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The Origins of the Esoteric Breast Massage
The inaugural Esoteric Breast Massage training began with a group of four women in Australia in early 2007, followed four months later by another eight women trained in the UK and Europe.
The women came from varying backgrounds, ranging from massage therapy, naturopathy and other complementary therapies to high level corporate roles, all sharing a common interest in the health and well-being of women.
2007
In 2007 twelve women first trained in the Esoteric Breast Massage in Australia and the UK
Training was extensive with anatomy and physiology study, a
pre-requisite of 2-year complementary therapies study, and 100 practice hours required with the other female only trainers in order to pass the internally administered accreditation.
It was clear from the outset the commitment that was required to begin the training and eventually practice the modality. However, at this stage they had a limited idea of the degree to which it was going to transform their own lives, and subsequently, that of others.
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An energetic massage at its foundation
All practitioners trained in the Esoteric Breast Massage had already completed four levels of Sacred Esoteric Healing and through this, had been introduced to the significance of energetic integrity and energetic responsibility. These foundational principles are the fundamental difference between the Esoteric Breast Massage and the commonly known lymphatic drainage massage or other breast massage therapies. Thus, this modality is studied and applied as an energetic massage.
The principles of energetic integrity and energetic responsibility bring to the fore that a practitioner’s private life cannot be separated from their professional life. Through this awareness, the women in training’s approach to their personal life and the integrity in which they conducted themselves, was looked at more closely with the understanding that – to work energetically with this area of a woman’s body required a detailed review of their conduct both externally and internally, so that no imposition, even at a subtle level, would ever be imparted to another woman. All that they live as a woman themselves would be carried through energetically into a professional setting, and naturally, putting this into practice profoundly changed the women’s lives and their clinical practices on the whole.
This understanding and application was not unknown to the first trained group of female practitioners. Having studied the art of Sacred Esoteric Healing for two to three years prior, each had already begun the application of living a life of true healing for themselves. The introduction however, of the Esoteric Breast Massage, brought a more focused attention to each woman of how they treated themselves – as a woman. This led to further professional and self-development to ensure that they each were not carrying unresolved aspects of emotions, traumas, lack of self-worth, body image issues, self-esteem, comparisons etc. that could directly or indirectly filter their capacity to hold the Sacredness of the Esoteric Breast Massage modality and of another woman in general.
It was clear from the outset the commitment that was required to begin the training and eventually practice the modality. However, at this stage they had a limited idea of the degree to which it was going to transform their own lives, and subsequently, that of others.
The underlying philosophy of the modality and the technique was imparted by Serge Benhayon, founder and teacher of Sacred Esoteric Healing. At the initial training he demonstrated via simulation (only) above the body of his fully clothed wife, which further emphasised the integrity of the treatment. Thereafter, a pilot program for the yet-to-be practitioners was initiated by the women and its developing training program remains under the care and direction of these women to this day.
The Pilot Program and its experienced effects
During the initial pilot program, trainee practitioners began practising amongst themselves in order to ‘case study’ and explore the effect of the modality. These treatments sparked a deeper learning and understanding of how our past experiences, attitudes towards ourselves and our bodies, and what had been taken on from outer societal ideals and beliefs, were not only energetically held in the body but in and around the breast area also.
It was an insightful and challenging revelatory study to acknowledge the degree of disconnection from their own breasts and bodies that became apparent to them. This unfolded into the realisation that a too common experience was that their breasts had been reduced to be seen only for functional purposes primarily, as an appendage carried and dressed everyday with a bra that could either be sexualised or be used for feeding a baby. But what of the deeper connection to the breasts as a representation of a delicateness or a Sacred femininity?
Through the Esoteric Breast Massage, the women began to reclaim a deeper understanding of their purpose and thus connection to their breasts and what they meant for them, as well as to a deeper sense of contentment within themselves. Through this, they began to feel the obvious functional uses of the breasts and instead re-ignited with their nurturing quality that was inherently part of them as women – just commonly placed second to the duties, responsibilities and roles we play.
From this unfoldment and newly re-found connection, they realised there was another dimension of richness to the relationship with themselves, their bodies, their breasts, as well as to the experience of breastfeeding and intimate relationships.
Naturally a great deal was unearthed around the roles women adopted in life, as a mother, daughter, partner, sister, friend or work colleague. They saw how identified they and many women were by the roles they tried to live up to, with this identification being the cause for ignoring the subtler messages of the body to slow down, stop or to say no. They further explored how being guarded, protected or closed off from their self-expression formed a type of hardening in the body, and how they carried a great deal of judgement about their own breasts, often in response to taking on society’s ideals around size and shape. (Smaller breasted women often want larger breasts, and sometimes vice versa, with many women judging their nipples to be too big, too small, too dark, too light and so on).
With all these discoveries and more, they furthered their initial commitment of self-development as there was a lot of healing to do themselves, and as such, the pilot program consisted of many months treating each other in order to unravel the layers taken on throughout their life.
Naturally a great deal was unearthed around the roles women adopted in life, as a mother, daughter, partner, sister, friend or work colleague. They saw how identified they and many women were by the roles they tried to live up to, with this identification being the cause for ignoring the subtler messages of the body to slow down, stop or to say no.
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As a result of the deeper learning this modality has brought, it has redefined what breast care really means and ought to be for women.
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The pilot program established many insights into the Esoteric Breast Massage and its experienced effects in practice. Three core components were:
Firstly, that a connection to their inner-most essence was where a true sense of feeling beautiful came from, rather than the usual measures of themselves by external appearance.
Secondly, a new benchmark or reference point was experienced of how they treated themselves and were prepared to be treated by others. This occurred through the quality of touch experienced and the sense of feeling deeply honoured for the essence of who they are and not treated as physical objects.
And thirdly, fundamental changes in the way the women experienced their menstrual cycle occurred, highlighting a key relationship between a woman’s lifestyle choices that influenced her sense of well-being and health. This had significant flow on benefit over time to many other aspects of the women’s health as well.
Following the completion of the pilot program, the original group of practitioners began offering the Esoteric Breast Massage in their own practices. As women began to experience the Esoteric Breast Massage and to incorporate the inspiration of its philosophy into their lives, it became evident how needed the modality was in supporting women to re-connect with their stillness and a sense of their own delicateness.
Women found that having a sense of their own delicateness further highlighted the push and hardness in their bodies from the way they had been living. A renewed sense of themselves inspired exploration of another way to approach life, to allow the qualities they had re-connected with in the Esoteric Breast Massage to become a normal part of their everyday life, so that being busy wasn’t more important than their own well-being.
The transformation in the women’s lives was expansive, including the relationship with themselves, how they felt about their bodies, their sense of empowerment, the quality of relationships with partners, children, family, friends and colleagues and marked improvements in their state of health and well-being.
As more women began asking for Esoteric Breast Massages, requests from female practitioners to incorporate the modality into their practice meant the need to expand the training program.
This now comprehensive program continues to be developed and refined in accordance with the changing needs of women. There are Esoteric Breast Massage practitioners practising worldwide today, re-assessed annually to ensure a uniformly high standard of practice is maintained.
As a result of the deeper learning this modality has brought, it has redefined what breast care really means and ought to be for women. This inspired the Foundational Breast Care website to be established, widening the understanding and offering for all women of what ‘breast care’ truly entails.
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