Yoga and Chakaras

Went to the message woman yesterday. I was clear there would be no more Swedish, deep-tissue massages for me. She agreed since she recently threw out her back trying to dig into a concrete like body of a client. The massage was still pretty in-depth: especially around the neck area. Part of me thought: Maybe I should find a massage therapist who does the strait forward, gentle, relaxing kind of massage. But I like this massage therapist as a person so much. And it also occurred to me: Maybe this is the kind of massage I NEED, not that I want.

The whole point of yoga is to treat the body like dough to be kneaded out and stretched -increasing circulation and flexibility. Your body idealistically consists of bones, organs, blood, and muscle all confined under skin. But in reality there's also the lymphatic system of mess and pulp that ends up really determining how much blood circulation your body gets (aka how much oxygen and nutrients are spread around your body). This system directly corresponds to fending off infection and ensuring the system is running smoothly. 

Yoga (and exercise in general) moves the lymph system of otherwise stagnant mass of pulp around. Massage ideally has the capacity to do the same. That's what deep-tissue massage is for: increasing this circulation. So maybe it's a good thing that I have a massage therapist that doesn't just lightly touch the top of the skin, but goes deeper so this stuff gets kneaded and moved around throughout the body. 

I also talked with my friend Heather to figure out which yoga classes are Beginner in case I want to take more. The last time I was at the class I also took some pictures they had of yoga poses and the chakara system. 

It's interesting -when I was doing the 20 minute guided meditation with Agatha, she would go chakara to chakara trying to make us see how how they were functioning and setting them to function right. When we got to the third chakara (from the bottom) I actually saw a yellowish-orange color. And the she said, "This chakara is usually seen as a yellow or orange color." It was awesome. :)