What I love about lomilomi

Aloha. When I give a lomilomi session time as I normally experience it slows down. Linear time always alludes me - I always feel that I am chasing the clock or it's chasing me. When I give lomilomi I step into a different dimension. I step into vertical time and whoever is receiving from me does as well.

What do I mean by vertical time? I mean to become fully present, suspended between the earth and the heavens in this now moment in this amazing miracle of a body.

Sometimes when I am giving a session it really feels as though my body and the receivers’ body become temples and time as we know it ceases to exist. As one of my teachers says, - to be wounded is to be human, but to heal is divine. 

I have never given or received a Lomilomi session that is just a physical massage. There is always a moment of pure bliss and divinity. Perhaps that moment lasts only a few minutes, perhaps the whole session… but it is that spark that truly sets my soul on fire… and it is what sets Lomilomi apart from other massage techniques I have experienced.

And that ‘spark’, or that moment… that is aloha.

So much more than ‘love’, or even ‘unconditional love’ which it is sometimes loosely translated as, aloha is ‘the breath of God in our presence’. It is the magic that does the healing and that transports us out of linear ‘clock’ time into the eternal ‘now’. The beating heart replaces the ticking clock as the future and the past both meet in the now, the pa’a. 

In pa’a, we become all of the elements and in doing so, we become one with all there ever was and all there ever will be. It is more than presence in the mindfulness sense. It is being present with the mind, the heart and the soul all at once. And when you drop into that space, aloha blooms and grows. 

And maybe this all sounds a little esoteric, our brains and intellects struggle with these concepts – but from my experience, our bodies know it to be true. 

It truly is such an honour and such a blessing to be able to give (and receive!) Lomilomi. It’s such a powerful elixir for how we live our lives. I am deeply grateful that I get to do this as part of what I call my work, because it really feels more like surfing, dancing, praying or playing! Maybe all of those things at once! 

Aloha.