I have been mentally rehearsing and visualizing my Thai yoga massage mentoring session today. My last one was a month ago. Garsh there is so much to remember. My biggest focus is slowing down and working within my breath. But the 2nd is something I haven’t gotten to practice. I gave to an LMT friend of mine this weekend and she gave me a good tip.

I tend to be a bull in a china shop with most things. The wrestler in me has never learned finesse. The tip that I haven’t practiced is making my first touch soft. I’ve thought about that for a few days. What would it hurt to make my first hand placement like 20% pressure. Then ease into it with my breath. I love that idea. I know I violated this in my last mentoring session too. My instructor kindly said, “now that was a 6”. We rate pain from 1-10 and find a successful pressure to be a 5. But a 6 or 7 is painful and bodies start to resist or contract against your pressure. So if I start with a 1-2 every time, it’s more reassuring to the client.

Since I haven’t practiced this at all, I’m depending on visualization. I’ve been a huge fan of this technique. If you watched the downhill and super G skiing events in the Olympics, or the half pipe snowboarding, they all use visualization. Their hands are on their poles while you can see them moving left and right and they mentally go through their run. I used to do this in wrestling too. Watch a wrestler before a match. You’ll see them shadow boxing as they work through their movements.

I’ve read of elite athletes who were bed ridden with injury or illness. They haven’t done their sport for weeks. But they close their eyes, they see their event, their neural pathways are stimulated. And when it’s time to perform without much practice physically, they totally succeed.

I’m hoping to succeed today. I could use a nap though too. Your subconscious processes all of this. That’s another topic.