Hey, y'all I'm Ian Harvey, massage therapist.
These are my PJ's.
Today, we're going to be doing some abdominal
self-massage.
I'm primarily making this video for my fellow
massage therapists, especially ones who are
considering going back to work for the first
time in a long time.
And for those who have gone back and things
still feel a little bit stilted.
I personally have a little bit of fear about
stepping back into that massage office for
the first time, about getting back into that
environment.
Like, will I remember what to do?
Will my hands know what to do?
But whenever I've taken a break in the past,
the answer to that question has always been,
yes.
My hands remember, my body remembers.
There's a little bit of a speed bump to get
over, but typically, I find that, I kind of
come back better than ever.
So today I want to talk about abdominal self-massage
as a way of allaying some of those fears,
as a way of showing you that you still got
it.
And I want to get you back into that head
space of applying peaceful, conscientious
touch.
By the way, if any non-massage therapists
are watching this and you just want to learn
how to do some nice abdominal self-massage,
welcome.
Glad to have you here.
I do have two disclaimers though.
The first disclaimer is if any of this hurts,
if you have any discomfort or you have any
negative side effects in this abdominal region,
then either go slower, use even less pressure.
This should be very gentle. Or, stop altogether.
This should not hurt.
Second disclaimer, if you have new symptoms
in your abdomen, if you are having new digestive
stuff or new reproductive stuff, if you are
having pain that you haven't had before, then
don't try to self-treat.
Go see your doctor.
But if you're familiar with what's going on
in this area, if you'd just like to do some
nice soothing work, then welcome.
To begin, I recommend that you find a nice
place to sit and a nice place to slouch.
If you want to lay down, you can do that too.
I'm going to stay standing for the camera's
sake.
This first technique is just a laying on of
hands.
All we're doing is placing one hand below
the belly button, my belly button's about
right here.
One hand below, one hand above, and we are
just cradling the abdomen.
Allow your hands to mold to the shape of your
unique abdomen.
Don't try to force it to be anything that
it's not.
And, just breathe.
Breathe in through your nose, out through
your mouth, or however you want to.
And as you breathe in, allow your abdomen
to distend, allow it to poke out.
As you breathe out, you'll find it contracting
again.
And the reason I like this exercise, and in
fact, the reason I'm making this entire video
is that I was doing this on my own abdomen
a few weeks ago.
And I noticed myself just instantly judging
myself.
I immediately started thinking about my subcutaneous
fat.
I started thinking about the hair on my abdomen.
I started thinking about my scars and, I realized
I don't have to do that.
In fact, I can go in the complete opposite
direction and the word that occurred to me
as I was doing that was sanctuary.
We can provide sanctuary for our own bodies,
for our abdomens.
We can provide safety, and non-judgment.
When I think of the word sanctuary, I think
of protecting something or someone from the
outside world.
And that's something that you can offer your
clients.
That's something that you can offer yourself.
And as you think about providing a sanctuary
for your abdomen, just see how that changes
this experience.
See how that changes your touch and see how
that changes how you receive that touch.
For me, I find that it's easier to let go
of these abdominal muscles, to allow them
to be soft.
When I know that there's no judgment and that's
something that we can always offer ourselves,
just a safe force field against all the craziness
of the outside world, where you don't have
to jump to judgment, where you don't have
to be any particular shape.
You can just be yourself.
And that's something that you can provide
your clients.
You can do it non-verbally just by being in
this head space and allowing your hands to
do that talking, or you can write blog posts.
You can say these words to your clients that
however your body is, that's perfect.
And gently and slowly, float away.
We're gonna float forward.
And despite how gentle that was, despite it
just being a laying on of hands, I want you
to feel your abdomen, feel if there's a difference
here.
For me, it just feels a bit freer, and it's
nice.
I like it.
I feel more relaxed.
I should do this before every video, so I
don't have to throw so many takes away.
These next few techniques are going to be
directly on skin.
So that first technique that laying on of
hands, you can do that anywhere.
You can do that at your office.
You can do that just to relaxing.
But I do ask that you do it mindfully.
Don't just keep a hand here all the time,
because that could easily be a form of guarding.
And I want the opposite.
I want you to find a way of giving yourself
permission to let your guard down.
So bring that spotlight of your attention
onto this area for a minute, two minutes,
five minutes, and think about that concept
of sanctuary.
For these next few techniques, grab your favorite
lotion or oil.
Just use a tiny bit, just enough so that your
hands can barely slide past each other.
So just a tiny little dollop.
I went and got some jojoba oil, between
cuts.
And so just this much, not much at all, and
then, expose your abdomen to all of YouTube.
You don't have to do that, but I'm gonna,
and then we're going to start in very nearly
the same position.
We're going to cradle the abdomen.
We're going to breathe down into the abdomen
and this time we're going to allow the hands
to go in opposite directions.
So this lower hand is floating to my right.
This upper hand is going over toward the left
and breathe with this.
Don't use much pressure at all here.
This could even be featherlight and you can
do continuous loops of this.
Just skip this upper hand over your lower
forearm and continue those circles.
We call this the sun and moon stroke, which
I think is pretty.
So after doing a few revolutions, this next
technique is just to push.
You're going to place your hands high up on
your lower ribs.
We're going to be working with this outer
strip of the abdomen.
So not right on this rectus abdominis, but
just to the outside.
Make contact with this skin along these lower
ribs and give them some traction downwards.
So I'm pressing them down toward my feet,
again very gently, and just slowly, slowly
making my way down.
Notice that if you take some slightly deeper
breaths up into your rib cage, that you'll
feel a little bit of pull on your abdominal
fascia.
And this is something that you can use during
sessions.
You can invite your client to take some slightly
deeper breaths up into their chest, and that
will do some of the work for you.
That will change the feeling of the massage.
For this next part, you can travel all of
the way down to your pubic bone.
So your abdominal muscles, your rectus abdominis
inserts on your pubis, but I'm not going to
go all the way down there, for propriety's sake.
Continue breathing.
That will continue pulling that fascia up
in the other direction.
And that will give you a kind of stretch that
you can't really do on your own.
It's something that can only be easily achieved
during a massage.
Then we're going to pull in the other direction,
this time going up this middle strip.
Again, you can start down here near the pubis.
I'm not going to, I'm going to start right
here.
So grab all of this tissue.
I'm taking my subcutaneous fat for a ride.
I'm dragging it up toward the top of my head
while continuing to take some nice, easy breaths.
And while I'm here, I might as well talk about
working with hair.
I don't even notice my hair right now, and
that will be the case for a lot of hairy people.
The follicles tend to not be very sensitive,
and so they don't worry about them.
They're not really aware of them.
So you probably don't need to worry either,
but that's something to have just a brief
little conversation about.
Hey, can you feel me pulling hair?
Done, easy.
And as I approach these lower ribs, I'm again
going to start taking some nice deep breaths
up into my ribcage, and just realize that
you can continue these strokes up as far as
you want to, you can continue them up onto
the sternum.
And that this is some great work for working
with those muscles of respiration.
But again, for propriety's sake, I'm going to
stop short, and slowly float on out.
There is of course more that you can do here.
Something that I like is to apply some gentle
pressure in, this time.
So just three, four pounds of pressure, not
much at all, just enough to barely displace
the abdominal contents, just a bit, and then
breathe.
I'll do that for a minute or two, and then
I'll breathe my hand out.
As I inhale, my hand comes farther and farther
and farther away.
And then repeat on the other side.
So I'm kind of truncating this part of it.
And massage therapists, as you press into
the abdomen, do use your clinical judgment.
People at home, maybe leave that kind of thing
up to your therapist, or have that conversation
with your therapist about working more deeply
than this surface stuff that we've been doing.
And again, float on out.
Okay.
Now feel how your abdomen feels, feel how
your breathing feels.
I find that after I do a good five minutes
of work, six, seven, eight minutes of work,
that my breathing is a lot easier, that my
abdomen feels softer.
It feels more comfortable.
And for someone like me, someone who tends
to walk around with quite a bit of anxiety,
this can be a direct way of interacting with
that anxiety.
We're working with nerves that interact directly
with our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous
system.
So if you're a massage therapist and you're
headed back to work soon, and you've got some
of that fear about it, try some of these techniques
and get yourself in that head space of being
back in your massage office.
Imagine applying this massage to someone else
and realize how gentle it can be, how even
if you've got masks between you, how even
if things are a little bit crazy on the outside,
this can still be a place of sanctuary.
Let me know if you have any questions down
in the comments or if you have techniques
that you like for your own self-massage routine.
Consider subscribing.
Thanks for watching.
And I'll see you next time.
