The Beautiful Faces
I’ve long been curious to understand why and how, after a massage session, my patients’ faces become smoother, brighter, and seem more relaxed and beautiful.
For a long time, I believed that this effect stemmed from the state of relaxation brought to the mind through this type of work.
I then started observing the faces of my partners, my children in the morning, after a night of rest, or my students after their midday nap. But I never observed the same effect.
Sleep is a vital need for memory consolidation, tissue repair, and general rest. Yet, it does not bring about this change in appearance, this beauty enhancement, that I so often notice after my sessions.
This difference became an obvious realization to me. I then sought to understand what distinguishes these two experiences, how these two forms of release, seemingly similar, could lead to such different results.
This type of session is neither a promise to heal the patient, nor an exhortation to address personal problems of the one lying on the table, nor even the intention to improve oneself or the other. Rather, it is an experience of shift or energy transfer. These processes of change come primarily from the challenge of accepting the other and accepting myself in the present moment, from what I sense and feel at that moment, from my curiosity for the other, as a practitioner.
Opening and Shift
At first glance, this is a challenge. A challenge, because our nervous system is such that stances and judgments are an integral part of its functioning, and thus of human nature. We must, first and foremost, break down this initial barrier (an active process), set aside, if only for a moment, the basic need to protect ourselves by expressing our prejudices. It is about opening up, exposing oneself… Only after this first step can the transfer, which is at the heart of the quality of the session, begin and enrich the relationship.
This energy transfer is in no way similar to the process that allows an electrical cable to transfer power or to a stream of water generating electricity. In these two cases, there is an active principle and a passive one. The same is true for miraculous healings by a healer or a god.
The transfer process I am talking about here is not that of an “active” person toward a “passive” one, nor that of a “master” toward a “learner,” but it is bi-directional, and bi-sourced. It is the product of the change in attitude of each partner engaged in this relationship. It is an internal process activated by each participant, leading us to different levels of acceptance of the other and of ourselves. In psychology, we might speak of the benefit of “pausing projections,” in philosophy of the “setting aside of the ego.” It is a moment when two consenting beings communicate without words, simply through their physical envelopes. A mental letting go.
It goes without saying that, on the patient’s side, the process may be primarily unconscious, but it requires from the practitioner an optimal awareness and an attentive presence to all details.
It begins the moment the person enters the office, continues with observing how the patient lies down on the table, and then with noting changes in their breath throughout the session, etc. If I attempt to give an explanation for a change in arm position, or if I try to make an interpretation of a variation in the breathing rhythm, in most cases, I am simply mistaken.
“When I Move, I Am”
The modalities used in this type of massage are not limited to massaging tissues or stretching ligaments or muscles. They include dynamic movements inviting fluidity and favoring the sensation of structural lightness in movement, which promotes personal physical-mental integration.
Movement is life!
Moving with lightness brings a different quality to life. It is not about performing like a dancer does, but about allowing, through our sensations, our own capacity for the lightness inherent in the uniqueness of our physical envelope.
The emergence of the feeling of being heard and respected brings this lightness through the dissipation of protective system reactions, thus reducing egotistical responses.
It is not rare for patients to say that they felt as if they were floating on clouds or being rocked by a benevolent, warm wave. These images obviously draw on past references or fantasies, but they are also anchored in the nature of the present relationship, allowing for a greater freedom of mind.
Encouragement for Durability
This process is, in many ways, far more relevant than the use of cosmetics. First, if gradually, over the course of sessions, the patient brings more awareness to the changes they have experienced and felt, they will be able to apply their musculoskeletal patterns to a greater variety of episodes in their daily life.
Next, this approach, although based on an interpersonal relationship, through the attention and conscious intention it promotes, encourages personal action and leads our self-confidence to a new dimension: one of encouragement for diversity and its acceptance.
Finally, new habits of relating to others will emerge, improving their intimate life or relationships with loved ones, facilitating the process of muscle relaxation related to self-protection processes.
