Bodywork

There is a fairly famous clip of a barber in India giving what can only be described as a ecstatic haircut.  I'll see if I can post it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geLtFCxDs40

Does your hair stand on end and do you get goosebumps when you see this?  I do.  It's a physical sensation that seems to come from the mere suggestion that "cosmic forces" are being drawn out of and pushed into the body.  I looked a little into this and found a niche of people who either create or watch videos of crinkling, tapping, whispering, etc., very close to the ears and around the head.  The oddest thing about this totally physical response to certain rhythms within a close proximity was that it didn't necessarily have to be erotic...necessarily.  There are groups who mess with that stuff, but it's kinda embarrassing to watch.

When Jeff and I were having trouble getting pregnant so many years ago, I went to see an acupuncturist in Oakland and when she put a superfine needle right into the top of my head, my whole body became covered in goosebumps: it was a crazy response, but it also felt great.  My whole being relaxed.  I learned that the top of the head is one of the seven mystic chakras in the yogic tradition, and that some yogis ask their devotees to imagine a ray of light emitting from the exact center of the crown.

The other day, I was face down in the West Lake (Tây Hồ) district, the most bourgeois part of Hanoi (wha?), looking at the back of my eyelids while a nice woman was totally phoning it in to my lower legs.  I started to wonder if maybe I weren't trying enough, that maybe if I visualized some kind of mental analogue, it would feel better.  Maybe I could participate, somehow.  As if on cue, the woman decided to move to my head, and I imagined a Indiana Jones-style ark opening out of the top of me: wow!

This is the trouble with being spiritually flat-footed.  You want everything explained away.

One time I went to a hot springs that dated back over 100 years.  It wasn't fancy, and had that crumbly smell of locker rooms.  Trickles of water came down from leaky pipes, and a stout woman with a mustache handed me a large towel and held my elbow as we walked into the steam.  There was something about the care with which she led me, then the alternating hot and cold sensations.  The shock to my system wasn't always pleasant (a cold plunge is a little like dying to me, just for a second), but the end result was me wrapped in my extra large towel like a grub, lying on a cot, I felt absolutely at peace.  I mean, totally drained of tension.  It felt like being reborn, I kid you not.  I've spent the last 20 years trying to find that again.  It's just hot and cold water, right? No.  It's everything together.

You wonder if you can systematically, perhaps slowly, change the patterns of your life so that more regular syncing between body and mind can occur.  I know this happens when I exercise, but it's so short, and often times I'm trying to distract myself from the entire effort (usually something broody on PBS).  For me, it's release of tension, because I am a bunged up girl.  I'm not always so willing to visualize white light in and snakes out of my nostrils.  What do you do to relax?