A DEEP look into Lomi Lomi massage
Lomi Lomi massage is a return to the inner self, a tracing back through the generations to your “Family” of origins. connecting, self-transformation, weaving your heart-centered intentions into this present moment. Working from your Heart and transmitting that out to your shoulders and into your arms and embracing with your hands. This work is about your being and connecting to that very core of your nature as a healer, facilitator, a heart-centered human being. It’s about alignment and being “pono” with your work as a therapist, facilitator, teacher.
Lomi Lomi massage conveys all of this in its approach to the whole person, not compartmentalizing, not trying to fix a problem, but allowing for a change to come forth within a person on their own terms, in a safe space, a trusting space, a space of Aloha. That is what you create for the person receiving. Not only that but you are, at the same time, creating that space for YOURSELF, it can be challenging. How can a massage “modality” convey all of these things? How can massage techniques convey these concepts? Well, its simple when you remove the techniques and look at yourself, because, in truth, Lomi Lomi is about YOU.
The Hawaiian principles of Aloha(Love) and Pono(alignment) can be applied to just about everything in your life, it just so happens that the Hawaiian culture has applied these principles in the bodywork they created ages ago to facilitate a sense of peacefulness and well being and clearing space for vision and purpose in one’s life to emerge. When Lomi Lomi massage is taught there is a focus on the individual and where they are at in their life at this present moment and honoring that. Techniques to align and coordinate the right and left brain together are taught along with conscious movement and stretching to get one centered in their body-mind and heart. Learning techniques that enhance a massage experience to such a degree that when one experiences it they cannot compare it to anything else. It can be that unique for people. Lomi Lomi massage is unique, the techniques applied to create a flow like waves in the ocean, gentle and light and then powerful and deep.
We create a temple-like space, facilitate trust and safety, take absolute care of the person receiving, and above all hold space for them to feel and experience whatever they wish, without judgment. There is also a simplicity to Lomi Lomi, bringing you back up from the “deep” explanation. The simplicity of this style of massage is that it brings a level of common sense back into your techniques, your movement, and your overall well-being as a therapist.
We spend so much effort and energy using our hands in massage that we forget that we have forearms and can use those parts of our body to save our hands from getting fatigued and burned out. We also bring breath back into our techniques, how often have you found yourself breathing shallow or hardly at all when working? It’s okay, I do it too, sometimes.
When I get into the “Lomi Space” I am reminded of breath and begin to bring much-needed energy back into my techniques, even in the clinical applications of techniques I can refocus with my breathing and become more present in my sessions and bring my clients into the present moment as well. In conclusion, I will state that in my 15+ yrs of practicing massage and facilitating for people that Sacred Lomi(the style I learned from my teachers) helped me to re-affirm why I became a therapist and re-opened me to a level of human connection and interaction that I had been lacking for a long time.
It is with great joy and honor that I am able to facilitate this work alongside my teachers Tom Cochran and Donna Jason of Sacred Lomi Bodywork and my thanks to those who helped to open me back up to this wonderful realm of heart-centered connection and expression. David Lauterstein talks about putting the soul back into the body, and so eloquently is that stated in his method of bodywork(Deep Massage). Lomi Lomi puts the HEART back into the Soul and is a wonderful complement to any practice. As the Hawaiians say “Aloha mai e”(I Invite Love to you) and “E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe” ( May Blessings ever be with you)
Register for the Lomi Lomi Workshop with Jason Bratcher on Saturday & Sunday, September 28-29 – Click here to register today!