Massimiliano: life, dance, Ayurveda and Parkinson.
Massimiliano, for his Massi friends, agrees to talk about himself and to make his life experience available to people, an experience that smells of fullness, sensitivity, listening, introspection, beauty, imbalance and balance, naturalness, passion, …
It’s a Sunday morning, we have a telephone appointment: Torino (Italy) – Fuerteventura (Canary Islands).
“Hi Massi, good morning!”
“Hi Francesca, good morning to you! Have you already been able to walk on the beach? “
It seems the beginning of a conversation like many others, in a situation of gradual recovery after the lockdown.
But Massimiliano is a flooding river!
It only takes a moment to realize that Massimiliano is a precious person and that what he encounters in life, he lives it deeply and fully.
Massi accompanies me on a journey and leaves me the arduous task of transcribing it in this article.
“We are lucky, we are on Fuerteventura. By respecting the regulations, we are still lucky, surrounded by the sea, by volcanoes, we recharge “
“My favorite island in Italy is Pantelleria. The island balances you, we are made of water and the fact of being on an island you feel that aspect even more … we are made of water, and water is life “
“Yes, Massi, absolutely yes! It makes you rediscover the essential”
“Francesca, you will have to tell me how you fell in love with that island and how the story that led you to live there was born.”
“It is the same curiosity that I have towards you, regarding India, Ayurveda and the relationship you have with this place. When we felt on other occasions, you always called yourself a citizen of the world with a special place in your heart, India “.
“Yes, there are these elements that bind me with Ayurveda, which means Science of Life, with very ancient origins, and which tells us that life is based on three pillars which are sleep, nutrition and general balance of life”.
Massi speaks of the ancient origins of Ayurveda, which is not only a wisdom handed down from generation to generation for many centuries, but it is science and lifestyle. Let’s not forget that there are very ancient Ayurvedic texts that already speak and describe Parkinson’s, before James Parkinson studied and described it, making his important contribution to this pathology that still bears his name.
The importance of a healthy rhythm of sleep and wakefulness, of a healthy diet, of living in balance, giving oneself rules of life (intended as healthy habits) lead to a parallelism with the life of a farmer of the past, where his day was marked by the hours of light and dark, the food based on what he produced based on the seasonality and climatic characteristics of the place where he lived and cultivated, … A lifestyle in harmony with Nature. Contact with Earth and Nature allows you to live better, qualitatively speaking.
The energy that comes from balance and harmony, guarantee well-being, prosperity, being brighter.
Massi recalls the experience lived in Pantelleria with his wife, where they chose a dammuso, a typical Pantelleria house isolated from the world with a limited use of electricity, in which they tasted the beauty of getting up with the first light of the sun, and going to rest at sunset. Fixed appointment: going outside, in the middle of nature, having breakfast at the first light of the sun, with the birds singing and experiencing Nature … a fantastic thing!
“You realize that these were the rhythms of our grandparents. Our grandparents worked a lot, but sleep care was the most important care! “
Health and well-being are the objectives of Ayurveda, which is not only science, but also a philosophy of life.
Massimiliano meets Ayurveda in Bratislava, shortly after receiving Parkinson’s diagnosis, where he was already on business. Enter this center of Ayurveda with a little hesitation and be enchanted by the fact that before receiving treatment, he must make a medical consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor, because he is pointed out that the centre where he is located is not a beauty centre. A very different medical consultation compared to the classic medical consultations: the doctor does not call you “Patient” and sits next to each other. Two simple elements that completely change the dynamics, the perspectives and the concept of “cure”. Massi had the opportunity to tell his story and to feel heeded. The massage he received later was regenerating for the body and the spirit , accompanied by music, incense and herbal tea.
Doctor Morandi of centre of excellence for Ayurveda in Milan recommends to Massimiliano an Ayurveda centre in India, in Trisshur, where he made his first trip. It remained closed in the centre for 4 weeks, a sort of hospital. An experience that Massi describes as very positive for him, during which he wrote a lot, read, remained connected with himself. And since that time, every year he returns to India. A moment of rest according to the rhythms of nature and listening to your body and your own natural rhythms and needs, allows you to fill up on energy.
Massi currently travels to southern India once a year for about a month. In structures where they practice Ayurveda, a sort of retreat from the chaos of the world, in the silence of his room, alternating moments of massages and those of treatments, with moments of meditation, sharing with others. Ayurvedic massages are very important to rebalance the three “doshas” (Vata, Pitta and Kapha), which correspond to three types of physical and energetic constitution. The use of natural oils, specifically designed for the needs of the person receiving the massage, the result of the millenary knowledge of Ayurvedic science itself, helps to keep the body hydrated and a hydrated body also contrasts better with Parkinson’s. The use of oils on the whole body, including the head, helps a lot to meditate. Meditation is another fundamental element in Massi’s experience, a very valid support also for a quality sleep, to pacify the mind with itself.
Another significant experience for Massimiliano was the yoga course, especially the laughter yoga class. The value of laughter, contagious, also helps a lot in situations where anxiety and worry would usually prevail, also exacerbating the off-Parkinson phases in a dysfunctional way.
The trip to Massi is an added value. Being able to travel alone, despite and in spite of everything, is a wonderful experience.
Massi introduces us to a theme dear to him: the art of Living in Beauty.
And it does so starting from a very deep and introspective reflection, even if full of references to what is happening today. It starts from the years in which he was next to his dad to help him after a stroke. A six-year long period that ended when his dad passed away. Massimo talks about the pain of his death, the difficulty of reworking the mourning, of the sufferings, of the difficulties. If you are not prepared to live life, abandonment and death in a serene way, welcoming and managing abandonment and death as an integral part of life itself, you can face a break with the external world that can create decompensation, such as a blockade of dopamine production, as happened to him.
“It is important to take things as they are and live in beauty, also thanks to the arts that are there, such as dance, music, …”
Massi has always had a good relationship with dance. However, it intensified when he heard the news that the Rome Ballet would test for people with Parkinson’s. Giovanna Garzotto of Dance Well telephoned and answered, who invited him to join her in Bassano, unable to go to Rome.
Massimo joined the Dance Well group in the ancient cloister of the Civic Museum in Bassano del Grappa. There he met a nice group of people (students, people with Parkinson’s, political refugees) and, dancing on the grass, he breathed the beauty!
“Dancing using your imagination, listening to your body, improvising, using mirror neurons, in the group, in a non-judgmental environment, gives you crazy energy, powerful vibrations” Massimo says several times with a beautiful voice, full of life and with enthusiasm.
Massi decides to divulge this practice and becomes a witness to it, with a project involving the “Lavanderia a Vapore”, centre of excellence in Piedmont and for all the house of dance, in which Massi and the project have been welcomed with enthusiasm.
Together with many dance and beauty companions, he also manages to make two important shows, within two events such as the Vignale Monferrato Festival 2019 and the Primitive Accommodation show for the Parkinson day at the “Lavanderia a Vapore”, both shows under the direction of the choreographer Daniele Ninarello involving a large audience both times!
If Dance is Movement, we are Dance!
