Indian Head Massage: Discover the power of touch

‘Regular head massage is wonderfully relaxing, enhances the health of the scalp and promotes the growth of lustrous hair.’ The Observer

Indian head massage offers the means by which the individual can begin to get in touch with the healing potential within the hitherto unexplored regions of their inner being and thus become empowered to ensure their own well-being.

THE HISTORY OF INDIAN HEAD MASSAGE (#ulink_8626a0da-3183-53ab-9197-10e687ab2f30)

Massage has always played an important part in Indian life, featuring in the earliest Ayurvedic texts that date back nearly 4,000 years. When used in conjunction with herbs, spices and aromatic oils, massage had an important medical function and could not only ‘strengthen muscles and firm the skin’, but also encourage the body’s natural healing abilities. Today, Indian infants still often receive a daily massage from birth to keep them in good health. From three to six years old, they are massaged once or twice a week, and after the age of six, they are taught to share a massage with family members on a regular basis. Massage then occurs across the generations as an integral part of family life. My own family is typical of many others in this respect.

Indian head massage springs from this rich tradition of intergenerational family massage, and has been practised for over a thousand years. It was originally developed by women as a part of their grooming routine. They used different oils according to the season (coconut, sesame, almond, olive oil, herbal oils, buttermilk, mustard oil and henna) to keep their hair strong, lustrous and in beautiful condition.

The benefits of head massage were not confined exclusively to women: barbers practised many of these same skills. They used to ply their trade by going to individuals’ houses, cutting men’s hair and offering ‘champi’ (head massage) as part of the treatment. In time, this became quite a custom: everyone, including royalty, would receive regular head massages from their own barber. Treatments differed from the massages performed by women in that the barbers were mainly giving invigorating scalp massages designed primarily to stimulate and refresh the individual, rather than to care for the hair. Echoes of this Indian tradition reached the West long before the practice itself in the form of the word ‘shampoo’, which comes from the Hindi word ‘champi’. Being ‘champi-ed’ meant having your head massaged.

Massage skills have evolved through the ages and have been handed down from barber father to barber son in much the same way that the women in the family have kept the tradition of hair massage and grooming by passing it down from mother to daughter right up to the present day. In India nowadays, it is very common to go to a barber’s shop, receive a wet shave or haircut and have a head massage thrown in as part of the treatment. A word of warning: should you experience one of these massages in India, do ask your barber not to click your neck, which is a normal part of their head massage. Head massage can now also be seen in many other locations in India: on street corners, at markets and on the beach … so you can even experience a wonderfully relaxing Indian head massage with the rising or setting sun for company!

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN HEAD MASSAGE (#ulink_7fff72b5-71b6-5732-ac02-bd24200e69f1)

Like most of my compatriots, I grew up with head massage as an integral part of my daily life. As a child, my mother would give me a head massage with coconut oil and, as I grew older, it was something to be automatically experienced every time I visited a barber. I came to England to train as a physiotherapist in the 70s but was disappointed to find that the massage element of this discipline was being neglected. I then took a course in full-body massage and, not surprisingly, was still not taught any techniques involving the head. I was dismayed to discover that massage always stopped at the neck and nobody practised head massage – not even full-body massage therapists. No one had shown them how!

I began to miss the therapeutic value of regular head massage and decided that I wanted to bring this therapy to the West. Experience had taught me that head massage could bring tremendous relief from aches and pains, not only in the head, but also in other parts of the body. Knowing this, I decided to introduce a system of massage to this country that would encompass the head and upper neck and bring relief to the many who suffer from aches and pains in those previously neglected areas.

In 1978, I decided to return to India and research head massage wherever it was practised. In centres as far apart as Calcutta and Bombay, in the cities and in the countryside, simple head massage is widespread. Barbers in barber shops perform this service for their clients, you can find it on street corners, beaches and in family homes. However, although I enjoyed being worked on, I couldn’t help feeling that there was something missing in the massage. This type of simple massage does not get to the deep-rooted source of stress. So, although there was some improvement in my well-being following these head massages, the effects were too short-lived.

During my experiments with head massage in India, I found that the methods used varied from person to person. The barbers would concentrate on my scalp, while my mother and her women friends focused on treating the hair. In addition, everyone who worked with me had his or her own individual technique, which had been handed down and developed through the generations. I decided that I would begin to formalize what I was experiencing and use the knowledge of my massage training to discover which part of my body reacted most positively to various moves. Because of my blindness, my other senses have become very finely tuned and I was able to concentrate with complete absorption on the effect the massage was having. By this means, I was able to devise a therapy that would bring the greatest relief to the multitude of problems concentrated in the head. I soon concluded that the therapy would benefit by being extended to include not only the head, but also the neck, shoulders and upper arms.

Having formalized the techniques of Indian head massage, I wanted to pass the knowledge on to others. In 1981, while I was thinking about how to introduce this idea to the public, a friend suggested that I take a stand at the Mind, Body, Spirit exhibition at Olympia in London. By the end of the exhibition, over 170 people suffering from exhibition exhaustion, headaches and work-related stress had tried it out. They felt relaxed and recharged. Some people even attended more than once.

My experience at the exhibition built up my confidence. I gained a great deal of experience in different types of hair and hair styles and I explored ways of revising my techniques to include massage that was suitable for every type of hair.

The exhibition led to a wave of publicity and numerous magazine articles. As a result, many more people became interested in learning and practising Indian head massage. This gave me the idea of arranging courses, and the more successful of these were the weekend courses. These enabled me to teach my pupils slowly and allowed time for revision. These weekend courses continued with great success up until 1995. From 1995 I introduced a course which led to a qualification to practise head massage. This included weekend instruction plus home study, case studies and an exam so that I could recommend the qualified therapists to anyone with confidence. These courses are still continuing and remain extremely popular.

Over the years at my clinic and at various exhibitions countless clients have allowed me to study the effect of my techniques in depth and to develop and expand them. One of the most important developments in my techniques was the introduction of an Ayurvedic element of chakra energy balancing and the extension of the massage element to include massage of the face and ears to enhance the overall effect.

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian medical system, which some believe to be the oldest medical system in the world. It goes beyond the limits of ‘healing’, placing an emphasis on balance and the uniqueness of each individual. Within Ayurveda, as in other belief systems from around the world, the body is said to contain seven energy centres. The energy points are known by different names in different parts of the world: I shall call them chakras. The flow of energy around the body and through these centres is believed to have a great effect on a person’s well-being.

Once I had incorporated an Ayurvedic element, I found I had a powerful therapy to increase the physical, mental and subtle energy benefits of Indian head massage. I call this therapy Indian Champissage. Champissage goes beyond simple Indian head massage. It combines physical massage with a more subtle form of massage which affects a person’s energy centres. The chakras I concentrate on in my work are the three higher chakras: Sahasrara located on the crown of the head, Ajna – vision (the third eye) – located in the middle of the forehead and Vishuddha, located in the throat. In total there are seven chakras, but they do not work independently of each other. A dysfunction in any one of them will result in a knock-on effect, which will ultimately build up and spiral to the head, culminating in a feeling of stress and tension. Working on the higher chakras has a powerful effect, and can bring the energy of the whole body back into balance. This cannot be realized through simple massage and is unique to Champissage.

The Seven Chakras

THE POWER OF TOUCH (#ulink_ec307e29-787c-59b5-bf34-109cce5da6e9)

Amongst higher animals, touch and grooming form an important part of daily life. Many hours are spent in these activities, which provide comfort and create close social bonds. As highly evolved primates, touch remains a fundamental part of our biological heritage and plays a vital role in our development from infants to adults.

As babies, our most powerful experiences come through the medium of touch. We reach out to touch and explore the world around us, and we are also held and cradled by our parents. Many studies have shown that the quality and amount of handling that a young baby receives is crucial for healthy physical, emotional and mental development. For example, groups of baby rats that were handled and stroked with gentleness and care grew up to have greater body weight and brain size, less fear of the external world, and an increased resistance to stress and disease compared to groups of rats that were infrequently and roughly handled.

A famous study conducted by Harlow on Rhesus monkeys in America goes even further in demonstrating the primary importance of touch. In the experiment, infant monkeys raised in the laboratory were given a choice of two surrogate mothers. One was made of soft terry cloth and lit from behind with a light bulb for warmth. The other mother was made of wire mesh, but possessed an artificial nipple which supplied milk. Time and again the monkeys clung to the terry-cloth ‘mother’ for comfort rather than the milk-providing ‘mother’. Only when the infants were extremely hungry would they be forced to make a brief dash for milk, scampering back to the comfort mother afterwards.

This experiment also demonstrated how important touch is to healthy personality development and social skills. These laboratory-raised monkeys were introduced to other monkeys of similar age but were totally unable to co-exist peacefully with them. Furthermore, when it came to raising baby monkeys themselves, the laboratory monkeys demonstrated no maternal attachment.

Touch is essential for stimulating our nervous system and promoting healthy physical development. However, it is also critical for our mental and social development. A large part of our self-definition and the way we feel about ourselves comes from the way we are held and touched by our parents. Through it we develop a sense of being valued and of being valuable which is the cornerstone of our self-esteem. We learn about pleasure, warmth and comfort from touch. We learn about expressing our feelings, we learn about reassurance and security, and we learn about connectedness and social bonding.

Children who come from families where there is insufficient physical contact and tenderness may find it difficult to accept and value themselves. They may have difficulty expressing themselves emotionally, and find it hard to form long-term, intimate relationships as adults.

Touch connects us to the outside world, brings people closer and weaves intimacy

INTERNATIONAL TOUCH

In the same way that some families are more touch-friendly than others, some national cultures are more touch or physically orientated than others. In one study of the number of physical interactions that occurred during one hour in cafes, the highest number of recorded incidents occurred in Puerto Rico with a staggering 180 in one hour. This contrasted with a despondent zero in London! It is difficult to isolate the separate influence of family and cultural background, but they must combine to have an impact on how we relate physically to other people.

Touch is an instinctive, natural language that we all speak and understand. It is from this instinctive language of rubbing, holding and comforting that more structured forms of touch have evolved to eventually develop into the different forms of massage that exist in every culture throughout the world. English people are traditionally very reserved and puritanical when it comes to being touched. One of the wonderful things about massage is that it is a formalized touch; it gives you license to touch someone within established and defined boundaries.

CHAPTER 2 Managing Stress (#ulink_85a2cd1a-9fb6-5251-ba39-c0d42c70b787)

What is stress? Does just getting up in the morning make you feel stressed? How do you feel right now? If I were to mention the word exam, or traffic jam, redundancy, deadline or tax demand, how would you feel then? Beginning to feel just a little stressed out? Then read on.

INTRODUCTION (#ulink_8aeb174d-da98-5d73-a6c9-bd0eea58412c)

The dictionary defines stress as a constraining or impelling force, effort or demand upon physical or mental energy. A stressor is a person or situation that makes you become stressed.

We in the modern world are far more likely to suffer from the effects of stress than our ancestors were. Seventy percent of all illness is now directly attributed to stress. Modern society with its pressures, overcrowding, traffic congestion, noise, fears and general uncertainties regarding work, home and family life, tends to present situation upon situation in which the possibility of becoming stressed is ever present. Stress is an unavoidable part of modern life: everyone experiences stress and everyday stresses are not necessarily harmful.

In fact, stress is not always negative but can often be just stimulating enough to make life enjoyable, or at least interesting. If you want to compete and excel in sports, for example, you need stress to bring about the motivation to perform. Some people handle stress very well while others are more negatively influenced by it. It is the effect of long-term stress that can be positively harmful to our bodies.

It may seem strange that your body is capable of damaging itself at all, but this chapter will show you how the body responds to perceived threat, and how those responses can become harmful when they are not dealt with appropriately.

WHAT CAUSES STRESS? (#ulink_d47534d6-0b34-5688-8fd9-060d70c924ae)

So, if stress can be good for us, when do stress levels become harmful? The factors that seem to make any situation dangerously stressful are:

• Lack of predictability

• Lack of control

• Lack of outlets for frustration

When these elements are present, even innocuous situations can become stressful and produce a reaction that is completely out of proportion to the cause. It comes down to the fact that it’s not the situation but our reaction to it that creates the stress in our lives. Our fears and anxieties about past events repeating themselves add to the vicious circle, and the uncertainties of life crowd our mind with frightening possibilities.

CASE HISTORY

Age: 37

Sex: Male

Profession: Small business owner

• Symptoms: Carlos came to my clinic suffering from upper back pain. He was anxious and depressed – chiefly because of the constant pain. When Carlos was thirteen, he had had a bad riding accident. Stress and the pressure of running a small business had exacerbated his back problem.

• After the first treatment: He felt a little dizzy (this is normal) but very mellow. His upper back was still aching. I advised him that, for something to get better, there often has to be a period of transition when the pain almost seems worse. However, the following day Carlos noticed a considerable decrease in the pain.

• After subsequent treatments: He felt spaced out, but in a nice way. His back problem was no longer a cause for concern because he no longer suffered from pain.