Feelings related muscle tensions and how to deal with them. An article by Martin Rordam, Masseur Denmark
It has been known for decades, if not centuries, in the “alternative” milieu that there is a connection between muscle tensions and feelings.
But what is the connection and how does the masseur deal with it?
Feelings related Massage. Martin Rordam, Masseur Denmark
That is the question I would like to address to the scientists and hope for an answer some day. Browsing around the medical article databases haven’t helped me much; actually not at all! So here I have to go for a working theory:
What I have experienced through out the years (26 to be more precise) is that a feelings related muscle tension is somehow an active tension. If you try to loosen it the same way as a sore calf ”mistreated” by a marathon you will fail. First of all it will be very hard to loosen it without force and second it will tighten up again. If the feelings related tension is an old one (my record is 48 years) it will be a chemical bound tensions also. A chemical bound tension is a ”normal” infiltration where the muscle ran out of ATP (energy) and the muscle fibre is locked in that position at that moment because it takes energy to loosen a muscle tension also!
My working theory is that it takes a tension AND the release of muscle fibres to, help or, be the feeling. It is so with an orgasm so the idea is not completely mad in my point of view! What happens all the time in our lives is that we are stopped from living our feelings out (e.g. Aunt Bertha, who you just can’t stand, drop the wedding cake so you almost burst out in laughter, but you didn’t!). That situation will be in your muscles somewhere. It takes a lot of energy to hold on to that feeling instead of letting it go. A lot of situations like that will take a lot of the energy that you should have used to live a normal life. To loosen such tensions many people/schools have their way to do it. Most will never manipulate directly with the old and bound tensions but make a nice comforting milieu around the customer and give them the freedom to let go of what’s boiling inside. That’s very good, but if you REALLY want to help your customer you have to loosen the old tensions; and believe me they won’t let go all by themselves!!
Personally I work mostly in the upper chest area (pectoralis major; diafragma, subclavicularis, intercostalis but also rectus abdominus etc). The whole idea is to loosen the OLD stuff in a way so you force the body to adjust to the new situation by letting go of other tensions. It is done by “digging holes” in an area where there is a lot of old feelings related muscle tensions. Normally I work for approx. 2½ – 3 hours where I loosen old tensions. During the treatment I support the costumer to let go of the feelings by either breathing them out or actually live the feelings out. To support the customer to live old old feelings out, often in bursts, demands that the masseur is calm, “warm”, supporting AND most of all; NEUTRAL!!! I don’t participate in my clients feelings, and I will prefer not to hear about their history, but many have the urge to tell about the feelings releasing during the treatment and I nod and hum but actually I don’t listen at all! Keeping up with what happens under my fingertips is hard work. Being at a 100% alert level for 2½ – 3 hours is hard work; believe me!
At the first treatment I normally dig 2-3 holes and the whole body is now releasing old feelings related muscle tensions (feelings) over the next days. That can be an emotional rollercoaster ride; the customer just have to live/breath all those old feelings out as they come.
Four days after the first treatment it is time to take the next. Same all over again and it is normally easier to get the customer to let go; now they know the drill.
Seven days after the 2nd treatment it is time to take the 3rd and last scheduled treatment. After that you have made a minor revolution in the customer’s life. They can live and breath again, they have learned how to let go off the feelings related muscle tensions before they stick to the fibers and they have much more energy.
When I start the series of treatments the customer pay for 4 treatments and sometimes the rollercoaster ride in between the treatments gets to hard and ”the 4th” treatment is taken there. Normally the 4th treatment is taken weeks or even months later just get a kick to go on further in their life!
I just love that kind of work as much as I fear/hate it for the massive drain of my energy. It takes me at least an hour to get back to normal after such a treatment
Martin Rordam, Masseur Denmark
http://www.masseuren.dk/ (my homepage is in Danish!!)
Questions in english can be asked in my forum at www.masseuren.dk/forum where I have an english part. (or plain mail at ”kontakt”)
