Two Hour Therapeutic Thai Massage Treatment

Greetings to all of you beautiful smiling friends, family, clients, those of you I see day in and day out but don’t know your names and people I haven’t met yet at all. I am writing you from Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I have been studying Therapeutic Thai Massage since September, 2017. The last time I was here was exactly 2 years ago, where I was blessed and honored to attend my first 80 hour class of Rasidaton (Gentle stretching warm up) and Nuad Boran (Therapeutic Thai Massage) and a 40 hour course in Foot Reflexology. This time, I was invited here to be the intern for 3 fall courses for a total of 380 hours of training. I am currently attending a 3 week course in Therapeutic Thai Massage. We begin each day at 7 AM with an hour of Rasidaton, sometimes called “Thai Yoga”, a gentle stretching warm up which prepares the mind and body for the practice of Nuad Boran (Thai Massage). Thai Massage is a form of bodywork designed around Sen lines and the Rasidaton wakes up our whole body from inside out to be warmed up before working on our clients. This is why we also chant in the morning, to warm up the vibration in our heart, pretty similar to singing in the shower. Part of the pali chant, asks the doctor of the Buddha, an Indian born Tibetan Yogic Doctor or Physician, named Father Shivago Komolaboat (Jivaka) “that we as practitioners will be protected from the negative forces in our patients’ illnesses while at the same time bring through our physical touch wholeness and health to their lives. That this sacred medicine may heal the world.” Rasidaton also keeps us flexible and allows us to receive grounding energy from the earth by doing Thai Massage on a mat on the ground. Isn’t it true that animals and kids are often just lying on the ground, receiving this type of relaxation often throughout the day? There are an infinite number of sen lines (or energy pathways) in the body, and in our classes we have focussed on 10 Sen lines. Energy flows through our body and when there is a blockage, we are very familiar with its symptoms such as, headache, nausea, waking up with an ache or pain, numbness or really, any kind of disease, illness or chronic pain issue. For those of you familiar with Ayurevada medicine, Sen is ‘Prana Nadis” or energetic pathways of the life giving breath in the body and the lines form an energetic body, called Pranamaya Kosha. The Sen lines Kalathari, Itha and Pingkhala, and Sahatsarangsi and Thawari as the energy lines that begin near our navels and run through our legs. All of those lines also travel to other areas of the body and this is why in Thai Massage, we always treat the whole body, not just the part that is sore or injured, craving our attention. It may be because we wear clothes that we divide the body into parts and lack the understanding that a knot in the shoulder may be connected to pain and tightness in the hamstring. For example, knee pain might be coming from deep within the hip flexor and psoas. For example, Kalathari starts one inch above the navel and travels up to the shoulder, up from the shoulder to the neck, and up to the base of the cranium, the bottom of the head where the neck meets our head. Kalathari travels down from the neck to the shoulder, through the arms and into the hands. Kalathari also travels down from the same spot, one inch above the navel, through the legs and all of the way into the lines going through our feet to our toes. You can see why we must work the whole body, even if we are going to design a therapeutic treatment to focus on one ‘problem area’ for our clients. So, as regards to our, hopefully, happy ski season that awaits us with the gift that keeps on giving, that magical water that falls from our sky for our enjoyment that has oh so many names, I am very excited to bring Therapeutic Thai Massage treatments into my massage practice of 12 years. Ski season will be the perfect time to experience a session that focuses on knee, leg and hip issues. Anyone with knee, leg and hip pains that don’t feel healthy to ski anymore or those who are in physical therapy recovering from knee or leg injuries would also benefit from this specialized treatment. We are studying techniques that relieve symptoms of “office syndrome”, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, migraines, low back pain, shoulder and neck pain, to name a few. Anxiety and emotional blockages may also be addressed with Thai massage. You can wear loose fitting pants, pajama pants or any loose fitting pants are perfect, as you will remain clothed during this session. If you would like to book a treatment upon my return, December 2Oth, please email me at ambrosiabrown@gmail.com. Two hours is ideal. If you are the kind of person that never wants the massage to end, this longer right up your alley. If you don’t have that much time but still want to get introduced to Thai massage, you may request a 90 minute treatment. I am in the beginning stages of planning a fundraiser event where you can at least observe, if you are lucky, receive one, by dropping by and donating directly to the people still suffering in Puerto Rico, where I was blessed to live a few different times in my life and am in direct contact with friends and organizers in the community of Vieques, PR. As this year’s holiday season has begun, may we be patient with ourselves as we grieve for those who are no longer here in our physical world. May we heal the pain of their loss, so that we may shine a light for our friends and family who are stuck in a dark, empty place. The holidays push that button of our grief and it can feel like someone turned on a faucet to our tears, or is honking the horn of our anger. I personally believe meditation, massage, compassion, music, laughter, talking to a friend and soaking in a hot bath with epsolm salts or Mary Jane’s Medicinals “Heavenly Hash Bath” and hot springs (since we are lucky to have them in our back yard) are a few tools we have at our fingertips to invite in the healing process. For further information or to schedule an appointment, please contact Ambrosia Brown at Telluride Wellness Center at 435-260-1122, ambrosiabrown@gmail.com or visit her website www.ambrosiabrownmassage.com. We are located in the Cimarron Lodge at the bottom of Lift 7, next to Carhenge Parking Lot. Wellness is the full integration of mind, body and spirit. We look forward to helping you towards a healthier life. By Ambrosia Brown, “Be Kind, Unwind!”