allAfrica.com: Namibia: Healing Through the Soul (Page 1 of 2)

The soothing sounds of Dhafer Youssef's Divine Shadows drifts through the rooms at the Anicca Relaxation Centre in Windhoek's Pionierspark suburb.

Outside in the yard, a life-sized wooden statue of Buddha stands as if saluting the sun. Pleasant water splashes from a small man-made fountain. Inside, people speak in soft and calming tones to each other.

It is important that people working together understand and respect each other, says Ludo Vanhees, as he climbs the stairs to his office, which is adjacent to a massage room with a vibrating table. Tea is on offer. He is comfortably dressed in white cotton pants and easy shoes.

Here, at this centre, information of the body is unleashed to get to what hampers the soul to reign freely.

Anicca, says Vanhees, literally means 'nothing is permanent'; things are always in flux.

"If you, for example, have pain in your back or shoulders, it is there for the moment, but it will go," explains Vanhees.

The name of the centre is also a reminder that we cannot cling to things, and attach ourselves to things.

"If we desperately want to hold on to something or get attached to it - like a relationship - then we focus so much on the other person in the relationship and nothing else in our surroundings.

We attach ourselves to material things, but we can lose these through natural disasters like earthquakes, through an accident, or through unforeseen happenings. We have to learn how to detach ourselves from such things.

Only then will we create the space for liberty; attachment narrows the focus and is often causing stress," says Vanhees in a soft tone.

The centre, like many wellness centres that have sprung up around the city, advocates the 'reconnection' between mind and body, the physical and non-physical, the body and the soul.

The centre hence tries to create an atmosphere in which people can 'let go' of negative emotions that keep them stuck in destructive patterns, in an atmosphere that is non-threatening and conducive to shed the old skin.

Vanhees, a trained speech therapist, became interested in the mind-body connection through his work, with among others, stutterers that have experienced relapses. After running the centre for 10 years, he feels that his understanding of his professional career is reinforced and strengthened through the work he currently does.

Typical cases seen at the centre are from people who want to relax through the different massaging methods offered at the centre. At a deeper level, said Vanhees, work is done to rebalance the body, and release stored memories remembered on a cellular level.

"It is not something mystical; it is something that a person holds inside the body and arises naturally once the person lets go. It is arousing your innate potential through meditation.

Deep tissue massages help to release pent-up emotions," he said, adding, "If you think the body is just tissue, muscle and bone, then you are mistaken. The body has a memory of its own. If you pass a place where you had an accident, the body might shiver or contract. It keeps in emotional or physical shocks."

A rebalancing deep tissue massage was developed in the 1980s, with the main component to make awareness compassion and meditativeness a central feature of the work.

It uses a combination of deep tissue massage, joint tension release and energy rebalancing, while counteracting chronic holding patterns that contribute to pain and illness. This method of massaging recognises the emotional, energetic and spiritual aspects as important to our totality.

Vanhees incorporates the teachings of Byron Katie, bestselling author of the book Loving What Is, who writes about enquiring thinking, and in the process releasing patterns that keep people blocked and stunted.

Katie is a businesswoman and mother from California, US, who became severely depressed, with the depression deepening over a period of nearly 10 years. For two years during this dark period, she was barely able to lift herself out of bed, and was obsessed with suicide, until one day when she experienced a life-changing experience.

This experience was triggered by her understanding - 'in a flash' - that her negative beliefs about the world around her, entangled her in a sense of helplessness and anguish.

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