Sara Johnston for Deep Lomi Mastery Community Intensive

Speaker: Sara Johnston

Sara Johnston: Hey, so my three words for you are immersive, inspirational and deepening.

Sara Johnston: Why did I attend? This is a fun one. I got invited and decided right away. Yes, I was gonna go and then kind of looked at my life and just made a huge move and finances and it was just like, oh, I could just, I can't, I can't commit. But I ended up getting a literal call like a little more than a week prior to the class with this. You need to come. And so I went, I guess I'll see if I can. And every time I checked in with the environment around me, I got an answer of yes, go, yes, go. Yes, go. So I both hearing and listening to the call. I went but also knowing Joe and the fact that he um always delivers quality. I have a couple words that were particular that I wanted to share. Like really I feel like every time I am in a playful creative learning environment, Joe, I always benefit from learning more feeling inspired giving, being given permission. It's just such a fertile environment that he creates for learning, exploring and playing. In addition to challenging the status quo. So I went because I was called by multiple elements and I went because I trusted and I knew it would be worth my time.

Sara Johnston: Describing the event. This one I've written. So I'm gonna read it. Each one of us arrived, ready to be challenged to play and meet new beautiful souls. We were a locationally, a diverse group with various communities and work environments. But we arrived ready and trusting of the process. Joe could have given us a pickle jar and told us to use it in a meaningful creative way and we would have been on it. We laughed, we played, we had deep meaningful conversations. A lot of them, we were strangers walking in the door on Monday, friends by Monday night and in the tribe by Wednesday, at least not earlier. And I really feel like we've now forever been laced together on this journey of like what it means to give real raw, deepening massage. By the end of the week, the aspect of differing experience levels to both the genre and to massage didn't stop us from all being able to interact on an equal level, which I really appreciated. There of course, were some holdbacks and pauses and deep breaths and adjusting to the work. But truly, I feel like each person I got to learn from, play with, be genuinely myself and hopefully hold that genuine space for them as well where we got to inspire each other to be better.

Sara Johnston: All right. So what's different now? post class, a few weeks out and I've had a lot of bodies to work on and play with, and consider how I wanted to carnate how I wanted to um incorporate the work or adjust my style. I think the funny part is I heard the call that I needed to go and what ended up happening was that it was exactly the class I've been avoiding. I generally always talked in most sessions, I always was client led. So they would need to carry the conversation. But most of my clients wanted to talk male, female about all sorts of things. And, since I've been back, all of those clients have started being quiet except for like one out of 10, I haven't quite yet figured out what the change is that is holding the space differently for them to quiet down and tap in. But that's a huge one just seeing my clients change to me holding this space differently and may not even quite understanding how I'm holding this space differently. But it's obviously palpable because I don't ask them to be quiet. I just put my hands on and they silence. It's pretty, pretty wild. And I think part of it before was I was avoiding actually allowing clients to integrate and process. I absolutely did not want an emotional release. I'm not looking for it now, but I'm giving people the time to process and integrate. So however that whatever that looks like for them, which is probably what people were feeling before was that I was not giving them the space nor was I inviting them to process. So they just verbally processed and did whatever in their body, the other elements. So in the way and to be literal, the way that I'm changing, that is that I'm trying to find moments to pause. My motions are much slower after the class than they were before. I might do one long pass rather than three depending on the length of the massage. And just make that one pass ultra worth it. And in those moments that the client is taking a deep breath, I can feel I'm sinking in. This is an integration moment. I am am trying to be more aware of and pause or move slowly or breathe with them. And I'm hoping that right, this is creating a a healing space for them, for them to feel held and loved. And my also interesting shift. My sessions have always been challenging. I love doing torturously deep work. I typically deny sessions to people that just want to be petted and touched lightly. I find that very un kinesthetic interesting. But the way that this class has changed the challenge element um is that I'm like still super muscle specific mechanic style. Like I want to do a yummy treatment session. Like I want this to make them not just feel relaxed but go. Oh The thanks that pain in my shoulder is gone. So it's still still my, one of my top priorities, but I'm scanning through the muscles and through the body and doing my yummy treatment style. But I'm also trying to get lost in their body to really, really tapping into that intuitive process of I feel like sludge here. So let's just slow down and hold and breathe and um give the spot more time and it's fine if I'm not being symmetrical on left to right because none of us are symmetrical left to right anyways. So that's a, that's a big one. And I, I think, I guess one of the ways I would say is that this sounds a little bit more woo and a little more extra than I typically talk about massage, given that muscle mechanic kind of mentality and being anatomically specific and all of that. But I almost feel like in this way that I'm trying to describe holding space for people differently and I'm getting quiet is, is that I'm taking my kinesthetic work and I am elevating it. And what is that elevation? I think it's to hold the whole human and right, like when clients walk in and they say their shoulders hurt and their shoulders are sore like 100% of everyone which they acknowledge, right? They know um the shoulders are where we hold tension and they are ST I, I've noticed in a, in a couple of clients that I've been paying attention to, if I can get their shoulders to release the tension and release the, the pain in a way that's more nervous system affecting rather than just trying to dig in to the muscles and force them to change or, release or however, you know what I'm talking about it. But, I feel like my clients have left more floaty and flying and a little freer than some of my work before. Well, to be continued, I'll let you know how it changes.