2024 Fast Day Six

 Wednesday, 10 April 2024

What a change from a year ago! I had the Chi Nei Tsang abdominal massage therapy, which I experienced on Day Seven of the slightly longer fast last year. Whilst what comes here is going to get a little self-referential (not quite Being John Malkovich, no) it's worth digging out the below paragraph from last year since it's more than a little bit supportive of the following thesis:

My contention is that as wonderful as the two-weeks experience was in 2023, it really was a recovery from the wickedly intense period of stress, unease, and even malaise that came along with being homeless (literally, even if not living under any bridges) for the first two months of the year. And because we spent the Buchinger fortnight digging out from under all of the emotional mess and wreckage, it's been an bizarrely amazing redo of not just the whole thing, but also each piece, specifically today this abdominal massage. The language below is still accurate, but unfortunately it's not a perfectly controlled experiment, as this time 'round I had the big boss (Frau Hoffman is the chief of all treatment professionals) so that certainly could have changed things. In any case, here is last year's:

...before my first ever experience with Chi Nei Tsang healing treatment, in short a traditional Chinese therapy involving lots of abdominal and thorax massage and attention. I woke up enough to pay attention for the 50 minute hour, but even so, I'm fairly sure I didn't get as much as might have been garnered from it. It was a pleasant sensation particularly as the old alimentary system - a 'tube within a tube' thank you Dr. Nels Granholm - hasn't been called upon much in the last week plus as digesting vegetable consommé just ain't that much work. He worked over the soft organs there plus a very gratifying sternum and ribcage treatment which I realize is pretty much never done in typical massage (how to get at it when one is mostly lying on one's stomach, yeah?) that did feel warming and loosening...particularly after all the yogic breathing we've been up to.

It was all same in terms of the work - Mrs Hoffman started very gently and then pressed harder first working her way up, across, and down again along the large intestine, followed by yes, the "small colon" which she found to be a bit tighter than she would have liked, All the organs got the treatment though - essentially everything from ribcage down to tops of pelvic girdle, including slipping up and under the ribs to massage gall bladder and liver too. 

What was very different was my reaction and felt perception of the same physical massage. Although I understand that it makes very little sense to say that I wasn't feeling it (that my sense of self seemed at a nontrivial distance from my physical self) especially when someone is working away on massaging one's liver, that is exactly the difference from last April to this one. Today I was actually there to feel it - although let's be honest, still fairly mystified as to its benefits, and raison d'etre - and that was an amazing contrast and dare I say it, evidence at least to myself of growth from one year to the next. Kinda gloriously, I'd even argue for more than a skosh of progress from last year's surviving to what feels really something like thriving.

And I've got this crazy-wonderful relationship with Vicky to thank for a lot of that.

No pictures for today, because even though Vicky and I did do a little walk on our own, it was misting down rain for the second half and I wasn't feeling all that photo-y. Plus, Joel and I were busy for about an hour and a half midday doing another practice recording for the show - more on that later. We'll end with stats as e'er...

Stats
BP: 122/67
Kg: 74.5
HR: 44