The only certainty I personally believe we have about life is its impermanence.

Science is telling us more and more that we live in a multi universe which is constantly expanding, the further we look, the more gets created.

From these two facts, I derive my personal spiritual belief: that we are here to grow, to evolve and therefore to change.

I am aware that this is a personal belief and it’s not my intention to convince anyone about it, I’m just preparing the ground for what I’m about to share about my life.

Nearly two years ago I started a wonderful journey, which through daily meditations and all-day awareness is constantly transforming me into a new, more evolved, more sensitive version of myself, who is more in touch with subtle energies and is also more careful and caring towards others, I think/hope and definitely try. 😉
Obviously, this is a process and there is no goal in this process. There is only a constant, diligent and committed work on myself, my moods, my thoughts, my words and my connection to energy, to source, to the divine, to… whatever you want to call the energy that is within us and within everything around us.

This work has obviously brought changes in myself that reflect in my relationships both with others, with life in general and with myself.

These changes also reflected in the Thai Yoga Massage Courses I teach, in what I teach, how I teach, what has been for 20 years now, my passion.

I have to admit that it has been a slow process, which has required a lot of sitting with what I have, feeling into the new me, connecting the two, checking what is possible for me and what is not, what feels right and what doesn’t to then create little subtle changes to the course program to reflect the changes in me.

To get a bit more into the specifics, so you can understand what I’m talking about, I’ve always taught in a very technical, hands on, practical way, that looks at technique, body mechanics, position of pressure points and meridians and teaches all of that to minimize injuries in the practitioner and maximise the benefits on the receiver.
All fair enough from my point of view, that was my focus, that was what I extracted  from my many years of experience, learning, my personal injuries and my personality.

The energetic, if you want, more spiritual, more subtle side of the massage I have always left for each student to develop, with time, for themselves. Ultimately, it’s quite a personal journey and something not necessarily so easy to teach.
And one needs to be aware that Thai Massage is a practice, like Yoga is, like martial arts and as such, it’s only practice itself that will take you there. The meditative side of it is not something I can actually teach. It something that happens, once everything else I teach has become automatic.

So, once that happens, if you think about it, massage in itself is all about energy. It’s about contact, about love, about an exchange, an interaction that, if it flows ends up being beneficial for both the practitioner and the receiver.

Our breath is our guide, our sensitivity is our antenna, our intention is the cushion we massage on.
Thai people are Buddhists and they pray every day, they have altars, ceremonies, they sing before each massage to set an intention. That is something that cannot be taught, one needs to believe, one needs to have the intention.

And what is there more than massage, more than Thai Massage itself, that puts you in contact with another on all levels? I can’t think of much, beside love making and awesome hugs or cuddles.

I personally believe that someone who is interested in studying massage needs to enjoy touch, contact, embrace and energetic exchanges.

When you think of a great hug, what comes to mind?

For me a hug is a soft, enveloping, an open-hearted exchange where both participants are both giving and receiving energetically; where a syntropy of feel good hormones happens, where relaxation happens and the nervous system sinks down into a beautiful state of peace.

What I have just described above is the perfect state for healing. Isn’t that amazing?  If linked to intention, acupressure, meridian work, physical movement in the form of stretches, rocking, oscillating the body and the letting go, the surrender that the receiver can allow if they trust the practitioner, we have the perfect recipe for healing, for rejuvenation, for an energetic exchange that has the potential to fulfill both parts.

So, what has changed in the courses? Not a huge amount, if I am objective. But enough in my delivery and a bit in the sequence to allow people with different rhythms, different styles to adapt what they learn to themselves. I have also introduced options that allow you to adapt to the emotional and physical state of the receiver.

Ultimately though, to be able to accumulate all the tricks that will give you a much vaster range of possibilities and flexibility within the sequence, you will have to study some of the advanced stuff with me too. As every single technique and stretch adds so much more to your tool box and enriches your options immensely.