May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work
You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
Who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams,
Possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.
(A selection from ANAM CARA by the late Irish poet, John O'Donohue)
Thai Yoga Massage meets Osteopathy in the mountains of Lahu
This was truly an amazing course. Arnaud is a deeply passionate and knowledgeable teacher with magic hands. It takes a while to get over the initial shock of being called a complete idiot who doesn’t understand anything; but once you realize that there was no malice intended, that it was not meant to be taken personally, and heard him yell at everyone else, one just accepts it as part of the learning process. Ego-eradication therapy à la Pischet style?
The program was tough; I did not know that it was an advanced, advanced (very advanced) course. With my 30hrs of beginner’s knowledge, I was put in class with therapists with many, many years of experience! Well, if nothing else, everyone else thought I had balls for trying. Haha!
The 10 days in Lahu was much more than just about studying muscles, bones & joints though. Underneath the dirt and poo (pig poo, chicken poo, dog poo EVERYWHERE), the magic of Lahu Village touched me in a way that words cannot describe. It must have been a combination of all the meditating, yoga and energy work, but I felt cleansed!
Days at Lahu Village start at 5.30am with a short trek to the yoga platform to start Vipassana. I am not sure I completely understood the technique, so I cheated with a few different meditation styles. It doesn’t matter what label we put on it though; the brain enema was a success and it was my favorite part of the day. Yoga at 7am with David was great too. Ultra-Zen David was also a wonderful teacher and a real inspiration. Whenever I could, I sneaked in a super-long shavasanna and it was pure bliss!
Breakfast is followed by a morning nap before class at 10am. We had 6hrs of massage class a day, but it was conducted in such a manner that one hardly felt it! Arnaud lectured for about an hour (pulling out all his skeletons and demonstrating techniques), then we practiced on each other. It was such a thrill to try out the new moves and such a pleasure to receive the massages that we continued practicing most of the evenings after class! Oh, and all this is punctuated with glorious naps on the massage platform, hilarious laughter trying out acro-yoga, contact dancing, lahu dancing, singing bhajans, and our favorite past-time of all, hanging-out outside 7-11 (the hole in the wall provision store that is open 24hrs because it is also home to the family that run it.) There was a lot of napping in the day at Lahu village since no-one was able to sleep at night, thanks to the symphony of barking dogs, cockle-doodle-dooing roosters (“cockle-doodle-doo” does not equal sunrise at Lahu Chicken school) and fornicating swines.
Food in Lahu was a bit of a challenge. We were forewarned that it would be simple and vegetarian. And it was. Bananas, pumpkin, sticky rice or stickier rice. I was down with a bad stomach on the 3rd day. I don’t know if it was bacteria poisoning from Lahu filth, or just part of the cleansing, but it worked. After a free colonic and no food for 2 days, I felt renewed and simply great! As the saying goes, “We are what we eat”. Do you know that healthy poop is yellow and floats? Yep. I do not know what it is with these yogis and bodywork people, but they are all fascinated with poop. It must be from being completely aware of oneself. In any case, conversations at breakfast, lunch & dinner inadvertently always steer towards the quality of one’s poop. Do you know that if you are really constipated, the best laxative is drinking your own urine? Jo-girl swears that it works (from experience)! My boys find my incessant fixation with “making yellow” (aka taking a dump. So eloquently coined by Joy-Boy Thai!) highly amusing.
Martin (English-Canadian TV man turned alternative medicine doc) had another take on my bad stomach which was also very enlightening. After some pendulum swinging, he announced that the diarrhea was somehow related to me being anally retentive …….. For those of you who know me, you might agree that it is a pretty good diagnosis! Anyway, what he said brought about a certain awareness that had angels whispering to me throughout the rest of the trip. Ok, they weren’t really angels, but people from class that had an un-canning knack of saying things that made me want to cry. It felt like an emotional tsunami. The intermittent bouts of crying were very therapeutic from my point of view, but probably not too cool for the wet shoulders I cried on… (Thanks to Yoanne for putting up with all my drama; Sammie for her kind words & girlie-talk and Otto for his wisdom and inspiration ........... yes, now I want to join a community too!!! hehe)
I know that I am only at the start of a long journey, but heh, one has to start somewhere. The spiritual cleansing brought about renewed strength that I am trying desperately to hold onto now that I am no longer under the Lahu-an stars but back home. I am finally leaving Michelin after almost 10yrs, am making peace with the ex-husband and am working things out with the fiancé. The theme is “Let go and let it happen”, just like in yoga.
I signed up for a thai yoga massage course and got a full package cleansing of body, mind and spirit instead. Talk about value for money
!!!
“May the pure light within us, guide our way on………….”
The program was tough; I did not know that it was an advanced, advanced (very advanced) course. With my 30hrs of beginner’s knowledge, I was put in class with therapists with many, many years of experience! Well, if nothing else, everyone else thought I had balls for trying. Haha!
The 10 days in Lahu was much more than just about studying muscles, bones & joints though. Underneath the dirt and poo (pig poo, chicken poo, dog poo EVERYWHERE), the magic of Lahu Village touched me in a way that words cannot describe. It must have been a combination of all the meditating, yoga and energy work, but I felt cleansed!
Days at Lahu Village start at 5.30am with a short trek to the yoga platform to start Vipassana. I am not sure I completely understood the technique, so I cheated with a few different meditation styles. It doesn’t matter what label we put on it though; the brain enema was a success and it was my favorite part of the day. Yoga at 7am with David was great too. Ultra-Zen David was also a wonderful teacher and a real inspiration. Whenever I could, I sneaked in a super-long shavasanna and it was pure bliss!
Breakfast is followed by a morning nap before class at 10am. We had 6hrs of massage class a day, but it was conducted in such a manner that one hardly felt it! Arnaud lectured for about an hour (pulling out all his skeletons and demonstrating techniques), then we practiced on each other. It was such a thrill to try out the new moves and such a pleasure to receive the massages that we continued practicing most of the evenings after class! Oh, and all this is punctuated with glorious naps on the massage platform, hilarious laughter trying out acro-yoga, contact dancing, lahu dancing, singing bhajans, and our favorite past-time of all, hanging-out outside 7-11 (the hole in the wall provision store that is open 24hrs because it is also home to the family that run it.) There was a lot of napping in the day at Lahu village since no-one was able to sleep at night, thanks to the symphony of barking dogs, cockle-doodle-dooing roosters (“cockle-doodle-doo” does not equal sunrise at Lahu Chicken school) and fornicating swines.
Food in Lahu was a bit of a challenge. We were forewarned that it would be simple and vegetarian. And it was. Bananas, pumpkin, sticky rice or stickier rice. I was down with a bad stomach on the 3rd day. I don’t know if it was bacteria poisoning from Lahu filth, or just part of the cleansing, but it worked. After a free colonic and no food for 2 days, I felt renewed and simply great! As the saying goes, “We are what we eat”. Do you know that healthy poop is yellow and floats? Yep. I do not know what it is with these yogis and bodywork people, but they are all fascinated with poop. It must be from being completely aware of oneself. In any case, conversations at breakfast, lunch & dinner inadvertently always steer towards the quality of one’s poop. Do you know that if you are really constipated, the best laxative is drinking your own urine? Jo-girl swears that it works (from experience)! My boys find my incessant fixation with “making yellow” (aka taking a dump. So eloquently coined by Joy-Boy Thai!) highly amusing.
Martin (English-Canadian TV man turned alternative medicine doc) had another take on my bad stomach which was also very enlightening. After some pendulum swinging, he announced that the diarrhea was somehow related to me being anally retentive …….. For those of you who know me, you might agree that it is a pretty good diagnosis! Anyway, what he said brought about a certain awareness that had angels whispering to me throughout the rest of the trip. Ok, they weren’t really angels, but people from class that had an un-canning knack of saying things that made me want to cry. It felt like an emotional tsunami. The intermittent bouts of crying were very therapeutic from my point of view, but probably not too cool for the wet shoulders I cried on… (Thanks to Yoanne for putting up with all my drama; Sammie for her kind words & girlie-talk and Otto for his wisdom and inspiration ........... yes, now I want to join a community too!!! hehe)
I know that I am only at the start of a long journey, but heh, one has to start somewhere. The spiritual cleansing brought about renewed strength that I am trying desperately to hold onto now that I am no longer under the Lahu-an stars but back home. I am finally leaving Michelin after almost 10yrs, am making peace with the ex-husband and am working things out with the fiancé. The theme is “Let go and let it happen”, just like in yoga.
I signed up for a thai yoga massage course and got a full package cleansing of body, mind and spirit instead. Talk about value for money
!!!
“May the pure light within us, guide our way on………….”
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