Kelly Scott from The Glowing Body Yoga Studio and Dragonfly Thai Yoga, chats to MysticMag about her passion for OsteoThai and Thai Yoga. She teaches Thai and Osteo-thai courses in the United States as well as Internationally and has a wellness travel program called moving platforms.
When and how did Thai Yoga start to make an impact on your life and how does it differ from other forms of yoga practice?
My first acquaintance with Thai Yoga was when I was at The School of Costa Rica Massage. I was already looking forward to learning Thai yoga and massage as I had heard a lot about it and when the module started, I really connected with my teacher. The fluidity of the work was completely different to what I had been studying, and really resonated with the body on deeper levels. It had a wow factor for me as a first impression, and as a receiver of the modality.
As I continued to learn as a practitioner, whether I am giving or receiving, the ultimate experience is the connection of the mind with the body. The more we continue to deepen this practice, the more we awaken the sleepy or resistant parts of our body/mind and connect to the awareness.
The Thai & Osteothai modality is all about mobilizing the body. It is like taking a yoga practice into a fluid world with another partner, you both reach levels of communion, awareness, transformation and change.
In a practical sense, if someone has deep pain or injury, the spiraling motion that is utilized is the deeper access to the body and what I call “Finding softness within the power”. It is an Awe factor! The body begins to resonate with the aliveness from within. The more we mobilize the body, the more we can trust our body and from here a beautiful unfolding begins with the individual receiving the work.
If practiced regularly, what can one expect to achieve from Thai yoga and massage?
As a giver and a receiver, we enter into an intention together and allow the body to unfold as it unfolds. Equally important is the meditation practice and the breathwork that is sustained throughout the session. This is not typically the type of treatment that one would go to sleep during a session. However, through the mobilizing, compaction, compression and spiraling, we enter the deeper parts of ourselves, and this is deeply relaxing. The breathwork suggested and performed throughout the session also helps with the conditioning for better sleep, more energy, toning etc.
Would you describe this art to be a spiritual practice, and equal to perhaps meditation in outcome?
Life is movement and motion. Everything that is living is moving. This is the spiritual practice of Life in motion. True meaningful life is experiencing the joy in the aliveness and exquisite pleasure of the body. The body is the vehicle of communication of what holds in the mind. If you find yourself, non-accepting by resistance, judgmental, threatened, fearful you will also see this behavior in the body, especially in the organs, where it begins to weaken the immune system. And slowly overtime these behaviors become chronic. If we “let go” of all these behaviors and really claim our God given human rights to live joyfully with one another in peace and harmony you will equally see the body regain its full expression.
This can be a spiritual practice for anyone seeking balance and harmony, though I believe there are layers within the practice.
When we begin to connect to ourselves in this way and move the beautiful energy to the communion of another, there is nothing more dynamic than union, being unified, and waking to the reality of we are all ONE. We are then awakening to what is real and not concocted by the illusions of the ego.
You offer international wellness travel. Can you tell us a little more about them and for whom would you recommend these?
I have Moving Platforms – Thai & Osteothai trainings in the United States and Internationally.
I call them Wellness Travel or moving platforms. THE PASSION is creating unique cross-cultural opportunities for travelers to experience other cultures and belief systems. Each aspect of our journey blends educational, creative, and service-oriented elements that explore the relationship between culture, nature, spirit, and play in a manner that naturally facilitates and encourages inquiry, observations, reflection, and dialogue.
The belief is that the wellness travel programs assist in the personal growth of the individual, it reflects the quality of that relationship to themselves, reflects the quality of their community in their natural environment and when these dynamic aspects are consciously more engaged, integrated and balanced the individual begins to thrive. Healer, heal thyself is the tone of these programs.
We will be going to Thailand in 2023 and Mexico in February. I am really trying to move forward with the moving platforms. First and foremost, we want to build these platforms to promote change. Change promotes consciousness, and consciousness of course is the transformation. Motion is the key word.
What is Osteo Thai and how does this tie in with your other services?
Osteothai bridges the two worlds of Eastern and Western modalities with Osteopathy principals, quality of touch, and Thai yoga movements. There is a synergistic quality of the two modalities because it is about the mind, the body and motion.
In a session, we are not seeking out the problem, but for the vitality within because we know it is there. Here we get into the deeper layers of the practice, and we are aware that we are not simply a physical body. The spiritual practice and the breathwork are part and parcel of this work. You are a participant in the healing, not the healers. We are witness to the natural process of healing, as the body is seeking balance to all parts of itself which then allows one to gain trust and heal.
As a society, we have lost our ability to trust in the process of natural healing. The mind gets in the way, belief systems as well as cultural mainstream beliefs, and therefore no longer believe or accept natural processes of healing. We do not have a true wellness system in place in our society for most people, only sick care, which is to diagnose on the level of symptoms, and prescribe medicine which then over time exacerbates the original compromise in the individual. Osteothai is bringing balance back to the body’s systems which facilitates the healing progression.
During my travels to Thailand in 2016, I met and studied with David Lutt, a licensed osteopath, and co-founder of Osteothai and initiator of Dynamic Thai Massage.
In 2019 I entered a Masters Osteothai course with both David Lutt and Jorg Schurpf to further strengthen my palpatory skills and techniques of osteopathy. My course will conclude this December 2022.
In the 10 + courses that I teach, the Osteothai principles are always the underlying principles.
Want to find out more about Kelly Scott, visit https://www.glowingbody.net/ and https://www.iluvmassage.net/
