LIFE BEGINS IN
WATER
An article from
Whole Living Journal, authored by Alan Hundley
Watsu: a Zen-like floating massage performed
with slow, graceful movements in 95-degree water.
I experienced my first Watsu session
in a warm pool here in Cincinnati during the summer of 2000, after
returning from Peru. As I was held and moved through the
water, I immediately returned to an experience of new beginnings and
oneness that I felt late on night in Peru.
During the trip, my wife,
Kathleen, and I toured the sacrd sites of the Andes and studied the
mysteries of the Incan Medicine Wheel. One of the most
jprofound experiences of the trip occurred during a ceremony in the
natural warm springs of Aguas Calientes, a small town at the foothills
of Machu Picchu. While floating in the warm waters under the
clear night sky, we performed birth rites on each other; a ritual of
releasing the past and accepting oneself REBORN as a child of the
Universe. It was this memory that surfaced during my WATSU
session.
Watsu(derived from "WATer
shiatSU"), at its simplest level is a floating massage. In a
Watsu session you put on a bathing suit, receive a few instructions
and, supported by the therapist, you float comfortably in a large pool
of water which is heated to body temperature. Your muscles
are massaged, your joints mobilized, your tissues stretched, and energy
pathways opened.
Many clients experience a deep
state of tranquility and peace that they describe as womb-like.
Physical therapists, massage therapists and other bodyword
practitioners all over the world use WATSU to treat stress, chronic
back pain, orthopedic problems, arthritis, sleep disorders,
fibromyalgia, and a host of other conditions.
The characteristic that makes
WATSU stand out from so many other forms of bodywork, however, is that
it gives you the opportunity to go beyond the physical. When
the body relaxes deeply-as it can in the warm, weightlessness of
WATSU-the mind can cease its chatter. And when the body and
mind are quiet, what remains is the ESSENCE OF YOUR BEING.
Your SOUL. Your SPIRIT. The REAL YOU.
Consciousness is heightened
during a WATSU session. The sense of expansion that it
encourages is freeing to the body, mind, and spirit. Some
describe the experience as being similar to deep meditation.
As in meditation, there are thoughts, but the thoughts are
experienced inside a larger domain of consciousness.
Therefore it is different from just "spacing out."
AWARENESS becomes sharper and clearer.
In addition, WATSU offers an
opportunity to regain the sense of elegance in movement that we all
begin to lose with age. Almost everyone who tries WATSU
agrees that it is an AWE-INSPIRING experience!
