To schedule your Thai Yoga Massage session contact Ken Mueller  303.378.8864

What is Thai Yoga Massage?

The healing art of Thai Yoga Massage is an ancient and sacred system of healing with roots in Yoga, Ayurvedic Medicine and Buddhist spiritual practice. It is a unique and powerful system of yoga therapy. By combining rhythmic massage, acu-pressure, yogic stretching exercises called assanas, gentle twisting, energy work, and meditation all rolled into one experience. Thai Yoga Massage stimulates and balances the flow of healing energy within the body, opening the areas which are blocked bringing the person deeper into balance and harmony for health, happiness and wellness of being. This system creates a powerful release of stress and tension, an increase in vitality and well-being and it deepens the connection between mind, body and spirit in both the giver and receiver.

Instead of using a massage table this massage art form is performed on a traditional thick mat for comfort, allowing the practitioner to move freely to set up the body to receive the work. However, you will often find that some of this work can be performed on a massage table, and is often blended with other types of massage art forms. The simplicity of the equipment for this form of massage is easy to apply almost in any quiet setting – on a beach, in a garden, at a park are just a few to mention. 

The History of Thai Yoga Massage

The history of Thai massage lies in India, within a system of healing that traces it's origins back over 3,000 years, to roots in Yoga practice, Ayurvedic medicine and Buddhist spiritual practices. In the Thai language their massage is called nuad borarn, which means ancient massage. The word borarn comes from the sanskrit root word purana which means ancient or sacred body of work.

The teachings and practices of Yoga date back at least 3,000 years and some findings date the origins even earlier. Folk legend attributes the founding of this healing art to an Indian doctor and contemporary of the Buddha named Jivaka Kumar Bhaccha who is actually mentioned by name in the Pali Canon (the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism). The teachings of Jivaka Kumar Bhaccha, Buddhism and Ayurveda spread throughout southeast Asia, reaching Siam (now Thailand) in what is believed to be 2nd or 3rd century BC.

Over the centuries, spiritual teachings and healing techniques such as Thai massage have mainly been passed down orally from teacher to student. In more or less its present form Thai massage has been practiced in Thailand for over a thousand years.

The Foundation of Thai Yoga Massage

The theoretical foundation of Thai Yoga Massage lies in the concept that all of life at its most basic level is energy. This energy called Prana in Sanskrit or Chi in Chinese, exists in many forms from the extremely gross to the infinitely subtle and life is an interplay of these energies. Metaphorically a cosmic dance of Shiva and Shakti, Yin and Yang, the Sun and the Moon. Within the human body these energies flow along a network of channels or lines  called nadis or meridians. In the Yoga tradition there are said to be 72,000 nadis. Each has a specific function and energy that it deals with. The three main lines energetically are the Sushumna, rising straight up through the center of the spine, and the Ida and Pingkala nadis which run on either side of the spine.

Health in eastern philosophies is regarded as a state of balance between these energies, where all the systems of the body, including mind and spirit, function in harmony with each other. And disease is seen as imbalance or disharmony in this flow of energies. But beyond feeling good physically an enlightened definition of health encompasses feelings of vitality, strength, inner peace and joy.

The Tradition of Thai Yoga Massage

In Thailand this work was traditionally practiced in temples and regarded as a spiritual practice, a way to cultivate the four divine states of Buddhist practice, Metta (loving kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (sympathetic joy) and Uppekha (non-prejudice). It is regarded as a practical application of Metta and is also very much a meditation practice.

These are two of the epigraphs, illustrating the energy lines, that can be seen at Wat Pho in Bangkok. They were etched in stone by order of King Rama III.

Therapeutic Effects of Thai Yoga Massage

• releases stress and tension
• increases flexibility and suppleness
• increases vital energy
• deeply relaxing
• relieves pain and soreness
• brings the systems of the body into balance
• increases blood and lymph flow
• releases emotional blocks
• excellent therapy for common injuries and ailment.
• deepens the connection between
• mind, body and spirit

Intention is the hidden power behind each action. If the underlying intention or spirit behind the action is to help, to heal and to work with love and kindness then the art form of Thai Yoga Massage takes on a much deeper and more powerful effect. Working with mindfulness, awareness, loving kindness, compassion and joy throughout a session takes some practice, but when these energies are present within the spirit of the work being done, the massages given are truly healing, not only to the recipient but also to the giver. Namaste

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