opportunity to reconcile internal conflicts that prevent self-realization, self-manifestation and from living from a deep, true place of full purpose and potential.
The main ingredient to abdominal massage is of course touch. But this touching has a wider meaning beyond the mechanical. Touching is communication, reaching for places that have been alienated from consciousness and reconnecting with them, reconciling them and eventually allowing them to be reintegrated. Abdominal massage is not intended to fix something that is wrong or to treat symptoms, but to provide a deep kind of listening that helps people get in touch with themselves. In order to do that we first place our hands on our own bodies.
Courses in abdominal massage are both designed to assist you in that journey of self-discovery and potentially stepping a little nearer towards healing certain aspects of yourself and your life, whether it be physically, emotionally or spiritually. In order to facilitate that process for someone else, we must first taste what it feels like to go there ourselves and commit to embark upon a journey of self-healing. We have gathered a selection of tools to share with you โ practical information to keep your minds alive, spiritual practices to enable a deeper level of awareness to emerge, releasing skills to facilitate emotional offset, movements and touch to allow your physical body to open and explore.