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MAOZADA (The Handshake) : A step by step hands massage guidelines

Massage: Emily Graphism: Dayana Lucas Oficina Arara

Our hands are our tools, they transform our thoughts into actions, they connect us with the world and the beautiful beings in it. They also defend us and grab onto a lot of stress…

Here are some suggestions and tips to give basic nice hands massage to your friends, everywhere you go (it's one the most portable massage after all !)

Getting ready for massage

Set and Setting

Create a nice space and time for your massage, where you won't risk being interrupted so much. Make sure neither of you will have to rush anywhere after. Switch off your whatever. Take off your jewelry.

Both should wash/cleanse hands before starting.

It's better to have short clean nails !

Good posture

Find a comfortable posture for both giver and receiver. There are different set-up options for a hands massage, for example:

  • Beauty salon set-up: Sitting in front of each other across a table. This one offers less interpersonal intimacy (hence, more timid persons can feel safer) and is perfect for casual chit-chat.
  • Tea House set-up: Sitting (on chairs or cushions on the floor) face to face, slightly budged to the side so your opposed shoulders are aligned and your knee fit between your friends leg (you want to avoid twisting your back while you give the massage)
  • “Flying carpet”: the receiver is lying down, the giver sits on their side with their shoulders facing the receiver's shoulders, that is, the direction they're working. This is the most relaxing for the person receiving, because all their muscles, namely postural, can be at rest - provided you help them relax their arm and hands into yours (there are tips for that all through these guidelines)

Tips:

  • Use props (folded towels, cushions…) to rest the receiver's hand and forearms on. They should have to do no effort to hold their arms and hands into position during massage, and they should not be too tempted to “help” you by moving or holding their arm up in the air. This is achieved by an appropriate use of props, and by always placing your -firm yet soft and warm- hands at their joints whenever you want to move them. Shoulders, elbows, wrists: indeed, movement is initiated at the joints. If you give them safety there, they will “follow” your massage more easily and not resist, which will be of course more relaxing for them and enjoyable for you.
  • Lying down on their back, some people immediately feel pain in their lumbar, and everyone will after a while. To alleviate or prevent this is easy: Place cushions or rolled towels under their both knees. The idea is to minimize the lumbar curve of the spine.
  • Most important is indeed your spine. Look at the natural curves of the spine in an anatomy book. This is what we want to protect, so here too in massage. Often, due to lack of flexibility and poor habit, we are sloppy, hunched. We lose vitality, we tire more quickly. To restore the natural curve in the lumbar will be way easier if you maintain your knees lower than your hips when sitting. That will be the base, the rest of the spine will follow. Think of it as something dynamic, like a cobra snake doing an hypnotic dance.
  • Remember both you are of course “allowed” to move, adjust, change posture during the massage, whenever something becomes uncomfortable !!

Precautions and Contra-indications

Before massage, take a moment together to consider possible precautions and contra-indications.

Ask your friend a few very basic questions, starting with HOW DO YOU FEEL? Do you feel any pain ? Regarding possible illnesses, be as less intrusive as possible. Inviting your friend to read the list of contra-indications themselves can be a good alternative, as it will be more respectful of their privacy.

Also, use your senses and common sense: What do you see before you ? Are there bruises, cuts, signs of rash on their hands and arms ? Does the skin look fragile ? Do they look like they are with a fever ?

Observe the partial or total precautions and contra-indications, if any.

Later as you start touching, keep feeling and adjust in real time to the “information” you pick up, so the massage will be adapted to your friend's needs and condition.

Special precautions and contra-indications in hands massage are:

  • If the woman is pregnant, stay soft (nothing that would make her “jump”), do not pressure points, and especially avoid chinese acupoint HEGU, which is traditionnally used in chinese medicine to induce labor..
  • Acute carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Contagious parasitic skin infections (such as scabies, in which case you could maybe notice signs of rash between the fingers)
  • Open wounds, sores ..

Define intention : What do you wish for with this massage ?

Once you are both ready, start by holding hands. Connect, acknowledge and enjoy each other's presence. As massage therapist Ann Catlin puts it in her article Connecting and expressing a language of the human heart:

“Center yourself and take a cleansing breath to focus your attention and intention. Take a moment to establish trust with the [other] and gain permission to provide the massage. Sit facing the person, to the side. Be sure that you can reach the shoulder area without strain. (…) Begin with focused touch; simply hold the person’s hand. Place your attention on their hand and think about all the ways their hands have served their life. Notice the lines, the elegance, the strength or the fragility, whatever is there. Linger here a moment, simply enjoying the connection.”

Ask your friend what they wish for with this massage. Invite them to make a wish. It could be to ease pain, relax, stop worrying, feel loved…

Defining an intention together, even a very simple one (the simpler actually the better), sets the massage on a good path, and helps bond you together in trust. It can also be an opportunity for your friend to express something important, to release an emotion, a state of mind, in the comfort of your presence. Whatever comes, welcome what is, keep it simple.

What if they say something that seems completely out of reach ? Like, I want peace in this world ?

Well, aren't you about to experience a moment of peace in this world, together ?

Trust your hearts, give.

MAOZADA : A suggested sequence for hand massage

Part 1, without oils

Part 2, with oils

  1. ! not for pregnant women !
maozada.1438276016.txt.gz · Last modified: 2015/07/30 19:06 by emily