A person visiting an Ayurvedic practitioner or therapist for the first time usually does not yet know much about the unique Ayurvedic healing art that underlies it all. Nevertheless, the massage unfolds its effects: it leads to a "being touched", a feeling of well-being, a physical relaxation, a stillness or relaxation of the mind and thoughts, or a realization in the form of an "aha" effect of various kinds.
"I've never been touched like this before."
"I felt like you've known me forever."
... were astonished statements of clients* after an Abhyanga, the Ayurvedic full body massage with warm oil. When a client opens his eyes again after an Abhyanga, or a Mukabhyanga, the oil massage especially of the head, face, décolleté and shoulders, it is not seldom his astonished children's eyes from earlier days, remembering primal trust and security.
Elementary balance for physical and mental well-being
The secret lies in the quality of touch, the therapist's open attitude focused one hundred percent on the guest, and the universal effectiveness of elemental forces.
"Like strengthens like, opposite balances too much or too little." Water extinguishes fire, heat reduces cold, moisture cancels dryness. This is also the case in Ayurvedic massage. Therapists apply oil to dryness, heat to cold sensations, calm too much heat in the body through cooling, and activate slowed physical processes through stimulating and metabolism-stimulating treatments. They treat immobility, such as blocked tissues and congested bodily pathways, with moving and releasing herbal oils and releasing techniques. The practitioners soothe the stressed by a too-fast life with a gentle and enveloping oil massage. To the hardened by sorrow and suffering they meet with the qualities of softness and warmth.
In this way, after a treatment, the clients experience what their lack is. They get a (first) balance to that which does not let them be whole anymore. They feel seen and understood and get an idea of the possible healing that especially their body and mind need. This is what Ayurveda calls "holistic". Body, mind and spirit are seen as a whole and deficiency, as well as abundance, in the sense of "too much", are balanced.
Releasing and processing stored emotions through massage
This results in a special effectiveness of Ayurvedic massage treatments in cases of, for example, life crises and traumas (after the acute phase), stress and excessive demands, chronic pain, lack of self-worth, fear of failure or lethargy and listlessness. According to Ayurvedic understanding, in every cell of a human body, experiences are "temporarily stored" as emotion, as vibrations. As a form of repression or lack of time to digest the experience. Ayurvedic massage with all its aspects, in combination with the "heart quality" of the therapist, is now able to reach and touch these deposits. The guest comes into the position to bring his undigested and as emotional vibrations stored old deposits back to a process. Be it in the form of feelings that are actually relived and thus processed or the proverbial bursting knot, because a blockage is released and e.g. long overdue decisions can be made.