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Dear Human, It’s raining! For those of us here in LA, these waters falling from the sky are soothing and regulating. I’m sitting in my living room with one morning candle and my cacao which is hitting different cuz for the past 2 weeks I was out of maca and oh my goodness I knew I missed it in there but wow I didn’t know how much I missed it. YUM! (my cacao recipe here) That’s an interesting thing I think… “I didn’t know how much I wanted something until I had it” - Has that ever happened to you? As per yooshj I’m just sitting here freestyling whatever comes through, so let’s see where we go today. “I didn’t know how much I wanted it until I experienced it”. - I spoke these words the first time I ever received an abdominal massage. In my 6 month full-time massage school training, we spent only one day on abdominal massage and I L-O-V-E-D it. For years after, I would ask massage therapists to focus on my belly - and I found that they would spend just a few minutes and there was a sense of timidness in their touch. which is understandable and relatable cuz, well, they weren’t accustomed to doing much of that work. and then my amazing acupuncturist Jen Black @ Highland Holistic recommended Michael Meier for “chi nei tsang” (taoist abdominal massage) - it was a YES, I booked a session, and between booking the session and actually receiving it, I had already decided that I was going to study the work and had researched and found a training in the east bay which I attended some months later. So yeah- when I had that session (some 8ish years ago) - A WHOLE HOUR of sensitive, attuned, focused abdominal work - there it was - even though I knew I wanted it, I didn’t know how much I did! It really rocked my world and so much moved inside of me energetically. I tend to leave those sessions feeling pretty wiped for the day, and so I make sure to leave the rest of the day to rest and integrate. I did 2 trainings in Chi Nei Tsang in the months after my first session, and for a while was giving lots of sessions to hone my skills, but then my path took me toward medicine work and I focused on that instead. I remember saying when I first received that bellywork that it felt so ceremonial to me, sort of like a medicine journey in its own right. There’s such an intimacy to the belly. It’s rarely touched by others except for a lover, and usually not in a very deep way. I remember my teacher saying that the belly is the seat of the emotions. So no wonder it feels so potent to receive touch there! I now have to go back and change the subject line of this email now that what I’ve written has zero to do with what I thought I would write about today. But here we are. I’m breathing into my belly, and I invite you to do so too! Michael still practices Chi Nei Tsang, you can find him practicing out of a room in Highland Park Yoga. He’s been really devoted the work through the years and I recommend him. I on the other hand, have not been in active practice of the work but am feeling inspired to incorporate more belly touch into my bodywork sessions again!! If you are coming for a craniosacral session and would like to explore receiving deeper touch on your abdomen, I would love to give you an introduction to bellywork. My Chi Nei Tsang teacher was a somewhat elderly french guy and as is form for masterful male bodywork teachers (I’ve had several) - he was eccentric AF. I was talking about him recently - he is the reason I stopped wearing sunglasses 8 years ago. He convinced me that they’re not good for me - I raised my hand in class and said “but what about wrinkles?” He looked me direct in the eyes and said: … What’s wrong with wrinkles? … That’s never left me. and so here I am, leaving it with you. LA community: the title of this email was going to be “Am I Leaving LA?” - but you’ll hear more about that another time. For now, I am here. Come. Let’s share in healing and reverent space. healing touch mari.mu/bodywork medicine journey mari.mu/journey
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