Regular massage boosts circulation, carrying the blood supply to the skin to help with the healing work. Elasticity and skin tone, muscle tone do noticeably improve with massage. Massage and Skin-elimination are two techniques which are vital to a Health and Vitality Plan for living well and to restoring balance to your body. They go hand in hand, one assists the other. Today, I’m featuring one of the simplest ways-in to a self-care routine with self-massage: Ayurvedic Foot self-massage.
Balance and Massage
Nature loves balance. Your body always strives to be in balance, no matter what you do to it. If you work with it using some pretty simple natural techniques, you can help boost your circulation, rid your body of waste products and harmful toxins – and you might be surprised what you find out about your own body in the process.
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Here’s Another Bit of My Story
While I was waiting for nature and supplements to do their repair jobs on my skin when my skin elasticity had suffered badly, I massaged daily. What had happened that I’d had such a sudden and noticeable reaction? Stress . . . 4 years of writing a difficult book on Catholic Guilt and its effects on women’s lives, mainly through the unnecessary burden of guilt. The project had been depressing.
So, cut a long story short, this is one of the simple self-massage technique I used: the Ayurvedic massage technique for a foot ritual . . . starting any ritual or practice with the feet is quite traditional in Ayurveda.
In general, though, let’s look at the overall benefits of massage: it is circulation boosting, moves toxins, helps mobilize fat, it is positively mood enhancing and it is wonderfully relaxing.
A self-massage movement needs to be a gentle circular motion with the fingers, never dragging or stretching the skin (especially for facial massage, in the delicate areas of the neck and eye areas). Gentle rubbing, always working towards the heart, is enough for the oils you choose to use to be absorbed by the skin, to stimulate circulation and affect mood. Most powerfully, massage is an incredibly positive way of showing yourself that you care about you and your bodymind system.
Self-care is the Self-Healing in Self Effort,
One should, with a body free from illness,
and a mind free from distress,
pursue self-knowledge
Ancient Sage Vasistha
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Here’s a Refresher on “thrive” . . .
When you think “thrive”, think of all the seemingly small, but necessary daily elements of life as the miraculous organ you are as a human being. At our essence we are a living organism, on a living Planet, in a living Universe. So, here’s something else I’ve been teaching this for over 20 years : the miracle of our skin as an organism, and how we help it eliminate toxins: the teaching never changes, results of practice are always the same . . .[ you can review part #1 of this blog thread here.]
All we are on a physical level as a human being is air, water and food. And physically, our body’s 10-13 trillion cells replace themselves every 100 days [just over 3 months]. How about that for a “slow flow”? And how do we help our organism to replace and renew?
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Why we do what we do to thrive: learning to be “you”
I’m a teacher, so repeating myself goes with the job! Small steps, small changes . . . one day at a time: in 100 days from now you’ll be a new you! I’ve said this to you before, I’m sure there’ll be many tellings again. [ Read more about this in my blog . . . thrive | Rest and Relaxation #1 ]
And, so, let’s talk about repetition and commitment as well as practicalities and practices: we could take the attitude of “What’s the point in showering we’re only going to get dirty again?” or “Why bother washing up when we’re only going have to redo it when we reuse the dishes.” Come to think of it, what’s the point in eating, when we’ll be hungry in a few hours time? And of course, sleeping’s unnecessary, too . . . we just always end up feeling tired again, don’t we? I don’t think I need to say anymore, do I? Some things in life just need to be repeated: and diligently.
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A single change doesn’t always effect a permanent transformation. But taking things one step at a time in your day eventually leads to trillions of new cells of “you-ness”. Proper self-care is one of the yogic principles for health and a healthy life: the way we thrive. My Ayurvedic Foot Bliss Self-Massage is 30 minutes of bliss for your skin – for some people starting simply with our feet is a gentle way-in to regular self-care. [This audio download practice comes from my The Kindest Revolution website.]
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Enjoy! suzen
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SuZen YinZen 