touched your child the way many
are taught to touch in therapeutic
massage modalities.
Go back to the scene. Your
child comes into your bedroom,
frightened and a little unsure.
Instead of hugging and re-assuring
your child, you tell them to stand
three feet away from you and lie
on the floor. You then consult your
book of massage therapies and
see that you have to touch points
1, 2 and 3 to counter the effects
of a frightening experience. So
you keep your child at a distance
of three feet away from you,
then you press on three separate
points on their body. No heat. No
warmth. No compassion. Sounds a
little absurd, doesn’t it? Will it work?
Hmm, probably not the way we
want it to.
We are all human. It doesn’t
matter if we are big or small,
young or old; we are all the same
biological, emotional beings. If
we play-act with our kids and it
heals them of their nightmares
(and cuts and scrapes etc), it will
work on adults too. Our responses
to healing touch do not change.
So why then do we often approach
massage with a completely
clinical mindset? We can see in
the above example that our own
psychological state has a profound
influence on the experience of
touch (on the receiving end).
All the technique in the world is
moot, unless compassion is there
to guide our touch, to transform it
into nurture and care.
The next time someone hurts,
remember that you don’t need to
be trained in therapeutic massage.
All you need is compassionate
touch – simply just caring for others
is so incredibly healing.