by Yasmin Lang, Aged Care Nurse / Massage Therapist, Byron Bay
I was invited to give a presentation at an Aged Care Centre, to bring awareness of the benefits and support massage can provide. I did not know what I was going to talk about until I stood before fifty or so residents and staff and began sharing what felt right from my own experience.
My mother suffered from dementia, and she came to a point when she no longer recognised me or knew my name. Having a conversation only created confusion for her, so I used to hold her hands and then gently massage them, and the feeling between us re-awakened and she called me daughter!Could it be that we have become so very far removed from safe and nurturing touch, and especially so, as we grow older?
It all began when I visited her with a gift of hand lotion. At first it was awkward and she did not like being touched – perhaps the closeness was too much for her, perhaps she had become very removed and isolated from touch and any true loving connection, especially in a nursing home where the only physical contact was to assist her in everyday personal care needs, which was not always pleasant. In the beginning she struggled and her resistance came up, then she began to relax, melt and fall into a light sleep… and within 15 minutes she became peaceful and her restless nervous hands were still, just being.
On another visit when again she did not recognise me, her eyes lit up when I held the bottle of hand lotion in my hands and she said, “yes, please!” We were communicating!
A few weeks later I observed her in a repetitive anxious state along with restless legs and lack of sleep. I wrapped her feet in steaming warm towels and then gently massaged the hardness from her legs and feet. She relaxed and calmed down and slept like a baby afterwards.
My mother had spent her formative years in Wales during the Great Depression and then the Second World War, and these experiences had shaped her. It was obvious how stifled her life had become. She had learned how to survive but found herself unable to see outside this wall she had erected around herself, always worried about money and stockpiling food: she lived in a climate of fear and poverty consciousness. Eventually, dementia had taken away her memories, worries and her life-long struggle with asthma. Yes, even the asthma was cured, leaving her with a wide-eyed childlike innocence, and we became playful and funny in each other’s company. Not many words were needed to communicate and yet, we were communicating heart to heart in a true way, and our new relationship had begun through a gentle loving touch that would re-connect us to ourselves, each other and the harmony within.
These days a new relationship has developed through this experience, for me to be working with and around people with dementia and their families. I might add that it wasn’t always an easy road, sometimes to the point of exhaustion, where I would almost lose my way. Usually, when I used to feel sorry or sympathetic towards another who I perceived to be suffering, I would get drained and exhausted. But to shut myself down, cold, hard and detached and to not feel, did not work for me either.
During this time I had much healing and support in the way of healing sessions with Serge Benhayon and other Universal Medicine practitioners, and I attended Universal Medicine workshops where I began to feel more of myself and understand the need for more loving care, nurturing and healing within myself. It was only then that I was truly able to develop an understanding toward others. I began to feel a warm detachment – compassion for a person. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s quite the opposite: I can accept that the person is exactly where they are on their own journey, just as I am, and there is no way I would want to interfere with their process, change them or provide a safety mattress to prevent them from feeling where they are at; nothing to fix, simply, I love them just the way they are and they can feel that, too.
It is now possible for me to offer my assistance and true care without the entanglement and emotional attachment. I am more loving with myself, playful, and able to get out of my own way and offer a true service.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
Beautiful. When we honour where a person is at we are free to just love them.
Yasmin this is very beautiful thank you for sharing, what you are showing us all on a deeper level is that a loving touch can be so incredibly supportive for those people who suffer from Dementia or are very anxious about being in Hospital where they are no longer in control of their life but are in the hands of the nurses they can get very agitated and unsettled by this. I have noticed how patients like to have their hands massaged with hand lotion too. I use one that smells of an English Rose Garden and even the men like to have it massaged into their hands the smell of the roses evokes fond memories it seems.
Many people respond to a loving touch, no matter what is going on in their life, ‘ a loving touch can be so incredibly supportive for those people who suffer from Dementia or are very anxious’.
I agree – when we are detached and have no investment, there’s nothing to argue about. It feels simple and acceptance is more than easy, it is the only way we respond.
It is amazing how the simplest of things can lead to huge life-lessons. I am sure you were not planning to develop that connection through massage when you were buying the lotion, but something in you ticked you to get just the perfect present and unlock a connection between the two of you.
What a beautiful way to re-establish the connection, ‘our new relationship had begun through a gentle loving touch that would re-connect us to ourselves, each other and the harmony within.’
Just loving a person for who they are and not wanting them to change to fit our expectations or pictures and is one of the most healing things we can offer anyone.
Absolutely Alison, loving another for who they are, and just giving them space is very beautiful.
Reading your blog again today Yasmin it really came through strongly how much is communicated just from our presence as well as our touch. It’s actually encouraging me to allow more silent, still moments with others where we can communicate all that we are without words.
A beautiful reminder that there is so much more to our connection and communication than our verbal expression. Even when we are with one another in a very simple way, our presence is still felt and goes way beyond the words.
Our presence is always felt, and is very powerful.
What a gorgeous way to keep connecting with someone with dementia. It makes sense to keep things light, simple and playful and see what happens.
It always makes sense to be light and playful, some of us just need to give ourselves permission to allow that way of being to flow again, ‘It makes sense to keep things light, simple and playful and see what happens.’
Talking is often not needed in our communications…..our bodies speak louder than words and the quality of our movements can bring harmony or disturbance, allowing ourselves a deeper awareness we can choose to keep coming back to love.
A beautiful sharing Yasmin, when words are lost there is always the connection of touch and through that touch many things are remembered even if the ability to speak those memories has been lost, they can still be felt.
The connection of touch can convey love and caring, and be felt at a deep level.
A true love story through touch Yasmin. Its a romantic thriller, and a true story! I love touch and I know that to be touched how I want comes from how I am with that touch with myself. If I succeed in this then any touch thereafter is a confirmation.
Whatever lies unresolved during our life can weigh heavily and affect us deeply if we are not supported to let it go before we pass – and your beautiful example of how your tender touch supported your mother is a great example of that.
Maybe bringing some tender touch to residents of care homes would really support what can be a difficult period of their lives.
That it can Elizabeth. Beautifully said.
We are never amongst others to provide a ‘safety mattress’ we cannot fix anyone we can only be there in full for them and follow the impulses of our body to guide us. Your blog is a clear example of this and the effect it has on another when we do so with true love.
when people have mental problems it is great to not talk to much but for example to walk hand by hand. To be in the body if ready to connect back.
Dementia is showing us the long lived deep patterns of being not connected with our own body. Living in the head so to speak.
We deal with the consequences of leaving ourselves to long. Very sad to See.
Beautiful sharing Yasmin. I used to do the same with my mother when she got older. The communication and connection went deeper by touching and holding hands, when I let her feel the love I am. The most amazing fact being that my mother started to do the same with other older people who lived in aged care homes.
This is so beautiful …you touched, massaged your mothers hand and she starts to remember who you are.
Deeply beautiful and touching Yasmin, thank you.
It is very beautiful to read how Yasmin was with her Mum during this difficult period.
Reading this makes me wonder if I should offer a close one this treatment as well. I imagine it would feel lovely especially when the ability to clearly communicate is not there anymore.
When we get lost in any way, coming back to the body is everything. That is why, in those occasions words may not do much.
What occurred to me while reading this touching account of Yasmin’s care for her mother is just how much we all really yearn for tender physical contact but seem to avoid it like the plague sometimes based on some previous hurt or fear of opening up fully to others and showing our fragility, which is actually a strength, not a weakness.
It is amazing how you did not know what you were going to present about yet when you were there presenting in the moment you knew exactly what to say. This really shows a deep level of connection and trust within yourself that naturally offers you the ability to be confident and open to what your body is telling you in such circumstances.
True love and true care can look quite different from what we have been sold to. Accepting others for their choices, knowing that they are love, is very much a work in progress for me, as much as building that foundation for the relationship with myself.
First I love that you did not prepare for the presentation but instead felt what was needed when you got there and was actually with the people and that what you presented came from your lived experience and something that could really support staff and residents alike … truly inspiring ✨ Secondly Yasmin this is so beautiful what you are sharing with regards to your mum and the relationship between you. Often when our parents age, as adults we get engulfed in our ‘busy’ lives and do what we can to support them, but here you really connected with your mum and gave her time and care. When you mentioned how you cared for her feet with the towels it was really touching and the love and care could be felt. It just goes to show what a simple thing like a hand massage with some hand lotion when being really present with the person and doing it from a place of true care can offer the other.
It also showed how the leg and foot massage was able to bring her mother out of anxiety and physical restlessness, and how effective the touch was for something we might solely rely on pills for.
A beautiful blog to read Yasmin, showing the power of your loving tender touch bringing a loving connection with your Mother. So many of the elderly miss the loving touch which can be so healing, and massage with true care is a beautiful way of providing this.
Love your mention of true care coming from detachment. After all how can we ever offer true care and understanding to another if we are absorbed and entangled in their emotional dilemmas and issues?
Alison how you described how some people from that era was spot on, as with my mother she felt she had no choice in life, as you say it was not in their hands to change it. However, massaging her hands did allow her to feel tenderness and the protection were no longer there, as she was safe and she felt loved.
Understanding someone’s experiences through life and the effect that these experiences have had, without being sympathetic is very important. Our history explains much, even though we choose our reactions/responses.
What a powerful message you share here Yasmin of how or bodies will always respond to love, as It knows that love is what animates and brings harmony to the body, regardless of whether our minds are aligned of not. And so, where we walk with love, we communicate love in every way through our movements, and as you share this is how to offer true service to humanity.
We are touched and taught in a way beyond words, by physical connection. What a travesty it is that this warm and natural caring expression has been put aside to be ‘polite’ or proper. A simple caring gesture can remind us instantly, we are Love. Thank you Yasmin.
Truly beautiful Yasmin. Your blog has me pondering the power of touch in all my relationships. So often we think we need to say the right thing but our bodies communicate far more than words can.
A beautiful sharing Yasmin. We like to communicate with words but I love how you restored connecting with your mum through touch and deep love and care. Feeling a connection from the heart is worth more than any words exchanged.
Thank you Yasmin, loving touch is a beautiful way to communicate love and warmth very clearly. Love is more than just words, love is felt in the way a meal is cooked, in a hug, in the way we work, and the way we touch others. All you have shared is really beautiful Yasmin and very inspiring. We can never discount our ability to share our love with others in very simple ways in our day to day life
When we sympathise with another they feel that in their bodies too and it is a drain on them. I am just remembering a time when I was in a wheel chair, brief though it was, it gave me time to observe other peoples reactions to me and the sympathy, pity and patronising energy coming my way felt ugly and very uncomfortable.
Thank you Elaine, it’s great what you have shared here. We judge and diminish people based on outer circumstances instead of meeting each other in our essence or being and the equality that we truly have. It is true what you’re sharing here that sympathy can stem from viewing someone as less because of circumstance.
A very powerful testament to the power of touch beautifully and simply expressed.
A very touching sharing, Yasmin, thank you. The effect of sympathy and the difference when you give loving support that you highlight is truly important and significant in being able to give true loving care and to not become drained in the process.
Thank you Yasmin – it is inspiring to read how the delicacy and tenderness of touch can restore connection with another.