Welcome to your massage Thank you So in today's massage, we're going to work on cultivating present moment awareness I know you were telling me that lately you've been feeling anxiety and just your mind running in a million different places right? Today's all about staying in the present moment I would invite you to pay attention to your senses So at the moment, my voice and my touch But as we continue going, I'm going to introduce some sense and other perhaps unfamiliar sensations I want you to just really home in on your senses ok? So I'm starting off just with a little bit of massage oil Nothing fancy Just doing a very simple effleurage As well as some deeper massage on either side of your spine I'm going to go deeper into the right side The most beautiful thing about a massage session is that in order for it to be successful, relaxing session, both the receiver and the giver, need to be practice present moment awareness So I'm paying attention to how your muscles feel under my hands whether there's any tight spots, any areas that need a little extra work At the same time, I'm also sensing how you're feeling I can sense whether you've completely relaxed your body yet Or whether you still have some reserved tension leftover from your work day I think that's the power of touch You can sense so many things and you can give so many things I'm going a bit deeper with some palmer kneading Especially around your scapula where I find a little knot right here There we go I'm going to work in a bit more with a thumb kneading Right now I'm working on warming up these muscles under my hands Improving blood flow to the surface But also improving venous return Working in a bit deeper Finger kneading You'll find that my finger here is a little rougher than the rest of my hand It's cause my eczema is coming up again So notice that sensation as well I'm going to use a little bit of pain release and just running it along your spine This sensation should be quite pleasant Using the tips of my fingers to really work that pain release remedy into your paravertebral muscles Here's another knot so I'm just going to work deeper into it Actually going to use my knuckles like this So I have a bit more of leverage I can put or weight Cover a larger surface area Very good Other side Your skin's getting a little red which is good, we wanna see that Now, I'm going to spray a little mist But first, I'm going to add a few essential oils into it Going to use a few drops of peppermint oil There we go I know geranium is your favourite so going to add a little bit of that as well It's also my favourite so we're really going to enjoy this together A little bit of the essential oil got onto my hands so I just applied some massage oil I'm gonna spray it in the air That's going to help to cool you down It's really hot today, went up to 34 degrees celsius It's really humid as well It is still humid despite having lots of rain today Going to apply some of this to your arms also We'll go in and massage it I do actually need a bit of massage oil Just relax This is going to be so good for you After typing all day at the computer I think I need some more oil Have you been having any arm or hand pain lately? Or wrist pain? Ya, it's a bit tight Do you know where specifically is tight? The wrist? Okay That tends to be quite common especially the flexor side because we're doing a lot of flexing with our fingers while we type There's a bunch of flexor tendons that run either under or on top of the carpal tunnel and they can get quite irritated if we overuse these flexor tendons As in typing or if you use a mouse It's really important to massage this and stretch them out so you can always do stretches like that right Especially this one is really good for flexor tendons and then to either side I find the arm so incredible because this forearm rotates because of our radius radius bone and the pivot action It's really quite remarkable Of course we don't have much of a pivoting action in the leg right So with our tibia fibula, we don't really do that anymore Maybe a tiny little bit, but not very much Very good Let's go on the other side Again, just taking some massage oil Same action Just grabbing the elbow Working on that tricep muscle Just scooping it Is the wrist bothering you on this side also? No Not as much? That makes sense since this is your left arm Just going to work on that wrist a little bit more and these flexor tendons as well Just relax your hand just like that Very good I'm not sure if I've already did this but I might as well do it again Is your back okay? Do you want it covered or? It's okay Alright So I'm gonna start with a scalp check like we always do And then I'm going to brush your hair a little bit, okay? So I want you to really pay attention to the sensations in your scalp Sometimes people feel tingly, like Ediya last time, she said she felt really tingly Whatever you feel, just focus on those sensations okay? You can always tell me if you prefer you know a little more pressure or less, whatever you'd like, just let me know Going to take it nice and slow Not really looking for anything in particular this time Just trying to get you to really, really, really slow down any thoughts that you might have and simply focus on this moment It's my intention today The scalp is an area of the body that has a lot of free nerve endings So for example, it's very sensitive to pain, but also to any itchy sensations or to any really pleasurable sensations such as when one scratches your hair like that Or when someone plays with your hair I usually clip your hair as I go but like I said, this isn't a prep for a scalp check so I'm not gonna bother Let's check the vertex of your scalp Didn't want to get too much hair on the nape of your neck Let's just work on brushing your hair very very gently Starting at the ends Use a little clip to get it out I'm gonna spray a bit of this Peppermint geranium spray again into your hair One of my favourite ASMRtists Julia from itsblitzzz, she loves to make these sprays and spray them into her friends' hair I love her videos so much And of course, in addition to lots of free nerve endings in the scalp, we also have our meridians, our acupuncture points In terms of the traditional Chinese meridians, we have the urinary bladder meridian, the gallbladder meridian, and the governing vessel meridian These meridians tend to be really yang in nature Yang as in well, there's a lot of ways to interpret the word "yang" The character in Chinese, it means basically it just means the sun, like in 'tai yang" "Yang" in "yang guang" which means sunlight From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, or even a spiritual perspective, yang is the spiritual energy of fire It is the expansive, immaterial aspect It's very active, very healing It's also said to be more masculine energy whereas its counterpart, which it must be in balance with is the yin energy which is the moon energy, the feminine energy Both of these energies are absolutely integral to optimal spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health For one cannot live without the other Both are very important The reason why the scalp meridians are all yang in nature is because yang rises and yin... Yin has a weight, it falls So your head is essentially the most yang part of you Sometimes when yang rises too much, that's not good right You can end up feeling really dizzy You can have a headache All that stuff If we don't have enough yang rising to the head, then we can feel sad and feel like we don't have much energy Heaviness To be honest, the yin and yang principles can be applied to pretty much everything in the world It's quite fascinating I was actually expecting this it to be quite hard to detangle your hair but it's actually not that bad I think we're pretty much good now It's nice and detangled Is it okay if I put it into a braid for you? Just gonna do a very simple braid, okay? Divide your hair into 3 sections One Two Three Never braided someone's hair like this before I'm sure I can do it I won't make it too tight because I know if it's really tight, it might pull on your scalp too much Beautiful Lovely Okay, I know it's getting really hot so I'm going to spray a bit of water again Especially on your neck The last little fun session that I have for you to help you really ground into present moment awareness is paying attention to how these objects feel I won't tell you what it is but you can figure it out How does that feel? Do you know what it is? It's a little wooden butterfly Do you wanna see it? Its little antennae are helping to massage your back There's a lot of butterflies I saw A monarch butterfly today There was a bunch of caterpillars and now they're all turning into butterflies More than usual I think cause of the whole pandemic and us pesky humans staying indoors And so, the wildlife populations are really blooming It's such a great thing Okay, next item This one is both touch and sound Can do the twisty thing Do you know what it is? It's a autumn leaf kind of thing It's kind of like the wooden brooms that our grandma uses... similar I'm sure you can use it to fluff away a few things Okay, last thing Well, that's it for today's present moment awareness massage Did you like it? Yes, thank you You're so welcome Have a great night.
