Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1481961
⟩ FINDING MY FOOTING It is my belief, after nearly 20 years of massaging and a dozen years of teaching, that our feet are more important than our fingers. I believe that if we massage with an awareness of our whole body, we can do amazing things for our clients without hurting ourselves. Nothing I tell you here will surprise dancers or professional athletes. Paying attention to how you position each part of you is simply taken for granted by anyone who spends their lives doing complicated physical feats. Think about how much time baseball players devote to digging their cleats into just the right spot in the batter's box when they come to the plate. And if you ask any golfer, they'll tell you those 300- yard drives are only possible because of the rotation of their hips. And a ballet dancer would find it absurd you would do anything other than focus on your feet. To put it simply: All complicated activities (and even a lot of the less complicated ones) work better when we use our whole body. Even though the whole purpose of our profession is to help our clients inhabit their bodies more effectively, we therapists are good at forgetting our own advice. Instead, we focus on lots of other things. We are determined to figure out the best strokes and to learn cool, new techniques. We are eager to add more modalities to our list of skills. But after more than a decade in the classroom, what I find again and again is that the fanciest strokes don't do a thing if the rest of your body isn't properly positioned. (Or, even worse, all those cool, new techniques have a good chance of injuring you if you aren't paying attention to what the rest of your body is doing.) A lot of our problems—from exhaustion to injury to burnout—come from one pervasive bias in our profession: We are obsessed with our hands. We think the value of our work comes from our fingers and hands and arms. So when we work—especially when we use techniques that require a lot of pressure, whether deep-tissue massage or sports massage or myofascial release, we tend to focus all our attention on our upper body, on our shoulders and arms and hands. We assume the part of our body that is contacting the client has to be the part of the body where the pressure, or the "force," is created. It is no surprise then, when we focus so much attention on forcing our hands and arms and shoulders to work hard, that they end up working too hard. And then our hands and arms and shoulders (and fingers, and back, and everywhere in between) get tired, get strained and get injured. Our clients unintentionally reinforce this faulty vision of our work. In the many compliments I have been fortunate enough to receive in my massage career, my hands feature prominently. Several clients have told me I have "magic hands." At least a couple have said I have "the hands of an angel." My new favorite, which I got a few weeks ago, was that I am "the hand whisperer." (Still not exactly sure what that means, but the point remains.) Not surprisingly, no one has ever complimented my feet. The generous words from my clients move me deeply and are a balm on long days, but they are not actually accurate. Yes, our hands are great. And yes, they are essential to our success as therapists. But there is a danger in focusing on them too much. So, I want to suggest something different. When you think about working "deep," think about your feet, rather than your hands. Give yourself a moment to consider this proposition. First, be honest: How often do you think about your feet while you are working? And second, if you thought about the position of your feet as essential to the amount of pressure you could deliver, how would this change your massage? For me, the answer has been: a lot. When I first started massaging, at a chiropractor's office in October 2004, I was so eager to do a good job that my lower back seized up and my shoulders and forearms ached. By accident I stumbled upon a tai chi class that, after several months of what seemed like pointless practice, eventually changed everything. I didn't realize it right away, but I was figuring out how to use my whole body in every movement I made. Soon, I realized I was using my shoulders and arms less as I massaged, and the rest of my body more. I was still doing the same strokes, still using the same points of contact (thumbs, fingers, soft fists, palms, and forearms) still doing the same deep- tissue work. But I was learning how to use my body weight rather than muscling; the sessions started to feel f lowing and full of ease, rather than heavy and full of effort. I even felt relaxed and energized after a long day of clients. My feet can't take all the credit for this transformation, but they are where it all began. Ever since, I've been refining this "feet first" principle in my own practice and teaching it to other therapists through my continuing education classes. FIGURING OUT THE FEET When we pay attention to our feet while we massage, we benefit both physically and mentally. To put it simply, by broadening your awareness of your body, it is possible to feel both happier and healthier while you work. The reasons why are multiple and interconnected. When you pay more attention to your feet, you are more grounded while you work—literally, since you are more aware of the ground beneath you. (And that is why I encourage you to experiment with working barefoot, at least as you start with this foot-awareness practice. We'll come back to that.) As you pay attention to your feet, you can't help but pay attention to the rest of your body—how your legs are moving (or, more likely, not moving) and how your upper body is moving (or, more likely, moving too much). And with that body 52 m a s s a g e & b o d y wo r k n ove m b e r/d e ce m b e r 2 0 2 2