Guided Imagery and Massage

      A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read. 

 ~The Talmud

Have you ever woke up from a powerful dream and still felt the emotions that you were "feeling" in your dream?  Better still, have you ever had your significant other wake you because you were fighting someone or something in your dream and it carried over into beating the crap out of your bedmate?  Had a dream that you felt might be a premonition?  Chances are most of us have had at least one of these dreams but when we are asked if we ever stopped to wonder what the dream was trying to communicate to us, the group would be quite small.

Ancients believed that dreams had the power to solve problems, heal sickness and bring spiritual revelation.  Scientists today subscribe to the theory that dreams are a product of a certain kind of sleep and a way for the brain to process important data.  Mystics believe dreams are opportunities for the soul to leave the body and experience other dimensions, while psychologists believe dreams represent the working of the unconscious mind.  Whatever the reason, it is estimated that we spend one third of our lives sleeping and on average we dream for a total of two hours or so every night.

During later stages of gestation the unborn child exhibits signs of REM (rapid eye movement) activity in the womb.  This has led to the suggestion that dreaming is somehow linked with human growth and development.  Similarly, lab testing has shown that if you deprive people from REM sleep, the subject becomes unwell very fast.  It seems that even if we do not remember them, our dreams play an important role in health and well being.  It has even been suggested that we sleep in order to dream.

So is it a reasonable leap that guided imagery can have some of the same healthy effects as dreaming? 
Sometimes lumped in with meditation, guided imagery is more of an illustrated journey that moves the body and mind to a place of serenity through the use of verbal pictures in a kind of narrative form. It can be either pre-recorded or improvised, and uses the spoken word presented in soothing tones to create a calming visualization. This is especially useful for people who feel stressed out most of the time or who may find it difficult to totally relax on their own. 

So what happens when you combine massage therapy with guided imagery?  Various studies have shown that guided imagery and massage both help to boost our immune system as well as encourage relaxation and elevate our moods.   Putting together this relaxation technique with massage therapy helps reinforce the body, mind and spirit connection in several ways. Using touch, massage brings a physical awareness to the body, while the spoken word can encourage the client's thoughts to be quiet. Together they may assist in generating a deeper sense of internal spirituality.  While guided imagery is more than simply telling your client to relax, it doesn’t have to include a fully illustrated journey. The goal of combining the practices of guided meditation and massage is to bring the client’s mind into harmony with a relaxed and stress-free physical state.  Two examples of useful journeys are described below:

· Imagine warm sunlight coming down from above. The warm, golden light beams down, touches the top of your head and relaxes the tension held in your scalp. The golden glow moves down your body slowly stopping to warm each muscle group, draining any tightness into the earth below you.

· As you feel your body relax and release tension it becomes lighter and lighter. As resistance is removed, your body becomes so light it begins to float. You lift off the earth and float like a cloud up to the sky. The warm sun envelops you and a gentle breeze carries you through the sky.


I must admit I was one of the skeptics and reluctantly agreed to allow a massage therapist friend of mine to incorporate some cranial sacral therapy (CST) into my massage session.  With her soothing words and gentle touch I relaxed to an almost dream-like state and was magically teleported to a waterfall surrounded by lush green foliage.  I was so shocked by what seemed like a clever version of a Jedi mind trick that I abruptly left my peaceful imagery and said "What the hell was that?".  The CST allowed me to get more relaxed than I had ever been during a massage session so I took it a step further and did yoga with guided imagery.  I came away from my first yoga/imagery session feeling absolutely stoned.....but in a good way of course.

Not every client will be open to guided imagery; some may actually find it more stressful, conflicting with their own efforts of relaxing during a massage. For some people, a quiet massage therapy session with gentle music is more soothing. But for those who find the inclusion of guided imagery a good thing, it can be an effective addition to their approach in maintaining good physical health and mental well-being. 

I say let your unconscious be your guide!