Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/434495
we We all know what happens next—our work suffers. We are not fully engaged in the session; our mind spins with resentment or distraction or whatever else. As a result, our client suffers. And though we often don't acknowledge it, eventually, we suffer, too. There is, however, an alternative. We can massage mindfully. Mindfulness—an ancient practice of self-awareness, with roots in Buddhism, among other religions—is a hot topic. 1 No surprise: who doesn't want to exude that enlightened air of calm serenity; who doesn't want to live in the present moment? Using it as a self-care tool is critical, but I don't think mindfulness has to stop there. I believe we can, and should, be mindful in session as well. The practice of mindfulness is a powerful way to deepen and clarify our work—from the moment we meet a client to the moment she leaves our office, session after session, day after day. It's a way to help ourselves and our clients at the same time. THE APPLICATION OF AWARENESS Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the leading teachers of mindfulness in the United States, offers a simple definition: "Mindfulness is awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally." 2 As we have all experienced, daily life is often the opposite: we worry about things that have already happened, we anticipate things that haven't happened yet, we distract ourselves from the one thing we are actually doing right now with thoughts of all that we could or should be doing. That default setting—of mindless flitting rather than mindful focus—too often becomes the norm in our treatment room as well. But, by adapting the principle of mindfulness into our work, we can transform the endless hours we spend with oiled hands. So what does a "mindful massage" look like? To be honest, it's not much different than a normal one. I am still compressing and effleuraging and petrissaging and frictioning. I can work fast or I can work slow. If you were watching me, you might not be able to tell any difference, but I assure you, the client knows. The reason is that what our teachers told us from the very first semester of massage school is true: intention is everything. And my intention, my aim, is not to accomplish anything. For us therapists, with our desire to help and heal, this not doing is extremely difficult. As Kabat-Zinn says, "The challenge of mindfulness is to be present for 66 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k j a n u a r y / f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 5 your experience as it is, rather than immediately jumping in to change it or try to force it to be different." 3 In other words, with mindful massage, I am not trying to fix my client. Mindfulness is typically practiced via meditation. You do nothing but sit with yourself, observing the movement of your breath in and out. When thoughts and distractions arise, as they are guaranteed to do, you don't judge yourself or try to push them away; you just acknowledge them and return your attention to the breath. The aim is to "experience our experience" as it is, rather than trying to change it. With mindful massage, we expand this principle of observation to encompass both ourselves and our clients. Compared to many jobs, ours seems to beg for the application of mindfulness: how many other professions are built on large, uninterrupted chunks of time? The phone doesn't ring, there are no emails to answer, no annoying coworkers stopping by your desk (and even those chatty clients, as we'll see, are less likely to babble when you work mindfully). We have only our client's body before us, and only our own mind to reckon with. Though we are moving rather than sitting, the meditative principle is just as applicable: we anchor ourselves with our breath, acknowledge mental distractions when they arise, and return our awareness to the inhale and the exhale. The difference, of course, is that there is another person in the room. So we expand this awareness to encompass the client: we attend to our own breath, as well as our client's breath; we observe our client's body as we observe our own—without judgment. Now, it is easy to imagine meditation as something monks do on mountaintops—as abstract and disembodied. But working mindfully is not a polite way to say "working lightly." Unless the client wants otherwise, I am working quite deep.