The past couple years, I’ve been taking tai chi and qigong classes in the Taoist water tradition. This meditative standing and movement practice is highly kinesthetic, bringing awareness into the body and using it to feel energy and melt blockages.

And while I’m just a beginner, I’m struck by how similar these thousands’-year-old practices are to bodywork. Because at the core, all of it relies on awareness.

Melting blockages

In my qigong practice, I first get into an aligned standing posture. Then, starting at my head and working downward, I bring my awareness into each part of my body, inviting any tension to melt and sinking the released energy.

That’s the entirety of the first stage of this ancient practice. Simply:
Soak your feeling awareness into an area. Invite any tension to melt, like ice to water.

Not…focus hard on your shoulder and will it to relax.
Not…breathe into your shoulder and exhale the tension.
Not…imagine a knot unraveling or a warming light.

Just…take a moment to actually feel what’s going on in your shoulder. Invite any holding to melt. See what happens. Often what happens is the tissues let go.

Why? For one, you regain conscious control over those muscles. For another…

Everything is energy, vibrating at different rates. Your mind is energy. Your muscles are energy. Your bones are energy. As my teacher explained, you’re bringing the higher-frequency energy of the mind into the lower-frequency energy of the body. And that higher energy stimulates the lower, causing change.

Awareness makes the change

When I was studying massage therapy, our instructors constantly told us awareness makes the change. Indeed, the structural integration profs were adamant that hands and techniques didn’t melt tight shoulders. Awareness did.

Imagine kneading someone’s shoulders. If you dig hard into the knots, the muscles may tense up and fight you. If you connect with slow, steady pressure, you bypass this guarding. And if you also intend to melt the muscles, bringing your mind—your awareness—into the tissues, they may start to melt.

But if you really want someone’s shoulders to relax, invite them to bring in their feeling awareness. Once their awareness joins yours, even the tightest muscles can release.

Nowhere is this effect more apparent than in a distance craniosacral session. I’m joining my awareness of your body with yours, not just to melt muscles but to turn on your body’s healing systems.

If something’s tight

You can play with awareness yourself. Softly bring your attention to a tight spot. Try to just feel it—without focusing too hard, which can make you tense up. Just let your attention be like water, soaking into the area, and notice what you feel. Then issue the softest of invitations: Would you like to let go?