A Weekend of Lymphatic Massage!

Good Morning Everyone! I wanted to share with you some things I learned in my training this weekend. As an Alumni and employee at Bodymechanics, I love that there are so many training opportunities that include learning more about our physical, as well as mental and emotional well being. This past weekend I joined a group of about ten other Therapists as we studied the Lymphatic System. It was a lot more hands-on than I anticipated, which was great! We spent most of the weekend working in the Abdominal/tummy area, where we massaged the colon, and went up the sternum and into the neck area. This was just one of the Lymphatic Pathways we learned about, which is the main source of Lymphatic Drainage in the body. Our teacher, Taum Sayers, said that we should include the colon in every massage we do because its the main area where waste and toxins are cleansed from our system. To be honest, it’s not the sexiest massage technique in the world, it’s actually quite unappetizing, but if your having digestion/tummy issues it definitely helps you feel better. I went to bed last night and felt really exhausted, like I’d had some heavy massage work done, when in fact it wasn’t a deep pressure massage at all. I felt as though my body was working well, like the Lymph, interstitial fluids, etc… in my system were flowing correctly. I spent about four hours the next day driving to Vancouver and didn’t feel like a slug being in the car that long; in fact, it felt like my body still had great flow and ciculation. We learned a hand technique called “the Wave,” where we move our hand up the body but use a backward motion. It can be confusing, and took awhile to get it down, because we moved up the body while moving our hand backwards in a rocking/wave-like motion. It was fun working alongside my coworkers and previous teachers and see their different personalities come out and how they act as students rather than teachers. It was a light-hearted class, the teacher was really chill and helped us as we worked, while answering all our crazy questions. I was a little relieved to find out that I’m not the only one dealing with rough/splitting hands and I left with anther tool in my toolbox when Taum showed me how to work this place on the 7th cervical spine that is supposed to help with skin health. It’s so crazy how the body is capable of healing itself! As far as I know, there is only one other Therapist at my work that offers Lymphatic Massage, so I’m excited to use these techniques on my clients from now on. How was your weekend? Did you do anything new and exciting? Would you consider getting Lymphatic work done? Share your thoughts and story!