The Enlightened Body Blog

Massage Philosophy: Loving Time

I was teaching a massage business class about office design, time management, policies, procedures, etc. We had just touched upon the elegant Buddhist concept that 60 percent of healing is environment. Some spaces you just walk into and immediately feel better; some you walk into and just feel the energy sucked out - like where you go to renew your driver's license. So the students and I discussed creating a healing space - how to create your therapy-space as one that you love, one that adds energy and joy to you and everyone who enters it.

Then we collectively came up with something new to all of us. We began to look at time. I said, "We can organize our time so that we could love it too."

I asked the class, "How many of you LOVE the way you use time?"

Unsurprisingly, nobody's hands went up. So many of us are quite bitter about time. People these days almost reflexively feel a victim relationship to time. We complain there's not enough of it; that it's hard to organize it well. And then there's death - you know - shit happens then you die. Wow - talk about a crappy approach to time management! This brought us to a beautiful discussion about ways you could love your time. How can you organize your day so you love time as much as you can create a space you love to work in?

What I've found so far is that there is an "interior" decoration of time as well an "exterior." 

The interior is deeply appreciating that one is alive. Each present moment is unique and magical because it is the only moment in which we can act, the only moment in which we are alive! I must say that, since our discussion in class, most moments have felt more deeply exciting. The "exterior" decoration is one's daily or weekly, etc. plan. How can you distribute the events throughout the day and the rhythm of them such that the day is more like a symphony with fast movements and slow; flute solos and giant orchestral jams? We are each the conductor of our particular symphony.

Loving time - it's a beautiful thing.

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One of the most often asked questions asked by future LMTs is, why should I choose Lauterstein-Conway Massage School for my massage education? Often times, we are told it's our philosophies about wellness that set us apart in the minds of students - where else would you have a conversation like this one?

7 Deep Marketing Tips for Massage Therapists

The more you learn about massage and bodywork, the more you learn about life as a whole. I have been a therapist now for 32 years and a teacher for 27. I’ve learned that the same principles that apply in every bodywork session apply equally to every aspect of our lives. As a matter of fact, it seems we can only have both success and satisfaction when we attend to these things. Some of these principles are: to be centered: to meet people openly; to really get to know our clients through their tissues, nervous system, history; to take actions that will profoundly help them; to monitor and make sure we are helping; and to periodically disengage, re-examine how things are going and celebrate our successes.

Principles of Deep Marketing

The beginning, middle and end of Deep Marketing is centering yourself. Without being centered you can’t do anything well! It is the precondition for all success in the practice and in the business of bodywork. For instance, we all know if your heart is not in what you are doing, there is little satisfaction. The same holds true for the rest of the body!

Marketing with your body means attending to the following with respect to being centered. Often when I sit down at work, I will center myself before I initiate any other work. And I connect with these seven levels of body/mind.

1. Are you grounded? Do you feel literally and figuratively supported by the earth underneath you? Realize that however high your aspirations, you are each just another animal inhabiting the earth. Feel supported by your legs and feet. What do you really stand for? Who and what principles do you stand by?
   
2. Are you excited? If you can’t contact your excitement for growing your business, you will not mobilize the energy required. This is associated with so-called second chakra. Awkward to say but the successful therapist cultivates an irresistible attraction to his or her massage practice. Get excited!
   
3. Do you use your gut in helping you make decisions? Freud said all important decisions are based on insufficient information – the mind alone is an insufficient tool. It is your gut, the feeling in the pit of your stomach, that you also must listen to. And we have to have “guts.” To be successful and to maintain it over time, takes courage, takes guts, inner resolve. Do you support yourself through your lumbar vertebrae and through sufficient breath to give you the energy and determination you need to succeed?
   
4. Is your heart into what you are doing? Is your heart passionately connected to where you are working? to the clients that you have? Let your heart do the talking and listen to what you truly love and want to do. There is nothing more lovely than seeing someone and being someone whose heart is totally into their work and business. The person who loves their work is an irresistible force.
   
5. Do you feel confident in what you say about your work? When people ask you what you do, do you have words that you feel great and honest about? Word-of-mouth is most important in business-building and most importantly, your mouth, your words! I like to think that the best marketing is like a song sung because you really mean it. Take the time to let your mind and your heart participate in the co-creation of statements you make about your work that optimize people becoming and staying your clients.
6. For all the time we spending thinking, the mind is often underappreciated. Use your incredible mind, both its logical and imaginative sides, to slow down and make well-considered decisions about how you want to grow your business. And, as the previous five points have indicated, don’t let your mind try to run the show in isolation. Make all decisions asking yourself – is this grounded, am I excited about it, does my gut tell me it’s right, does my heart say yes, do the words ring true? 7) Be open to inspirations from beyond your usual self. The best ideas seem to come out of nowhere or from “on high”. Cultivate your openness to your “higher self”. Sometimes, facing a difficult decision, I will just sit with the problem, until by just being receptive, a solution just appears in my mind that is perfect. Some of the greatest successes and satisfactions arise from an amazing place of inspiration. Many great art and science discoveries tell us this.

Massage and bodywork have their power by never forgetting to honor the role the body plays in lives well lived. So your success as a massage professional must arise from this same grounded place. Take refuge in the wisdom in your body and watch your great work grow and grow!

David Lauterstein: Massage Therapy Hall of Fame 2011

By David Lauterstein, as published the World Massage Festival, which David has been nominated as a 2011 Hall of Fame inductee.

I am David Lauterstein, Co-founder of The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School in Austin.  I have been a massage therapy teacher since 1982 and therapist since 1977.  

Here's my story!

I was raised in Chicago by a mother who was a pianist, a father who was a dentist, and my Godmother who was a tall, wonderful African-American woman, Millie Barry.

My earliest interest was music and the first 25 years of my life that was my passion.  I played guitar, banjo, dobro, and mandolin throughout high school.

I loved playing with bluesmen particularly and was good friends with MIchael Bloomfield.  I also had the honor to play with Otis Spann and others and to meet Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Son House, Fred McDowell, Sleepy John Ester, Big Joe Williams and many other wonderful folk musicians.

In 1967 I studied Indian classical music at the Society for the Study of Eastern Arts in Berkeley, California.  Then I did an about face and decided to get my degree in Western classical music, studying mostly at the University of Illinois where I got my degree in music composition and spent a year doing post-graduate studies with Wolf Rosenberg in Munich.

Beginning in 1972, my interests in yoga, martial arts, and psychotherapy started becoming more important to me and I began transitioning to what I later discovered as my life work - massage therapy.

Coming back from Munich, I got into Gestalt psychotherapy, body-centered explorations, and Rolfing.  My Rolfing experiences, at the hands primarily of Allen Davidson, were especially profound.  I started a study group with Allen and a number of other Rolfers, psychotherapists, and martial artists.  During the time of that study group I found myself experimenting more and more with bodywork and in 1977 I graduated from the Chicago School of Massage Therapy and began a professional practice in massage therapy in Chicago.

I practiced for a number of years and learned by trading and receiving from anyone in town or passing through.  Thus, I was exposed early on to Aston Patterning, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Polarity, Hoshino Therapy, Zero Balancing, body-centered psychotherapy, shiatsu, and other fascinating approaches.  

In 1982 I met Rolfer, Daniel Blake, who wanted to teach a training in "Structural Bodywork".  This was his offshoot of Rolfing in which he tried to teach how Ida Rolf actually practiced (she rarely did the 10-session recipe unless she was teaching).  In 1982-83 I did 500 hours of advanced training with Daniel and was certified by the Structural Bodywork Institute.  At that time, I was also fascinated with Craniosacral Therapy and studied with Daniel Bensky and the Australian osteopath, Charles Lincoln and his wife Deborah.   I also studied character structure with body-centered psychotherapist, Robert Phillips and began a long association with psychotherapist, Paul D. Brown.

In 1982 I began teaching at the Chicago School of Massage Therapy.  I was, along with Jim Hackett, the primary instructor in anatomy and deep tissue massage.

I discovered how much I loved teaching.  Shortly thereafter I began teaching throughout the U.S.  Some of my first workshops were in Texas and I fell in love with Austin.  At this time I wrote the book, Putting the Soul Back in the Body:  A Manual of Imaginative Anatomy for Massage Therapists.

I moved to Austin in 1984 with the intention of just teaching advanced trainings.  However, I found that good basic training was lacking.  So I joined forces with the first massage school in Texas, the Texas School of Massage Studies, becoming their Dean of Faculty.  As such, the first thing I did was hire an advanced student of mine, John Conway.  At this time, I was also the editor of the national magazine, the Massage Therapy Journal.  

After three and half years at the Texas School of Massage Studies, John and i decided we wanted to work at a school that was "run in a manner as healing as the subjects we teach".  We both deeply wanted to be teaching at a school in which the compassionate and exacting principles governing high level massage were practiced also in the way that staff and students were treated.  So we started The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School in January, 1989.

Although Texas at that time required only 250 hours, we began with a radical three semester curriculum encompassing 700 hours from our very start!  We covered Swedish, Deep, Sports Massage, and Shiatsu.  We also included advanced studies in psychologically-oriented bodywork, Craniosacral therapy, Zero Balancing, and advanced Structural Bodywork.  

Paralleling these early years, I began in 1986 studying Zero Balancing with its founder, Dr. Fritz Smith, MD.  I found in classes and discussions with Fritz that the Deep Massage teaching I had been doing dovetailed remarkably with Zero Balancing's philosophy and practice.  In the 23 years since I have been teaching primarily Deep Massage:  The Lauterstein Method and Zero Balancing.  What distinguishes these approaches is a very conscious engagement of both the body's structure as well its energy.  So many bodyworkers either practice medically or in a new age manner - yet I've always been interested in how to practice in a unified manner -  with scientific rigor as well as heightened imagination and spirit.  

I have taught throughout the U.S. since 1982 and in England also annually since 1996.  I have written the Seven Dimensions of Touch, What is Zero Balancing?, the Poetics of Touch and other essays published internationally.  

In 2008 I recorded my first CD for massage and bodywork, Roots and Branches.  This is the first CD recorded live in the studio simultaneous to actual massages 

being performed in the studio - so we would have a music that actually arose from massage itself.   I also have recorded two DVD's of Deep Massage: The Lauterstein Method which accompany the workshops I teach.

The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School has just celebrated its 20th Anniversary!  I am proud of our training of 1000's of wonderful therapists.  We continue to strive each day for the highest standards in the field!  I have been a therapist for 32 years yet I am still struck with wonder by the endless depth of what we learn and what we can accomplish with bodywork and high level education.