Massage is the best way to relax the body, mind and soul and to immediately reduce stress.

There are different types of body massage but Thai massage is renowned all over the world. It is one of the most sought treatments , and people travel across Thailand to experience or learn this type of massage, as well as to have a great time there too!

Thai massage is the combination of acupressure, stretching, and yoga done on you, sometimes known as Thai-yoga massage, or ‘nuad phaen bo rarn’ in Thai, which means ‘ancient manner massage’.
It combines both the relaxation and rejuvenation benefits of massage with the therapeutic effects of yoga.
It is important to stay fit to avoid health problems and give one a positive attitude, and Thai massages fulfills both needs.

Thai massage took birth from ancient Indian ayurvedic culture. There are several styles of Thai massages and each has its own advantages. Some even use aromatherapy oil or lotion, although traditionally a Thai massage is performed in comfortable clothes.

Thai massages are being used to energize different parts of your body, and there are different styles from different parts of the country. The northern styles emphasizes stretching, (and sometimes cracking of the joints similar to that which a western chiropractor may do), while the southern style concentrates more on acupressure.

Thai-Yoga massage is unlike other types of massage. The average remedial massage generally aims to manipulate body parts with the attitude to ‘fix’ the body. Nuad Thai  on the other hand looks at the whole person and does not ‘diagnose’; a good practitioner ‘feels Thai’, which means she goes with the flow of energy and ‘listens’ carefully what the body of the receiver is telling her.

Performing a Thai Massage, your practitioner is working on your body as well as your energy lines, incorporating some Yoga Asanas (positions) for specific stretches, which are designed to stimulate the flow of energy through the body.

While most styles of massage use massage plinths or couches, Thai massage is usually performed on a woven mat, or yoga mat on the ground, face down and up, on the side and seated.

Thai Yoga massage involves gentle movements given by the masseur or therapist with hands, feet, knees and legs in order to release the energy and help to let it flow freely. This massage helps to reduce back ache, menstrual pain, headaches and stress.

Yoga Asanas (Sanskrit for positions) help to stretch the body in an energetic way. Similarly, Thai-yoga massage applies stretches to the recipient. This refreshes the body and it increases its flexibility. It encourages participants to meditate during their treatment and find out a deeper awareness about their body. Hence in many ways this is a more active, responsible and enlightening form of massage due to this participation on the part of the client.

Yoga is part of Ayurveda, an ancient Indian healing system that is gaining tremendous popularity all over the world. An aging population has revealed the calming therapies of yoga and massage.

Combining two powerful natural therapies into an effective treatment called Nuad Thai has become the reason for its popularity. Looking at the increasing interest in Thai yoga massage all over the world, many experienced therapists have taken the opportunity to be trained in this form in order to provide a holistic therapy that is so much more than just massage.

Or had a long break and don’t feel very confident with your performance any more?

It is very common that after an intense weekend or even a compact course you feel exhausted and want to take some time off to rest, let it sit and just want to recover from the huge amount of information that has been shared with you.

Unfortunately this is often the very main reason, why people loose the momentum and because Nuad Thai requires some practising of the sequences, it’s easy to postpone ‘until later’ or ‘not tonight’.

Quickly a few weeks are over and the notes you made do not make sense anymore, you forget how to do this or that movement and you feel even less like giving it a go.

If there was only someone you could ask without doing a whole course again!

Well, there is. The Nuad Thai Academy now offers a Thai Massage Refresher Course, where your questions about the ‘how to…’ will be thoroughly answered.

We go through the movements that are challenging you and answer your questions so that you feel confident to go out and ‘just do it’.

Duration: 3,5 – 4 hours

Investment: $150 per person
(Minimum 2 people)

Next course: June 2011 – exact date to be announced shortly

If you want a more individual training, you can book a Thai Massage Refresher One-on-One

Your practitioner will sense this resistance immediately and what is meant to be experienced like a dance, becomes more like a fight or a matter of power struggle, which is unpleasant for both sides.

So what you want to do instead is…

Relax

The problem with that is that some people find it very hard to relax their muscles.

This can have either mental or physical causes or a combination of both:

Mental:
Relaxation is a matter of trust. If you had reason to become a ‘control freak’, you will be facing a challenge here. Remember that what you put in is what you get out. Give yourself permission to be open for the experience.

If you can’t seem to allow yourself to let go, talk to your practitioner who will help you to find a way to become comfortable with her or him.

You can ask yourself beforehand what your intention is to have the treatment. If the outcome you are looking for is more appealing than your need for control or fear to trust, it will be much easier for your ‘ego’ to allow trust as a necessary presupposition.

Physical:
Have you ever really learned how to relax your muscles? Dualism is an interesting thing. We can only experience one thing through when the opposite is also present. Sometimes we get stuck in one side and as a result of that we forget what the other side feels like – we even forget that there is another side. Like when we are really sad, we forget what happiness and joyfulness feels like.

The Nuad Thai Academy has seen people who thought they were relaxed, while most of the muscles below the hips were tight as concrete.

In that case, there is almost only one way out: make it worse! Tauten every muscle you can feel, try to get stiff as a rafter, clench your fists, press your teeth together, tighten everything from head to toe, your eyes even, try to make yourself so tight as if you would condense yourself to the size of an atom. When you feel you can’t hold it no longer, let go. Feel the difference?

A combination:
If you are injured or have a weak spot, like your knees, hips, shoulders or your neck, you might be fighting a dual battle.

In order to spare yourself pain, you are trying to find ways to somehow protect that area. This could mean you put more weight on one leg than the other, you avoid bending your knees or carry your bag on one shoulder only.

When you are about to be massaged at or around that spot, you are almost expecting pain to come – and in a normal massage it probably would, because there is that ‘no pain-no gain’ mentality, which probably has its place too. It is normal that you feel like you have to protect that spot, which will usually result in more tenseness, hence more pain.

As your Thai treatment therapist will explain, there is no room for pain in a Nuad Thai, at least not as it is practised at the Nuad Thai Academy. A traditional Thai Yoga Massage treatment has your health as much as your well-being in mind.

Our approach is holistic, which means it considers the powers that are active when body, mind and spirit work in unity. We also believe that you have everything you need to heal from within and the treatment provides you the support and the space to re-connect with these resources.

In a space of trust, connectedness and revitalisation there is no room for pain, so you don’t need to expect it. If anything is out of your comfort zone or goes beyond a comfortable stretch, let your practitioner know. She or he will adjust the pressure, firmness or even the sequence to suit your preferences.

Through the combination of stretching, acupressure and Yoga being done on you, your body receives signals that trigger this process. If you are open for the experience, you may observe the following effects:

Body

You may start to feel longer or taller, less tense, more flexible and overall ‘lighter’.

When you sweat or go to the toilet, it may smell differently, stronger perhaps. This is part of the detoxification process, where your body gets rid of toxins from nutrition or the environment.

Symptoms like a running nose are indicators for a cleansing process as well; they show that your body is responding well to the triggers, so please embrace them.

If you don’t observe a detox effect, it could mean that you either don’t have many toxins in you or that your body is healing something else first.

Mind

Are you familiar with that merry-go-round that some people have in their head? All those thoughts, racing in a circle like seats of a carousel, too fast to catch one.
Nuad Thai helps to slow that merry-go-round down, so that you can focus on one thing more easily.

Sometimes this can be experienced like a scratch in a record: a specific issue, idea or concept keeps popping up. This often indicates that there is something that needs a bit more attention and focus, something that is unresolved or something that is important to reflect on.

Take it as a sign from your unconscious mind, a hint what you need to focus on to heal from within.

Spirit

Male or female, we have learned to suppress emotions that are publicly labelled as ‘negative emotions’: anger, sadness, fear, grief, anxiety…

Unfortunately emotions that are not accepted have the tendency to come back and bite us in the back. We burst in tears at the most unexpected and sometimes seemingly extremely inappropriate moments or the smallest incident is the last drop that makes us explode.

As long as there is no valve through which this energy can get out, it starts to build up blockages in our energy lines, which manifest in tension or even internal or external physical lumps or bulges.

The space at the Nuad Thai Academy is safe, confidential and non-judgemental. What happens here stays here. There is no right or wrong, there ‘only’ is. Your therapist is trained to deal with emotions that come up and you are invited to let them flow freely. Let go of whatever needs to go, leave it with us and we will take care of it.

In order to provide you that peaceful and meditative space, where you can meet yourself, your therapist will not be making conversation during the treatment. You are asked and invited to be silent as well, which can be challenging for some people.

It takes a lot of courage to face ourselves, even more if we are not used to it or have a successful record of avoiding to look inside or to dig deep. Again, this space is designed to provide all the support you need to start your journey of self-discovery, to re-connect with yourself and heal from within.

What about: “No Pain – No Gain!” ? – Read our thoughts on that here

Some people experience a deep sense of calmness, tranquillity or even peace at the end of the Thai massage, while others feel more alive, energised and ‘light’.

Whatever happens for you is a result of your openness, the intention you give the treatment and what your body needs most at that moment.

The listing below gives you an overview how you can best sustain the process of  cleansing, rejuvenating and healing from within.

Refresh

In order to support the detoxification process it is important to drink a lot, so that your body can easily flush any toxins from nutrition or the environment out of the system.

Purified, filtered and mineralised water is the first choice. High quality filters that preserve the water quality, help maintain a balanced range of minerals and regulate pH, which are easy to install, convenient and highly economical are available from NIKKEN PiMag Water Systems.

Feel free to ask for a representative referral at your next appointment.

Reflect

You may have experienced that the usual merry-go-round has slowed down during your Nuad Thai experience or that a specific thought has popped into your head, making you wonder where that came from.

Some clients have happened to remember certain events from early or late childhood, others feel wrapped or surrounded by certain colours, while those who have a strong link to the spiritual world find it even easier to connect to their Trusted Source during a Thai massage.

Maybe your observations are more subtle, like realising that you are much more flexible than you thought.

You might also be fortunate to have your mind going blank or in a state of deep relaxation or meditation.

Whatever happens is a great opportunity for reflection.

Could you maybe go to the Yoga class you avoided because you thought you were too stiff?
Have you got a history of suppressed emotions that haunt you at the most inconvenient times?
Do you recognise any patterns that you’d rather exchange for more resourceful rituals?
Was being silent a challenge? What would you have wanted to distract yourself from? What do you fear or hide from?
Where you able to relax your muscles and entrust your body to your practitioner’s hands?
Did you give yourself permission to enjoy the treatment free of guilt?

As one client so appositely said: Thai massage is magic.

What you put in is what you get out:
If you are open to embrace what’s coming up, you will get a hint what might be an important topic of life to face and deal with at the moment.
If you are willing to let go of suppressed emotions, they will (literally) leave you at peace.
If you allow the wisdom of nature to come through your practitioner’s hands and bring you health and well-being, your healing can begin or continue.

Resist

Avoid heavy meals for the rest of the day.

Your body is now working hard to repair itself, as in getting rid of toxins – physical, mental and emotional. Heavy meals would take a lot of that power away for digestion.

Instead enjoy a light meal, consisting of raw or lightly cooked vegetables, fresh fruit and maybe steamed fish.

Relax

This can be a big one, especially if you have to go back to work after your treatment or you have many appointments or a long to-do-list of task that need attention.

Still, allow yourself at least 30 minutes (or as long as you can) of mentally low or non-challenging work afterwards if you can’t afford to have a rest for as long as your body signals you.

As mentioned before, your body is going in detoxification mode and starts to repair itself. So even if you feel very energised and full of power after your Thai massage, which is just as normal as feeling totally calm and relaxed, not wanting to go back to ‘the world out there’, allow a bit of time to settle in your renewing body. This is a great time to re-connect with your resources and observe what is happening in your body, mind or spirit, so that you can fully and most effectively utilise your new energy.

Bonus Suggestion:

Resign

You have now entered the ‘Thai-Way Highway’, a road that will support you on your journey to relaxation and balance, an accelerator for empowerment, an elevator to new heights of peace and ‘lightness’.

I’d like to take the opportunity to invite you to break with conventions,  explore who you really are, face your fears and resign from un-resourceful patterns of behaviour, beliefs or emotions.

Learn how you can sustain or even increase your own level of Qi, your personal life force/energy in a Qi Moving or Chakra Balancing term workshop or condensed weekend and become part of a community of  ‘Qi Movers’!

Read more about Qi Moving, Chakra Balancing or call for more info.

‘Nuad Thai’ is a treatment that goes beyond usual massage techniques like kneading, stroking or rubbing.

It combines three remedies that are powerful within themselves:

1. Stretching

Often disrespected as a ‘warm-up’, a good stretching routine is a …exercise program in its own rights. It’s one of the first movements we do automatically when we wake up, feel sore after sitting in the same position for a long time or whenever we need that we are getting tense or need better blood flow.

A good stretch can sometimes be all you need in order to refresh your muscles. While neglected in most other relaxation treatments, it is a crucial element of any good Thai Massage due to its many benefits for the receiver.

2. Acupressure

Shiatsu, the Japanese pressure point ‘massage’ is only one example of how efficient and effective working on certain acupressure points can be.

Reflexology is another methodology that uses pressure points to ease pain in any body part by massaging the reflex zones in the feet or the hands.

The underlying common idea is not to work on the painful areas directly, but rather to remove blockages in the energy lines (‘Sen-lines’ in Thai massage, ‘Meridians’ in Japanese and Chinese Medicine and ‘Nadis’ in Ayurveda – the Indian ‘knowledge of life’) so that the life force ‘Chi’/'Ki’/'Prana’ can flow freely again.

3. Yoga

Here is how Kerry Spina from Kids In Harmony describes what Yoga does:

Yoga is an exercise system that synergizes the body,  the mind and the spirit.  Children feel stronger, more flexible and an over all sense of joy and peace when participating in Yoga classes.

Yoga moves, bends, releases, and empowers bodies of all ages.  It also stretches, and empowers the mind.  It can assist children to have more self control and to let go and feel confident and wise in situations that they may have found challenging.  Yoga brings about a greater sense of purpose and understanding in all relationships – with themselves, their friends, family, community and world.  It can motivate the sporty child to become a better athlete and also give a greater sense of acceptance and confidence to the child that may be perceived or labelled clumsy.

Yoga isn’t about changing the child, it is about refining and nourishing what is all ready there.  It is about bringing to flower the natural beauty and essence of each individual child through the gift and opportunity of having Yoga in their life.

Of course those benefits are in no way restricted to children.

On the contrary, Thai Yoga massage specifically uses the ‘Asanas’ – Yoga positions – to support the relaxation process. This might have been the main reason for Shivago Kumarpaj, the founder of the Thai massage, to incorporate this therapy in his body work, when he put together a treatment that would help the monks around Buddha to increase and maintain their flexibility after long hours of sitting still and meditating.

Putting it together

Each of those methodologies are very beneficial within  themselves. Combined to Nuad Thai Paen Bo Rarn, they make the treatment much more than just massage:

Nuad Thai is Relaxation for BODY, MIND & SPIRIT

Because of the holistic approach – focusing on the whole person, not only parts where pain is experienced – ‘Nuad Bo-Rarn’ can help to ease

• general physical signs of exhaustion
• mental overwhelm
• insomnia
• mental strains
• occasional light depressive moods
• symptoms associated with disease
• muscular tension
• back pain
• lethargy, dullness and
• digestion problems, lack of appetite

Although Indian Head Massage and Nuad Thai are traditionally performed for healing and prevention purposes, the practice is not recognised as a healing massage in Australia and does not replace the diagnosis or therapy prescribed by a professional.

If you suffer from…

• CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome)
• Depression (treated with medication)
• Cardiovascular disease
• Physical handicap
• Respiratory ailments (asthma)
• Psychosis, neurosis, borderline syndrome or
• Diseases related to the musculo-skeletal system (gout, arthritis, prolapsed inter-vertebral disc, rheumatism)

…it is advisable to inform your Thai massage therapist about your condition(s) and carefully consider the advantages and risks of having a Thai massage treatment.

If you have been diagnosed with one or more of the following diseases, an Indian Head Massage or Nuad Thai is unfeasible for physical or medical reasons (they could accelerate the increase and/or spreading of pathogenic germs). As a practitioner of massage for wellbeing and stress relief, I feel obligated to get confirmation from your qualified physician and/or therapist that this treatment will not interfere with their approach.

• Serious psychological or neurological complaints
• Rheumatic complaints with infections in joints or muscles
• Systemic complaints (like lupus eythematodes) on internal organs
• Serious heart complaints (angina pectoris, risk of heart attack)
• Serious vascular or arterial complaints (aortic aneurysm, vein inflammation, deep vein thrombosis or risk of thrombosis)
• Recent surgery or bone fracture
• Acute infection with high temperature
• Large-area dermatitis
• Consuming complaints in late-stages (cancer, AIDS)

On the 14th of June, the Nuad Thai Academy as part of Transition Guidance has moved to Shop 1/91 Bundock Street in Belgian Gardens.

Although I am now easy to find, have much more traffic passing by (well, it really could not have been less!) and am now besides Naturally Healthy, who offer complementary natural therapies, it turned out that this is not an ideal location.

And although sub-leasing and sharing otherwise unused space seemed like a good idea initially, it became quite quickly clear that it won’t work for any of  Transition Guidance’s branches.

My intention as a holistic health and wellbeing facilitator is to provide

• a space with a “Wow”-effect when you come in,
• a feeling that you have entered not just another room, but a space that welcomes you,where you feel ‘safe’ and all your senses are stimulated,
• a place that honours your uniqueness and where you can be who you truly are,
• a mini-cosmos that offers you to enter a world where you (re-)connect with your true spirit,
• a window to your mind and soul.

I am looking forward to providing that space to you and I would appreciate your feedback about what you expect from a place where you go to relax your body, mind & soul and reload your energy. Thanks in advance.

What a beautiful day in Belgian Gardens, when over one hundred people came together to spend a day practising different aspects of yoga, enjoying a nice cup of tea, re-connecting with their friends, family and with themselves and supporting fair trade, gorgeously surrounded by a wonderful garden on the grounds of the Townsville Senior Centre in Ryan Street.

I certainly enjoyed myself when I had the opportunity to demonstrate Nuad Thai and explain why it is more than just massage, how Traditional Thai massage is different from a normal treatment and what makes it so special and beneficial for the body, mind and the spirit.

Lots of people participated in the draw to win an introductory offer, which includes three different ‘massage’ treatments like Nuad Thai, Head Over Heels (feet, hand and head massage) and Aroma Oil Massage as well as a personal energy assessment. Of course there can only be one winner and I am happy to announce that …. drum role please….

the winner is…

Cathy Chapman from Belgian Gardens

Congratulations Cathy. I am looking forward to introducing you to wellbeing the Thai way!

To those who missed out, there is always the next Sundalah, where you could even be the volunteer to experience some Nuad Thai during the demonstration or of course go in the draw again.

There will also be lots of  attractive offers and specials, some new and exciting add-ons like our partnership workshop ‘From Zero To Hero – how to build, maintain and strengthen the bond with your partner through Nuad Thai‘ or interesting products that will support you in finding, maintaining or increasing your balance and wellbeing, so stay tuned and sign up for the Wellbeing Wednesday, the free weekly online magazine for stress relief, stress management and stress prevention.

If Thai Massage is executed the traditional way – as it is at the Nuad Thai Academy – one of the most significant differences between a standard remedial or relaxation massage and a Thai Yoga Massage is that the latter is performed in comfortable clothes, without any oil.

In contrast to a ‘normal’ massage, where therapists work on one body part at a time, Nuad Thai almost always involves the whole body, or at least a big proportion of it. The receiver being wrapped up in a towel would interrupt the flow and make it difficult to perform the massage smoothly.

Being clothed also ensures the professional integrity for the practitioner and the receiver, especially when some of the more ‘intimate’ Yoga positions are performed.

Working with oil is therefore not only not necessary, but also inappropriate.

There is however the Traditional Thai Aroma Oil Massage, which is for those who want to combine the benefits of the Thai Massage with the advantages of Aroma Oil therapy.

Diagnoses

Generally, a remedial massage is perceived to be a treatment that helps to get rid of that pain in the butt, the neck or another specific body part. While a good remedial massage therapist will still have a look at the whole person and explore the root cause of the pain (which most often results from a  relieving posture,stress or tension in another body part than the painful one), the less experienced or skilled ones often simply treat the area where the pain occurs.

Nuad Thai also looks at the whole person, and even goes one step further.

A good Nuad Thai therapist will not give any kind of diagnose, where the pain may come from. He or she will rather “feel Thai”, which means treating the whole person and ‘listening’ to or feeling the clues that the receiver’s body gives them.

The Nuad Thai therapist will then choose to work on the energy lines or choose the techniques or positions that seem appropriate  in order to help the receiver’s body heal itself and get rid of the blockages that prevent the life force Chi/Ki/Prana to flow freely through the body.

Techniques

Nuad Thai uses a combination of very powerful techniques, including stretching, acupressure and Yoga.

Nuad Thai is ‘Yoga for lazy people’, because in actual fact Yoga is done on the receiver.
Instead of constantly being aware of the posture, listening to the teacher, correcting positions or – if doing Yoga for yourself – thinking of the sequence, the receiver’s mind is free to wander and explore any sensations, limiting beliefs or emotions that come up during the massage.

Results

It often happens that the receiver of a Thai Massage has an insight, feels more connected with him- or herself, finally gives him- or herself the permission to let go of emotions or recognises an issue they have been avoiding to deal with.

It is very common that after a Thai Massage people find solutions they have not been able to realise before.

The feeling of lightness, clarity and even focus is a result of the stimulation of body, mind & spirit as a whole, which makes Nuad Thai the perfect tool to de-stress on a holistic level.

Tradition

Most ‘modern’ remedial or relaxation massages have their roots in traditional massages like Shiatsu (Japanese acupressure massage), Tui Na (Chinese Massage) or Ayurveda (Indian Health system that includes oil massages).

While many modern massages mostly take just one good part of these massage and deepens that (like Reflexology, Swedish massage or Hot Stone massage), Nuad Thai takes the opposite approach and combines the best of those traditions to a treatment that offers even more benefits for the receiver.