Thai Yoga Massage
This is me practising a pose that looks complicated. But it’s easy when you know how. And it feels amazing.
Here at Massage in Wanaka. The girls and I had a Thai yoga workshop the other day. As we have all studied it and are all very passionate about it. We all agreed, that it is a shame it’s not more popular so we wanted to brush up on our movements, swap notes and ideas, and encourage our clients to try this amazing massage. Thai yoga massage has been used for thousands of years and is a mixture or traditional Thai acupressure and Indian Ayurvedic principles that were introduced from India 2,500 years ago and is a real synthesis of various healing traditions from all over Thailand.
The benefits are in the stretching and the acupressure points. I often say it’s “like yoga without the effort” as we do the work for you. Making the body more flexible and helping to release in a way that’s not possible with Swedish massage. We felt clients might like a change, and work at another level or most definitely for people who didn’t enjoy the oil as you are clothed and on the floor. Thai massage works with energy lines, there are 10 main energy lines and these are especially important acupressure points. Treating the whole body and the internal organs, stimulating the free flow of Prana and helping to restore general well-being.
The stretching and pressure points open the body’s energy paths. I definitely feel way more energised and flexible from it. But at the same time allows you to release tension making you feel more relaxed. This ancient massage has proven to be timeless at helping the body release, correct posture and heal. And most importantly really working with the body's energy field. That’s why it’s still so popular hundreds of years later. We all feel very privileged to have learnt this amazing ancient massage and would love to be able to have more clients experience it.
I studied in Thailand with the Sunshine Network. From Chiang Mai we went an hour into the jungle and stayed in a village called Lahu, for a whole month. Which was an incredible experience in itself. I never knew people still lived as primitively as they did, they have nothing in our western terms. But to me, in the end I have to say they were the happiest, richest people I have ever met in my whole life. I was also very lucky we were just 8 students with 4 assistants and one teacher, Jacob. The training was intense, but the idea of being isolated and truly practising everyday, all day, without any outside influences meant we concentrated on learning and perfecting the massage, practising and experiencing Thai massage for ourselves. We ate a simple vegan diet. There were no seats, sitting and sleeping on the ground, even squatting toilets. There was no internet or phone. Getting up before dawn to meditate and start our day with Thai chi on a hilltop as the sun rose, made this a truly magical and life changing experience for me. My whole body changed and healed, by the end I felt incredible. I also feel I am as flexible still today at 56 years old thanks to my time there.
Fanny also trained in Thailand at the famous Wat Po school, (they have different locations, and the most famous is at Wat Pho temple. But they only do short training over there). Fanny also trained for a one month, at the Salaya school, Chetawan for that reason. It is a bigger school, and there is a professional Spa where Thai people can work after their training. The school is related to Wat Pho temple, in that they follow the first root of the Thai massage, keeping it as close as possible to the original one, that was originally created for the king.
Fanny trained 6 days per week, always starting with a Thai prayer and ending up with Thai stretching at the end of the day. There was a lot of theory and Anatomy and Physiology. Then a lot of practice. She had two main Thai teachers, who had worked there for many years. They learned first how to practice the main protocole, all on the floor. Then they learn more specific techniques to work on specific problems such as : Headaches, legs or arms problems, back problems ...etc….They also had some training around aromatherapy, starting from the creation of the herbs bags and what to put inside, then doing the massage with it.
Fanny loved it and found it so interesting, learning so much about Thai culture and medicine, but as well learning this wonderful massage, she, like myself, still uses some of those techniques in her massage practice, especially the dry massage, which helped her a lot to release, feel knots, and trigger points and to work with her elbow. She feels she improved her sensitivity to all that thanks to the Thai massage. Fanny really liked learning how to give a massage on the floor which allows more stretching.