Touched by Grace

For clarification, Grace is a massage therapist and all touching was done in a professional, therapeutic manner.  I first met Grace a year ago.  She is a talented yoga instructor that is very anatomy focused.  During yoga sessions, she will make the slightest correction to your form and the pose either becomes stupidly simple or infinitely more difficult.  She knows the body!  In conversations after yoga class, I found out that Grace is also a licensed massage therapist and specializes in deep tissue work with a holistic body approach.  Ever since the amazing, deep tissue work that I received from Scott Dolly at RUNGA 2016 in Costa Rica, I’ve been looking for someone good in Chicago.  Viola, here is Grace!

I have a high tolerance for pain and a low tolerance for being tickled.  Seriously, I almost convulse when someone tickles my feet.  It makes me squirmy just thinking about it!  She remarked, that she sees laughter and pain sensations as being very similar and there is probably some pain in there somewhere.  “We will find it”, she said.  Oh boy, I thought.  Then she mentioned that she likes to see immediate results.  Ok, I like that!  Let’s get going!

The set up isn’t anything like a spa massage.  The massage table is in middle of the yoga studio. You remain fully clothed for mobility.  There are no essential oils or soothing meditation sounds.  It is just you, the table, Grace and Grace’s knowledge of how the body works. Less is definitely more, in this case!  It starts with a quick chat about the process and reassurance that the session is just about you.  I wanted the session to focus on my tight hamstrings and hips.  I am in my car most of the day, going appointment to appointment and sitting for hours in traffic.  All that sitting takes a physical toll over time and makes my body too tight to do some yoga poses properly.  It’s way beyond just stretching to get lose, hence the session with Grace. Especially after a long Chicago Winter, it’s time to loosen things back up.

To start, Grace has you lay there and do a body self assessment.  How do you feel, does one side of your body feel differently than the other, what sensations are you feeling right now, etc.  For me, the right side of my body felt noticeably heavier.  No pain or anything.  Well, except for my “texting thumb”.  I could hear Rene in my head, “Be sure to tell Grace about your thumb or I will.”  So, I made a quick mention of my thumb and moved on.  Grace then proceeded to muscle test in order to determine which areas to work on.  I’d lift my leg from the table, she would put some resistance on my shin, then have me make an ‘ahhhh’ sound or lift an arm and make a fist.  If my leg went down, she explained that the issue was really in my shoulder or in my jaw or in my neck.  It is all tied together in a line down the body, she explained.  When we started, I could only raise my legs 75-80 degrees from the table and my hips were equally challenged.  At the end of the session, I had 90+ degree range in my legs and my hips were noticeably more open and loose. Some firsts for me, I received a deep jaw massage, an interesting diaphragm massage and a psoas muscle release.  Oh yes, there was also a bonus deep thumb massage, that resulted in a couple of curious pops but felt great.  During the final body self assessment, everything felt perfectly even, lighter and balanced out. It was only a 60 min session and I felt like I ran a marathon.  I was seriously knocked out the rest of the day.  Two naps and a full nights sleep later, I feel like a new man.  I already scheduled a session for next month.  Perhaps a full lotus pose in my future??

RUNGA 2016

The Gong Show

This weekend we went to our 2nd gong bath.  It was at one of the studios we attend regularly, Tejas Yoga Studio in Chicago’s south loop.  For those not familiar with a gong bath, it is a meditative experience where you lie still on your mat (just like savasana) and listen to the sound of gongs.  Often times, there are other instruments/ sounds mixed in and at its high point, it is very loud.  It’s much more musical than you would think, almost like a concert.  You’re welcome to use any props to make your experience most comfortable as you are laying still for quite a while (this one was about an hour and fifteen minutes).

My first gong bath experience was also at Tejas with the same gong facilitator.  But, my two experiences were very different.  During the first one, I felt I was in a very meditative state – you know that feeling you get in a deep savasana where you are pretty much out of it?  At points I was sure I was levitating and, during peak moments, I saw waves of colors swirling over and around me.  I know this sounds a bit woo-woo, but just think of it like a weird, deep dream.  During the second one, this past weekend, I mainly felt anxious during it.  No colors, no floating off the floor.  I felt really nervous during the first part and I just couldn’t relax and concentrate on my breath.  After a while, frustration crept in and I was aware of any cough, sneeze, or movement from others nearby.  The time still went by quickly, but when it was over, I just thought “huh – that was weird” instead of feeling light and rested like I did with the first one.

Chuck and I recapped our experiences on the ride home and they were very similar.  We wondered why we both felt anxious with this one and blamed each other for putting off negative energy as the cause.  But, really, there are probably a variety of reasons.  Maybe a bunch of people in the room did have negative energy affecting it? It was a Friday night right after work.  Our position in the room?  Expectations from the first time? We did an hour of gentle yoga prior to the going bath that we didn’t do last time – maybe that contributed? Time of year? It is cold AF right now.  Political climate and our current “leader” maybe adds a new level of universal stress?

Chuck mentioned his experience to James (one of Teja’s owners) at yoga today to see how his experience compared with ours. James said he had to sit up at one point into a seated position because of the intensity of the gongs, but overall he had a positive experience.  I think that just like yoga, each person’s experience is going to be different based on you – with some level of influence from your environment (in this case, the immediate room that day).  Nonetheless, it’s a really unique and cool meditative experience to try – we’ll see what the next one brings!