First Blog; Change and Open Mind

Welcome to my blog! In the coming months, I am committing myself to writing regular posts about Yoga practice, Thai Massage, bodywork in general, ideas and opinions (of which I have many), skepticism about claims being made within the world of massage and yoga, life in Chiang Mai, and probably much more.

I once attempted writing a blog more than 12 years ago, but it wasn’t born out of the right motivation or based on grounded experience. For more than a decade since then, I have been teaching Yoga, Thai Massage, and Abdominal Massage, alongside running a busy clinical practice giving treatments. While I haven’t kept an exact track of how many students I have taught over the years, it must easily be in the range of 3,000 to 5,000. I have been deeply blessed with the students I’ve met and trained from all walks of life, different cultures, and various age groups—all eager to learn Thai Massage or deepen their personal Yoga practice.

At the same time, I have come across so many rigid ideas, dogmatic beliefs, and persisting myths within the world of massage and yoga. These encounters have given me immense inspiration to research, a lot to think about, and now, a platform to write about.

From the moment I first started teaching Thai Massage and Yoga until right now, I can hardly believe how much my teaching and personal practice have changed. When I first started out, I had so much pride in my practice and honestly thought I knew it all! But the more I taught, and the more I practiced, the more I understood how little I actually knew. Recognizing this opened my mind to looking critically at my own teaching methods, pushing me to keep researching, studying, and investigating.

Nowadays, there are so many fantastic sources of high-quality scientific and anatomical information out there across the internet. I also deeply understand that how my practice and teachings look today is a mere reflection of who I am right now and the knowledge I currently possess—and that in another 5 years, it will likely look completely different again.

One of my absolute favorite quotes comes from Paul Grilley: “It is good to be born in a church, but if you die in that same church, something has gone wrong.” Please don’t take the word “church” in a strict religious sense here (I have no intention of offending anyone’s faith!). Rather, look at it this way: if you have been practicing Yoga or Thai Massage for years and are still doing exactly the same things in exactly the same way you were first taught without questioning them, it is probably time to take a more critical look at what you are actually doing.

So, when reading my upcoming blog posts, I warmly invite you to keep a completely open mind. Some of the ideas I share might go directly against your current beliefs or the routines you are used to doing. But it is incredibly healthy to challenge ourselves and our ideas every now and then.

Warmly,

Remco