tenderwoman
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Jun 23, 2004, 5:07 AM
Post #6 of 7
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Hello,
I would like to share my experience with massage in contradiction with Iyengar yoga. I have a strong and personal experience with massage - as a pacient and also as a therapist. As You can find in my profile, I have had an injury of my backbone qiute a long time ago-1996 ,as was was at the university studying psychology, continuing on education in quite similar subject, after the study of physical therapy. The result of injury was a medial protrusion of L5-S1 disc, later with left side neurological symptoms of nervus ischiadicus.In the beginning I didn t find an effective help. I was diagnosed no correctly right after the injury, inspite I intuitively felt and also based on my knowledge, it was a disc protrusion. Such a time I was in great physical pain of whole backbone and body, and psychologically desoreinted, depressed, full of quilty feelings, why I went on trampoline , didn t have a sense of rational solutions, so I didn t search other doctors.I have entagled myself into a cycle of physical and psychological suffering. I have gone through classical physical therapy as a pacient and have met with no human approach from the side of doctros, who gave me a final judgement, that it will be worse and worse and have threatened me with surgery. After 3 years I have found another doctor who made a proper examination, so it was diagnosed correcty, continuing on classical physical therapy more intesively. They gave me more exercises I should do, more massage-classical one.After 6 weeks of intense rehabilitation I went home with neurological pains, I didn t know in the begining. I had many sleepless nights, and have discovered alternative medicine-combination of homeopathy, acupuncture and accupressure massage with reflexology based on chinese medicine.When going through therapy I was just about finishing the University, writing diploma work and later had many final exams in psychology. It was very hard time for me, and I felt that the therapy awakens the first life inside me, wich has died for last 4 years, but keeps me only alive, to be able to finish school somehow, inspite all health problems. When I finsihed the school, I started to search something more effective. Tried bodybuilding, but as I see it now, it was only the way how to lie to my body. I felt, I needed st more gentle. Im a dynamic person, so I thought, maybe tai-cchi woul be good for me, but also had nothing else against yoga, inspite I did know nothing about that and always thought it is only for very flexible and physically talented people. Im an open minded person and always loved experiments, having a bit scientifical approach to life, to try everything on my skin, and to compare it with objective knowledge in books. So one day a friend invited me to iyengar yoga class. I didn t think much about what keeps me going on practising yoga, I only felt something is changing, and I saw it has really differnet results in comparing with classical approach in physical therapy. I started to attend the class 3 times a week, even when I was sick or feeling sleepy and tired, as much as is possible here, and slowly started to practise it at home alone too. In the beginning I was very dependent on such an outer help and guidance, wasn t able to practise also on my own so much. And also I have gone through some cycles, when after getting some good results (9monts), suddenly I wasn t able to cope with all life conditions I was in, and felt down again, and had to walk on same steps up I was walking onbefore, but in a different way (now I understand this process of cycles in our lives). The first two years I was going through a massage therapy too, every 6 months, when I felt really helpless. Than I had an experience with one massage therapist, where some of his personal feelings he felt during the massage came to my body and have affected me for some time. Than I understood I do not want to be touched nor affected by other person, who is not close to me (partner). Also I saw the difference between us, because that time I was interested in doing massage therapy for others too. He did no yoga, or any physical discipline connected to a spiritual source, and had quite many personal problems, which he couldn t control. One year ago I had an opportunity to start massage therapy in cooperation with my doctor in acupuncture and homeopathy. When exploring the massage therapy from the other side, I started to have my inner feeling, this help is only for certain time really-especially where are the musculo-sceletal problems, backbone problems, following my past own experience, also watching my pacients. I had again a little accident again, when carrying my portable massage table to a friends house to help her. The table was too big load for my disc. I had a very strong reaction on that, also with blocks in my meridians. That time I have realised how is important to do yoga, to be able to have that inner eyes to see where is the problem in my body and soul, and so being able to see it and feel in pacients too. I have seen my meridains anatomaically exatly how they are described in books. There came to my mind many massage therapists, I know, or any other people who say about themselves they are spiritaual or they read and talk about chakras, energy and meridians a lot but having no or very little experience with that, mostly staying on theoretical level using such a knowledge for helping others, flying in phantasy, what is energy. Also have realised that a doctor Im cooperating with, knows very little about the energy, and has many blocks too, inspite he is doing such a discipline. He reads many books on energy, has an experience with measuring the energy of meridians, but no practical experience with himself (in this life, canno t see his past lives, so canno t judge or anything. seing all as my experience on exaples I cas see around me, and going through. So he had oferred me an acupuncture and massage to help me in my problem. I said, thaks for help, but i ll try it on my own. So I practised yoga 4 hours, to unblock myslef. It was the best massage I could to to me. The other day he had measured my meridians, and he couldn t believe, what he had seen, and said this needs no massage, and I felt the same. Also I have felt very well, but felt, this I need to work on longer to get rid of it completely-to heal it throug yoga-active, way, longlasting. I feel anything I solve through yoga, it comes really deep, into much deeper layres, than the massage can do. Lalter on I went though another experience connected to a massage, though a course of ayurvedic massage. I was quite curious, what it will give me,and felt st for sure, what I was able to say definitively in the end of course, after watching my teacher in massage. I saw there much manipulation, more rough way. It s quite difficult to describe my feelings by words, but I know, yoga has a great power to change our lives, and all is the work and effort we do by a correct guidance of our teachers, who are Really Experienced.
I wanted to give you this personal experience and example, because I see we all can help each other somehow, even by a telling the story giving the seed of information to somebody, who can use it somehow in the future to let grow it into a beautiful plant in his own garden of soul pouring with own practical experieneces. I can see many mirrors around me, the faces of God, and any little detail around me can be an information for me and it s upon me how i will use it.
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Re: Massage and yoga - according to Iyengar
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