There are four elements of life, and those are Earth, Water, Wind and Fire. Each element controls certain functions in the body, and all work together in harmony. Illness occurs when an element becomes unbalanced.
Each element responds to different herbs, which are categorised by their taste. It's the learning of the herbs, their taste, and what they are used to treat that's the tricky part. We won't get too far into this, we only have two days training. It takes 3-5 years education to learn Thai Traditional Medicine, and I think I've left it a bit late in my career to consider. It is a fascinating topic of study, though.
The really interesting part of the day happened in the afternoon. There are two oils that we have all learned to use - yellow oil and green oil. Yellow oil is good for muscle pain. It is made of cassumanar root, which is a relative of ginger. I like using it, it works a lot better than icy hot et al, and it smells a lot better. Green oil is used for insect bites and stings, and is also nice to dab just under one's nose - it's a fantastic decongestant. Green oil is also used to massage around the abdomen to relieve a bad stomach, and a drop can be drank in warm water to help with bad stomach as well.
We learned how to make yellow oil, white oil and green oil, then learned how to make yellow, white and green Tiger Balm. I can't believe how easy it is to do, for something so effective, and I really can't wait to get home and start experimenting with this!
Right, I need to sleep fast, get up early and do some serious revising. I have eleven days left to become amazing at Thai massage.
Tiger Balm, first production run by the November 2011 Professional Thai Massage Level II Crew:
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