The Ancestral Lineage of Touch

Prefer to listen...Click here for the audio and mini Touch Yoga Practice.

Welcome to the Living Room, a moment of reflection, practice and presence...Go and 'Pop the Kettle Omm' and let me take you on a little journey...

Close your eyes for just a moment… and imagine waking up thousands of years ago, to a perfectly still morning. There are no distant irritating sounds of cars rushing by, no continuous demands of notifications, no constantly fast-moving world waiting for your undivided attention. Only the soft melody of birdsong drifting through the trees and the cool freshness of the early morning air brushing against your skin.

But as the day begins to stretch out, you begin to feel a little tired, sniffly and achy… perhaps it’s the first signs of a cold. But back then, there were no pharmacies, wellness apps, or busy medical centres that’s had you waiting in endless frustrating queues, wondering 'Am I next?' Instead, people tuned into their body’s quieter language, the ancient wisdom that had been passed down from generation to generation, that an inner knowing..

They would reach for simple remedies, such as a warm hand placed gently over a racing heart. Soft fingertips resting against tired, throbbing temples. Or hold certain fingers with soft awareness, where each finger was seen as a connection to soothe and resolve emotional and physical experiences.

They knew to slow down, to soften, to return to just being. A simple returning to oneself. These simple gestures were never random. Across ancient cultures, touch was understood as something deeply regulating, comforting, and restorative. Long before science began studying the body, people instinctively knew that gentle touch was healing.

When we explore the lineage of touch, we are stepping into a vast ancient, interwoven map of healing that stretches back thousands upon thousands of years… Long before these practices were written into books, they lived quietly within everyday life, communities, passed down by families, a shared knowledge of comfort, connection, restoration and healing.

If we travel back to ancient Egypt around 4,500 years ago, we discover carvings within the tomb of a physician named Ankhmahor. These beautiful stone illustrations appear to show practitioners using intentional touch to support the flow of “Ka” the vital life-force energy believed to move through the body.

The hands were not viewed as mere tools for arduous labour, but as beautuful extensions of vitality itself. As centuries passed, this wisdom continued to evolve within Classical Chinese Medicine and ancient Eastern arts, where the fingertips were believed to act like energetic tuning forks when placed gently against the body… a way to dissolve heavy stagnation, shift stuck energy, and to invite the body's entire systems to resonate back into perfect balance and harmony.

This same thread of understanding wove its way into the Japanese healing art of 'Jin Shin Jyutsu', a wonderful practice that deeply inspired my teaching of 'Touch Yoga'. Through ancient finger holds, gentle touch points, and sacred mudras, these wonderful healing traditions shows us how deliberate touch, can evoke profound shifts in our overall wellbeing.

So, as you read this let’s honour our ancestors, who truly understood the innate power of self-harmonising touch. That beautiful inner wisdom that has always silently resided within us.

Prefer to listen...Click here for the audio and mini Touch Yoga Practice.