Our human relationship to water is an ancient one. Each of us is conceived within water and born from it. Our earliest movements were free within water. Our first relationship was with mother, within water. We once dwelled in Mother Ocean. Presently, being made of primarily water, we are little sacs of oceans. Our tears are salt water. Essential, nurturing, peaceful, sacred and healing are just a few words describing the human relationship to water. Water is also a doorway to remembrance of creation. Watsu, also known as aquatic massage, frees the body, mind and spirit in warm salt water.

This is a sharing of one woman’s remembrance of creation while receiving Watsu.

Stepping into an enclosed salt water pool, I was welcomed into warm salt water by my practitioner. After a few moments, she asked for my hands, and invited me to close my eyes and breathe with her. A slow inhale and the whole pool seemed to rise with my lungs. The exhale lowered me into the waters of the pool and relaxed the waters within me. After a few breaths and an inner intention of healing, I relaxed onto my back, floating while my practitioner supported my head and spine.

Underwater, the sound of my breath was amplified, my heartbeat audible. With each gentle movement, I let go deeper and deeper into the experience, feeling increasing trust and ease in the nurturing arms of the therapist. Awareness of breath disappeared. Was breathing necessary?

The initial welcome evolved into a series of assisted graceful movements, stretches and periods of stillness that gave me a sense of weightlessness, a freedom which lent itself to feeling transcendent of time and space. A joy awoke within. Inside that joy, I forgot everything, only to remember.  

Suddenly my awareness was transported to my mother’s womb, a time when I dwelled within amniotic waters. My mother’s soul essence was communing with mine in unconditional love. Her soul was incredibly beautiful, as was mine, like two crystal clear notes of music, each unique and harmonizing perfectly together. The presence of the love was so pure and so encompassing it couldn’t be contained and enveloped my heart, expanding and expanding ever more until the inner ocean of salty tears melted into oneness, joining the salt waters I was enveloped in.

Waves of emotion met the consciousness of the wake of gentle waves my body floating created within the pool. Ever so gently, I was brought to the side of the pool with my back cradled at its wall. Opening my eyes, I noticed how the sunlight danced on the waters and also on the ceiling much like the spark of life of an embryo finding its way to the wall of a uterus.

Remembrance of Mother and I and Soul Essence before I was born is a gift that keeps giving. I am grateful for the knowing that Souls are eternal. I am grateful for the knowing that relationships never die, they keep growing and evolving even when bodies die. I am grateful for the healing of warm salt waters. I am grateful for the woman, the therapist, who facilitated the experience. I am grateful.

On a physical level, Watsu frees the spine and joints, aided by weightlessness. It encourages flexibility and range of motion. It can be likened to receiving the effects of restorative yoga. For the mind, water therapy reduces stress and cortisol, lessens resistance and fear around muscle tension, and is deeply calming. It can be likened to receiving the peaceful effects of meditation.  For the spirit, Watsu can transcend time and space. Through that invitation to surrender, it is possible to receive a glimpse of eternity. 

In the warm salt water, a Watsu therapist’s role is: “To provide a safe, nurturing space where people can feel invited to surrender into the healing they desire, moving toward a wholeness that is always accessible from within.”

Diane Dearmore, a Licensed Massage Therapist, has been practicing healing art modalities including myofascial release, craniosacral therapy and medical massage for chronic pain since 2002. She brings the whole of her experience from both her private medical massage practice and holistic spa environments into the water. Dearmore is currently offering watsu sessions at Santa Rita Springs, in central Tucson. Connect at 505-999-9870 or [email protected]. See ad, page 26.