LIFE BEGINS IN WATER
An article from Whole Living Journal, authored by Alan Hundley
Watsu: a Zen-like floating massage performed with slow, graceful movements in 95-degree water.
I experienced my first Watsu session in a warm pool here in Cincinnati during the summer of 2000, after returning from Peru. As I was held and moved through the water, I immediately returned to an experience of new beginnings and oneness that I felt late on night in Peru.
During the trip, my wife, Kathleen, and I toured the sacrd sites of the Andes and studied the mysteries of the Incan Medicine Wheel. One of the most jprofound experiences of the trip occurred during a ceremony in the natural warm springs of Aguas Calientes, a small town at the foothills of Machu Picchu. While floating in the warm waters under the clear night sky, we performed birth rites on each other; a ritual of releasing the past and accepting oneself REBORN as a child of the Universe. It was this memory that surfaced during my WATSU session.
Watsu(derived from "WATer shiatSU"), at its simplest level is a floating massage. In a Watsu session you put on a bathing suit, receive a few instructions and, supported by the therapist, you float comfortably in a large pool of water which is heated to body temperature. Your muscles are massaged, your joints mobilized, your tissues stretched, and energy pathways opened.
Many clients experience a deep state of tranquility and peace that they describe as womb-like. Physical therapists, massage therapists and other bodyword practitioners all over the world use WATSU to treat stress, chronic back pain, orthopedic problems, arthritis, sleep disorders, fibromyalgia, and a host of other conditions.
The characteristic that makes WATSU stand out from so many other forms of bodywork, however, is that it gives you the opportunity to go beyond the physical. When the body relaxes deeply-as it can in the warm, weightlessness of WATSU-the mind can cease its chatter. And when the body and mind are quiet, what remains is the ESSENCE OF YOUR BEING. Your SOUL. Your SPIRIT. The REAL YOU.
Consciousness is heightened during a WATSU session. The sense of expansion that it encourages is freeing to the body, mind, and spirit. Some describe the experience as being similar to deep meditation. As in meditation, there are thoughts, but the thoughts are experienced inside a larger domain of consciousness. Therefore it is different from just "spacing out." AWARENESS becomes sharper and clearer.
In addition, WATSU offers an opportunity to regain the sense of elegance in movement that we all begin to lose with age. Almost everyone who tries WATSU agrees that it is an AWE-INSPIRING experience!
