What
​Song Dragon Massage
This unique experience is a signature blend of Ethan's broad experiences. Combining elements and influences of Taijiquan, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, Myofascial Release, and Tui Na, this massage experience induces an altered state of consciousness through mindful touch and deeply soothing flow.
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Long, sweeping strokes shift you from your narrative consciousness into rich sensory experience of your body
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Steady, wave-like rhythms and slow, calming holds allow your nervous system to drop into deep rest
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As your mind slips into a meditative, trance-like state, your whole system re-equilibrates and resets
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You can access the tranquility of a no-mind state, in a safe, peaceful environment, taking a break from the chaos
The practice of Taijiquan (Tai Chi Chuan), to me, is the embodied practice of Taoist philosophy. Part of this process is the releasing, opening, and expanding of mind and body (which Chinese thought does not separate the way we do in the West). This is a very poor way to describe the Taiji principle of Song (pronounced more like "soon" than "sawn"), or Fangsong. When we practice Taiji, we are reminded to release all unnecessary tension in the body and mind, which allows the flow of energy to open and swell. When we sink into a deeper state of ease, openness, and flow, the mind calms, our awareness swells and opens, and simultaneously becomes less concerned with chasing meaning. We rest in witness. In life, there is no substitute for being able to access this for ourselves... but I have found ways to help people sample it within a controlled environment.
Among the many modalities that I was drawn to and took inspiration from, one of the most potent is Lomi Lomi, the bodywork element of a broader set of traditional Polynesian healing practices. Lomi Lomi has a great deal of insightful substance in how we care for the body and spirit, but one of the signature elements in the style involves long, sweeping strokes that connect the whole body in a continuous flow, swelling, cresting, and subsiding like the waves on the shore. This creates a really powerful experience of wholeness and connection in the waters of the body, and it soothes the mind directly through the embodied, neuromuscular, proprioceptive, and sensory immersion of this flowing touch. By combining the whole body flow of Taijiquan in my own body, with the whole body flow over and through the client's body, we slip into a moment of nonduality where we harmonize and sink into a deep, meditative state. The body flushes and renews, while the mind accesses similar rest to a deep sleep state.
There is a state that we can access through a variety of practices, including through meditation, which can be referred to as "no-mind." In this state, we experience voluntary awareness; we are conscious of our surroundings, but have the ability to attend to them, or not, in a way we cannot access while we are experiencing a narrative consciousness, our typical state where we are observing, narrating, and contextualizing everything we experience. This unique style of massage can induce a state of no-mind, of voluntary consciousness, where we feel ease, and a lack of urgency. Within this state, we receive a break from our worries, our busy monkey mind, and our endless rush to the next task. Within this break, our sense of time dilates, and moments stretch. We find a tremendous amount of spaciousness in our life, and we can breathe without tension. Creating this for clients is a gift to me as well, to get to enable anyone to have even a window of the depths of richness that pure presence can grant. If you want to learn more about accessing these states for yourself, this can be a part of your personal Health Coaching work!