Massage & Bodywork

JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2017

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SAVVY SELF-CARE best practices The Art of Abhyanga Self-Massage Simplicity By Jennie Hastings As a massage therapist or bodyworker, you are an expert at helping people feel better in their bodies through the art of touch. You also probably receive massage and bodywork from other therapists as a form of self-care. But did you realize you can massage yourself? Perhaps this is a silly question. If you are anything like me, you have a basket full of tools that help you work on yourself. I've spent tons of time digging into my forearms with my fingers, rolling around on a tennis ball or foam roller, and going at my rhomboids with a Theracane. This kind of self-massage was always a somewhat desperate attempt to mitigate the strain of overworking. I never thought about massaging myself unless I was already in pain. It was only recently that I learned the art of self-massage and how a regular routine augments my life and keeps me out of pain. Self-massage, or abhyanga as it is called in ayurveda, is a form of self- care that has been around since before humans got around to writing about it almost 2,000 years ago. Abhyanga is oil massage that uses long strokes that move toward the heart, not unlike the Swedish technique most of us learned in school. C h e c k o u t A B M P 's l a t e s t n e w s a n d b l o g p o s t s . Av a i l a b l e a t w w w. a b m p . c o m . 25

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