On Friday, during our retreat, we had Lyndale come and offer us the most exquisite deep muscle massages. I prefer a lighter massage with more smoothing motions, but I looked forward to a deep muscle massage as something different. Deep muscle massages do just that: they go deeply into the muscles, ligaments, joints, and tissue. A well-trained massage therapist like Lyndale soon learns exactly which muscles are causing you issues, and he is determined to work out the kinks, literally.
There is something very intimate with receiving deep muscle therapy. Our bodies hold our memories in our tissues and muscles, and so there is a “stirring” of memories that occurs while experiencing deep muscle work. For some, massage can bring out emotions we sought to bury in our memories. For me, myself, there were a couple times I felt like either hugging Lyndale or punching him in the face, and I am by no means a “hitting” kind of person.
Following our yoga practice that day, I led the women on a guided meditation through the body. As we meditated, the song/chant, “I Am Remembering Who I Am,” played in the background. How appropriate. (I won’t take credit for the song. It was one I randomly selected, but of course, I believe Spirit guided me to it. No such things as coincidences, right?)
Here are the notes I wrote in my journal after the guided meditation. I will let them speak for themselves.
“Connecting to my body, feeling my body, being in my body and yet observing the body. Seeing each part of the body and recognizing each part individually, thanking it and blessing it and loving it, as an individual part of a whole. Being aware of little nuances that we forget to take our awareness to. ‘I Am Remembering Who I Am.'”