100 Paths

Last weekend, I asked my fiery young Ayurvedic masseuse, “A job like this needs much strength, doesn’t it? And you’re so slender.”

She stopped in her palm tracks across my tummy. “The strength is in the wrist and hand, not in the body.”

“But don’t you ever get tired massaging so many clients a day?” I insisted.

“A long time ago,” she said, “my friend told me, ‘the massage doesn’t happen from here (pointing to her biceps) but from here (pointing to her heart)’. That’s all. I never forgot that. Strength is in the heart, not the hands. If you work this way, you’ll never get tired.”

I cherished this lesson all this work week. There is no fatigue, no burn out, if you work from the heart.