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Our Founder - Vimala's Blog

    I began to massage my first baby right away, after learning how in India, and then researching the incredible benefits of nurturing touch throughout the animal kingdom. I found that it was a way to continually bond with my baby, to help his gastrointestinal, respiratory, and circulatory functions develop, to help protect and develop his brain, and to experience joy with him every day.

After several months, I was so enamored with this special time we had together, and could see for myself its benefits for both of us, I wanted to share it with other parents. During those months I developed a new way of practicing the massage from my observations, research, and personal experience with massage and yoga. I began to understand that this seemingly simple 20-30 minutes of a parent’s day could actually change the world.

1st EDITION

The very first edition of my book, with me and my baby on the cover

Since my early adult life, changing the world was what I wanted to do. Infant massage was the moment that the universe spoke to me, saying that here was a chance to do exactly that. The more parents that massaged their babies in the way I had authored, the more babies would grow into relaxed, loving, nurturing, responsible beings. As my children grew, I could see the long-term ramifications of massage in their infancy upon the way they were in their world, and the relationship between my children and myself. I actually never thought about making money. I had several offers from different companies to “franchise” my program and make tons of money. Intuitively, I turned them down. I knew that if it revolved around money, it would lose the very spirit and soul of infant massage.

I charged a small fee for my classes, so that I could provide parents with hard-copy instruction and help, pay for my gas when I had to drive to a class, and a little bit for my time. Even when I began training Trainers, I charged a minimal fee for a 4-day training, which included a lot of hard-copy handouts and eventually my book.

VIMALA TEACH

One of my early trainings

So, why do you teach infant massage? Why did you go to all the trouble of finding a Trainer, paying fees, spending time, filling out forms, getting a doll, buying my book, props, etc.? These days it is very likely that many people want to be instructors (and then Trainers) as a career, for which they see many classes with lots of money coming their way. I urge you to think deeply about this. Of course we all need money to survive and get to where we want to go. But if you truly want to be a great instructor or Trainer, you must have “changing the world” as your foundation for teaching. If you didn’t make as much money as you want teaching, would you find a way to continue anyway? Are you making humanitarian service a part of what you do right now? If not, you may be wandering into territory that doesn’t serve you as a CIMI. The feeling you get when you serve the world without money in mind is indescribable. And I believe that when serving the world is our foundation, abundance will flow to and through us.

Everyone has their internal issues about money — issues many of us struggle with all the time, and wish we had a magic wand to wave over our problems and open the universe’s abundance to flow. It seems as if some people just naturally have it and others struggle so hard just to survive. Much of our relationship to money comes through our family of origin’s experiences and views about it — that ancestral memory which hides in our very DNA. I certainly do. In spite of that, I came into this world with humanitarian service as a long-range “plan” within me. I have spent many years trying to reconcile that with my need to survive — and thrive — in this material and materialistic world. I don’t have my own answers to this dilemma figured out yet, so I can’t tell others how. What I do know deep within my soul is that infant massage is something that can really, fundamentally, concretely change our planet.

It is an incredible privilege to be a Certified Instructor and/or Trainer with IAIM. Think about it; give yourself the chance to understand what you are doing and bathe in the gratitude as you serve humanity.

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