Deepening core awareness: Maya healing

As I was preparing to finalize the previous three-part series on psoas trauma, I remembered a friend's recent experience with a prolapsed uterus.  Her doctors had suggested hysterectomy but she successfully and quickly treated her condition with Maya abdominal massage, a method that offers ongoing self-care.

I felt compelled to experience this during a visit to Chicago where I discovered Moira Scullion, a licenced massage therapist of over 10 years' experience who specializes in the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal MassageTM  (MAM) and in Maya Spiritual Healing. 

For more: Arvigo healing practices and Maya healing tradition.

My 2 h introductory session with Moira, has inspired this addendum to the psoas series.  Appropriately, the appointment was on a wild and wet Thursday which, along with Friday, is considered the best for spiritual bathing rituals (see book reference below).  As you will read I did have a sprinkling bath!

Moira's website indicated that she works with 'the core of the body to release old patterns of emotional and physical holding' which sounded very relevant to the exploratory healing journey I was writing about.  The experience turned out to be profound on all levels - physical, emotional and spiritual - for me.

The background of Moira's teacher added another point of interest since Dr. Rosita Arvigo is the co-author of a book I have long had in my aquatic library called Spiritual Bathing: Healing rituals and traditions from around the world.  The water connection felt auspicious.

MAM is a non-invasive technique designed to release muscle spasms, guide internal abdominal organs into their proper position and realign the hips and sacrum.  It applies anatomy, physiology, herbology and naprapathy (study of the ligaments, joints and muscles), with ancient Maya healing techniques.

Arvigo spent a decade researching the Maya massage system to establish a credible explanation of symptoms and treatments for both women and men, and felt she had discovered an accessible alternative to the common medical options of surgery and drugs for abdominal and pelvic complaints.

Naprapathy  is a branch of complementary medicine (manipulative therapy), that focuses on neuromusculoskeletal conditions, and specifically damaged connective tissue. Developed in the early 1900s by Dr. Oakley Smith, a chiropractor, it is a derivative of osteopathy and chiropractic. Structural imbalances (often situated in the spine) caused by poor posture, trauma ( whiplash and sports injuries) and general wear affect the suppleness of connective tissue, and trigger or contribute to chronic conditions. Interestingly, the oldest and largest naprapathic school is the National College of Naprapathic Medicine in Chicago, offering degree programs.

Most women will have a misplaced or tipped uterus at some point in their lives. The causes include difficult birthing experiences, surgical errors, falls onto the sacrum, high-impact exercise, sexual abuse, abortion trauma, and anything contributing to misalignment of pelvis and spine, and chronic pelvic muscle spasms.  (I can count several of these among my life experiences.)

All these can damage, tear or overstretch uterine ligaments, prohibiting them from properly supporting the uterus and causing it to eventually fall down, backward, forward, or causing it to shift either to the left or right side of the pelvic floor.  

A retro uterus leans against the colon; an antero uterus leans on top of the bladder; and a uterus leaning to the right or left puts undue pressure on the lymphatic and venous return, arterial supply and the flow of 'energy', as do any of the other malpositions.(The latter possibly contributed to my falls.)

Even though the uterus can be returned to its normal position in the pelvis, it still has the potential to wander if any of the above occur during a woman's lifetime. The simple self-care techniques can enable a woman to adjust her own uterus after a fall or when carrying heavy burdens for example (the recent trigger for me as described in Part 1 of the psoas trauma series).  

Arvigo considers the uterus to be a woman's 'second brain' and the spiritual center of her being.  There is very often an emotional release when the deep massage is performed over the diaphragm, abdomen or the pelvis, which can relieve muscular armoring and restore all manner of healthy functioning.

Energy work is incorporated into Moira's sessions, and was paramount in mine.  Traditional Maya healers recognize spiritual diseases (equating with emotions), the most common of which are fright/ trauma, grief/ loss, sadness/ depression, anger, and envy/ jealousy.  Healing is directed toward clearing these.

After the deep abdominal massage which showed that there was still a great deal of holding in the right side of my abdomen, Moira began to do some healing work including sprinkling my body with herbal waters (the basil was especially powerful - my whole being wanted to drink it in), feathering, and prayer.

Eventually there was an intense emotional release centered around my throat.  Moira maintained the space for this perfectly and then effectively rebalanced my energy by holding my feet which produced a marvellous sensation of heat in a band across my heart area. 

Though I felt very tired that evening, the day after and since then (about a week at the time of writing) my energy level has been good and notably positive.  It is never easy to 'prove' that spiritual healing work has been beneficial but I am increasingly sensitive to the internal shifts that make it so for me.  This was a positive step on my healing path.

The strongest sign has been that, 3 days later, my period came after a gap of around 4 months since a tornado hit the forest where I live and brought down the trees that I was helping to salvage when I exacerbated the existing chronic issue in my pelvic area. (Moira anticipated this.)  I currently have no physical pain or limitation.

Dr. Rosita Arvigo is based in Belize where she apprenticed with an elderly shaman-healer.  Her instructors offers training in MAM in the US and Belize for those interested in self-care and also for massage therapists, acupuncturists, midwives, chiropractors, naprapaths, naturopaths.

A note about water in Maya healing rituals

Blessing of the water (ha in Maya) is important in traditional healing,  especially for the Ixmen (female healer) who often invokes Ixchel, Goddess of Medicine.  Water from Maya sacred cenotes, part of an underground river and sinkhole system in the Yucatan, is considered especially purifying and life generating.

[I also happen to live in an area full of sinkholes and underground streams that are part of the Karst geography of the Ozarks bioregion spanning 5 states, including Missouri.]

Ixchel, the goddess of fertility and healing, is the Lady of the Rainbow or Sacred Light.  She is always associated with bodies of water, and may be depicted carrying a clay pot of rainwater and herbs which is sometimes upside-down, wearing a serpent on her head, holding a rabbit, sitting on the moon, or weaving.

Much more can be found in the above book on 'Spiritual Bathing' (pp. 99-109)

Personal process

This direction towards Maya healing methods is not the first for me in recent months, and I suspect it will not be the last.  I have been attracted to (and written about) the Yaxkin Eco-Spa near Chichen Itza in the Yucatan, and perhaps will now be further motivated to visit.

My favorite personal healing plants have long been rose, basil and marigold - all of which have great significance for the Maya, along with many other indigenous herbs of course.  Following Moira's advice, I will include these more often in my own healing and bathing rituals.  I will also be practicing the self-care regimen once my period is over (as recommended).

Links of interest

Deepening core awareness and the implications for aquatic bodywork (a 3-part series on Aquapoetics):

Part 1: Personal experience of psoas trauma

Part 2:  How aquatic bodywork can help with psoas trauma recovery

Part 3: Some ways of working with the psoas on land and in water

Poetry with personal links to the themes of healing mentioned in this series on psoas trauma on my blog Diving Deeper:

Snakes (two poems)

Black (Tlazolteotl)

Two posts referencing one of my current 'bibles' the delightful book by Martin Prechtel, The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun: A Mayan Tale of Ecstasy, Time, and Finding One's True Form:

For the watery soul

Visioning a spa retreat

Special note: Liz Koch is an international educator, author, and creator of Core Awareness (TM) focusing on conscious awareness for developing human potential. With 30 years experience working with and specializing in the iliopsoas, she is recognized in the somatic, bodywork and fitness professions as an authority on the core muscle.