Hmmmmmm........? - 20 Massages in 2 Months, Massage #14

As this marathon progresses, I struggle to keep pace with my experience.

I received Massage #14 from Richard Oliver.  Based on events in this massage I predict that more changes are ahead, physically and otherwise. 

Lately, my legs have been doing strange things.  It’s uncomfortable to have any pressure applied to them, like the chair on the back of my legs when sitting!  They don’t look swollen but they feel it.  When I drag a finger along my thigh, I feel the same movement in my lower calf!  (I’m trying not to think too much about how weird this is as my naturopath can’t think of a medical reason that would cause it).  

In this massage Richard Oliver continued with the experimental use of cranial-sacral therapy on the feet. Cranial-sacral therapy works – at least in theory – with the cranial-sacral pulse, or the rhythm of the spinal fluid as it circulates the length of the spinal cord and within the cranium.  Richard explained, “In theory you can feel the cranial-pulse anywhere, not just in the cranium or sacrum.  So it can be used anywhere on the body.”

In truth because alignment in feet affects alignment in hips, and tightness in hips affects comfort and strength in lower back, the new focus on feet and ankles has morphed into a combined focus on everything from QL muscles down.  Or - for the non-anatomy experts among us - everything from the waist down.

I know that western science can’t make heads or tails of cranial-sacral therapy.  This confusion notwithstanding, I experience its power directly.  It appears to be the shamanism of benevolent angels.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, energy and emotion moving in the lower part of the body has been harder to decipher as the images are more impressionistic and emotive, the connections being perhaps more deeply buried.  This has not prevented dramatic changes from emerging including a new ability to write right-handed & backward in addition to the usual left-handed & backward writing and right-handed & forward writing.

In Massage #14 the therapy brought out anger in the right ankle.  Within a visual impression of this anger, I wore metal braces on my legs.  I was confined to a wheelchair and could not stand without support.  I did not understand this as a past life memory but rather the emotional story of my ankle - much as my inner-attorney told the story of numbness in my right arm. 

As Richard worked my ankle, defenses rose to the surface. I discovered that I was angry not only with my disability but with the therapist willing to dig deeply enough to help.  The version of me in the wheelchair swung her crutches violently and shouted – silently and from inside of myself of course -“Leave me alone, we live in different worlds.  There are certain things I can’t have!” This is a side of myself I am not well acquainted with.

As mentioned in earlier posts, past life memories stored in the neck came to the surface readily in just over one session of focused neck work.  This is the seventh massage focusing on feet and ankles and no new past life memories have surfaced.

However, what happened next, when cranial-sacral was applied to the right ankle, suggests that there is more than one way for emotional patterns to impact physicality and even contribute to the structure of the body – past or alternate lives being one way.

In discussing cranial-sacral energy I have heard both Tasha and Richard refer to it as an energy that unwinds.  This is exactly how I would described my experience with massage #14. It felt as if the cranial-sacral work began unwinding from deep within my feet the emotional foundation of sore ankles, flat arches and bunions.

Richard held my right ankle and rotated it gently - as he said, in response to the cranial-sacral pulses. Accompanying the sensation of emotion being pulled from my flesh - like a thread from a hem - was a message, “You are letting go of a disability and its ability to keep you small.” 

Hmmmmmm………..?????? 

I do not know what else to say except for that as this marathon progresses, I struggle to keep pace with my experience. The consciousness driving these events proves its intelligence.  More and more the ability of my mind to decipher and describe the process is surpassed. I, a witness to my own transformation, am overtaken.

That, and my legs did feel much better afterward!

 

New Direction: Feets & Ankles! – 20 Massages in 2 Months (Massage #8)

My feet - bunions, overlapping toes and all!

I had Massage #8 with Jennifer at the Well-Being Center for Health in Monroe, WA. Before talking about this massage I should let you know that massages 1-7 brought unexpected progress to my neck and arms! While these parts will continue to benefit from a few minutes of attention in future massages, it’s time to put the main focus elsewhere.

I’m choosing to focus on feet and ankles because, frankly, I neglect them. I was born with bunions, overlapping toes and arches that are flatter than most. This means that I have trouble finding comfortable shoes and my feet can cramp painfully when swimming, running or oddly enough, when I’m dehydrated. I’m also a bit pigeon-toed with ankles that can feel weak. This affects the alignment in my hips. The long and short of it is that my feet and ankles are often sore.

On an emotional level, I already know that past life issues affect the comfort level and perhaps even the structure of my feet and ankles. In one lifetime, I had my feet bound. In another, I was a slave with a chain around my ankles. While people say they’ve seen worse bunions than mine (I’ve been able to avoid surgery through yoga, rolling a tennis ball under my feet and exercise) when I look at the shape of them they look as I imagine feet carrying the imprint of binding would look: the body of the foot is vaguely convex, has a lifeless feel to it and seems compressed into a tight space. The toes also curve downward and seem to huddle together. Because of flat arches, balance can be an issue!

My feet are also fragile, so having deep massage work on them could also be a challenge. According to my human anatomy coloring book (Kapit & Elson) there are 25 bones in the foot, including 3 in each toe, except the big toe which only has two. Not only this there are 3 arches (medial, lateral and transverse), a fistful of joints, an occasional sinus, an Achilles tendon, several ligaments, plus some fascia (connective tissue) - all of which help hold the whole thing together. (Compare this with the thigh which is easily 4-8 times as big as the foot and only has one bone – the femur!). Energetically, the feet have two main chakras, or energy points, that help keeps us grounded to the Earth and engaged in a healthy way with life. On a metaphysical level, the energy carried in the feet determines our ability to move forward in life, to be stable, motivated, balanced and self-supportive. 

I explained the situation to Jennifer and asked if she was comfortable working deeply on my feet and ankles. She said, “Yes.” She added that even though in a typical massage school curriculum feet are studied, they are not necessarily a huge focus. Nonetheless, any good massage therapist should be able to extend their training to focus effectively on most areas of the body including the feet. Jennifer is a good massage therapist so I expected good things. She also said that it is not unusual for a client to ask for a whole hour to be devoted to hands and feet.

She did some work on my upper body but focused mostly on ankles and lower legs. She used her thumb to loosen up fascia (connective tissue) that over time has become compressed into the muscle. The feeling of fascia loosening is for me a sort of itching, burning, hurts-so-good sensation. As she worked I notice one of Jennifer’s skills – she has the ability to find a muscle’s edge and stay on that edge. By this I mean, she has the uncanny ability to sense just how much pressure tissue needs. Any less pressure and no progress would be made in the body. Any more pressure would bring pain, clenching and an inability to relax, relaxation being one key to healing.

Emotionally, I noticed that in my ankles were defenses similar to those in my neck before the past life memory of drowning was liberated. While there was no fear in my ankles, there was the same dark energy of not wanting to be touched, of anger and of shouting (silently and inside of myself, of course) to “leave me alone!” and “stop trying to help!”

After my massage with Jennifer I felt balanced, refreshed and anxious to find out what lies within the complex system of tissue and energy called the feets and ankles!