What does a drumming circle have to do with Craniosacral and Zero Balancing bodywork?

Craniosacral Therapy and Zero Balancing at SeaRhythms Massage & Bodywork in Charlottesville, VA

My husband and I have been participating as often as we can in a local drumming circle in downtown Charlottesville.  Quite a large group gathers every Saturday morning, with the purpose of drumming for peace and justice in the world.

You may be asking, how can drumming create peace and justice? Well, part of what happens during a drumming circle is that while every individual is playing somewhat to the beat of their own drum, somehow, as the energy among us aligns, we begin to beat together in harmony.  There is this thing called entrainment that happens.  What we end up with is a bunch of hearts and hands beating together, as one. The drumming can also cause an entrainment of brain waves, so you might say we are of one mind, too.  There is a lot of power when the energy of lots of different hearts, hands, and minds come together for a cause!

Last Saturday, as I played my drum with passion and purpose for nearly an hour, I found I needed to rest my hands, even as the others went on drumming. I paused and just laid my hand on my drum to feel it vibrate.  To sense the vibration required a precise touch — not so heavy that I interfered with the drum’s movement, and not so light that I couldn’t fully feel it.  When I touched my drum like this, I discovered it was still playing, it was picking up the vibrations of the other drums in the room and continuing to make music!   As I touched it precisely, without interference, the drum was playing me!

Your living, unique body has movement and vibration too.  Everything that your body naturally does to keep you alive creates some movement, from each breathe you take, to digestion and elimination, to heartbeat and blood circulation, to nerve impulses and brain waves, to the most subtle movements of cellular metabolism.  Similar to a drum, we also pick up vibrations from our environment.  Ever noticed the calm that can come over you as you sit beside the ocean, listening to the waves roll in and out in rhythm? You are picking up those vibrations, the rhythms of the sea.

Much of what I do during a bodywork session is feel your unique rhythms and vibrations using a particular touch (similar to the way I touched my drum), and then I respond in a variety of ways.  Depending on what I feel, I may just hold space there and allow your rhythm to reorganize itself around my stillness.  I feel this reorganization happening under my hands, and I feel when it is finished.  Or, if there is a lot of held tension and lack of movement in a particular area, I may introduce gentle, but stronger, forces of acupressure, massage, or stretching to help your body regain it’s movement and balance in a particular area. Or, if everything seems balanced and moving as it should, I may simply move on to the next area.

When I touch precisely like this with an intention to help, and respond to your rhythm, your session can become a mind-body balancing session – your energy starts to flow more smoothly, you feel better.  Similar to the drums, a harmony is created.

In reality, I will have only assisted your body to balance itself, because all of your own healing ultimately comes from you. By the end of your session, my goal is for you to feel more relaxed and content.  To have less tension and pain. For you to stand taller and move with more ease.  It’s a beautiful thing when that happens.

Together, we create peace and happiness in the world, one bodywork session at a time.

Read more about Tammy’s signature therapy, Integrative Therapeutic Bodywork, that integrates Zero Balancing, Craniosacral Therapy, Abdominal, and Myofascial Therapy.