Dunshaughlin teacher touches on benefits of story massage

A DUNSHAUGHLIN well being teacher who is hosting the biggest ever online Story Massage event for children says she hopes it will encourage other groups to take part in the activity that brings people together.

Mindfulness and well being coach Una Curran will be welcoming children from countries across the world tomorrow (Wednesday) via a webinar organised through education centres nationwide and abroad to take part in this therapy under the theme of peace.

The event is part of the Pro Touch movement for the month of October that shows the positive effects of touch and connections for physical and mental health through holistic modalities like massage and story massage.

"Story Massage combines the benefits of positive touch with the creativity of storytelling,” says Una. "It involves the use of easy-to-follow massage strokes associated with spoken words that help to build up an engaging story. The strokes are shown on shoulders, back, arms and head.

"This year we have the story massage translated into 31 different languages for each day of October to bring peace and connection all over the world," she added.

"It is a fun and therapeutic activity that has become popular in the home, school and wider community.”

Mary Atkinson and Sandra Hopper created the Story Massage Programme in the UK while Lizzie Badger founded the Pro- Touch movement, all of whom Una works closely with.

"I have been working with Lizzie and with Mary over the last couple of months and we wrote the story massage story for next week together," she said.

“With Lizzie and the Pro Touch movement she wanted to show how healing touch can be. It is the first way we communicate as babies and it is the last way we communicate when we are dying.

"I think now more than ever no matter what age we are, a constant connection with each other is a crucial part of our well being.”

Una explains how a Story Massage class works.

"Before they start they always ask permission from their friend if they can give a story massage and it also puts consent in their minds in an easy way for children and they always have that opportunity of saying yes or no. The majority of children love it.

"So then they will do different strokes so the first stroke could be the circle so they will do a circle on their friend’s back. There are different words that the teachers says, for the younger ones it’s Incy Wincy spider so that is little movements going up the back. There are ten different movements on the back, the shoulders or the arms and they follow along with me.

"They think they are having fun but what story massage does is releases oxytocin in the body which is that good feeling hormone so it is improving your physical and mental health all in one go."

Themes for the story are age dependent but next week’s event will focus on peace according to Una who said:

“The theme for next week is peace. How inner peace starts with us, if we are feeling peaceful within our selves we are more likely to share that peace within our community, our homes and the world.

"We had the first one last Wednesday and had 191 different schools and early years settings logging on so the next one will be 4th October at 11.20am.

"We are hoping to have the most ever amount of children sharing story massage and essentially sharing peace among the world."

Una says the positive benefits of the programme can give children tools they need to live a happy life.

"It’s about realising that we all are very powerful and if we all work on our own mental and emotional health and support our own inner peace, that trickle affect does make a difference.

"If we raise the good vibration and good energy, it can have an affect within our classroom with everybody working together towards the same goal."

For more information on the story massage webinar visit www.ecnavan.ie or see "Finding your Wings - Well being with Una Curran" on social media.