Walking What We Talk

Once a week for the past four weeks I have stepped out of instructing in the massage classroom and onto a massage table. Life has been stressful, but I really did not know how much the stress was impacting my body, mind, and heart until I made a commitment to spend time on the massage table.

My precious mother passed in January this year after living 88 years on this planet, 60 of those years with me. When your mother passes, when anyone you love passes, when any kind of life changing event occurs, it touches every part of who you are, deep into the soul. And while this is going on, life continues to happen. The story line of stress in our daily lives runs true for most people, the only difference being in the details of the story.

Since becoming a massage therapist more than 20 years ago, I have had hundreds of people on my massage table. Every one of these people came to receive massage because something was causing stress in their life and life begins to feel a little out of control. That was how I was feeling, and yet I was not fully aware of that feeling. I just knew something needed to happen and I finally reached a point where the once-a-week-massage idea seemed like the best option there was.

So every Thursday evening for the past four weeks I have been on the massage table receiving touch. During that time on the table I find myself resting, breathing deeply, releasing tensions in the muscles, in the mind, and in the heart while the skilled massage therapist intuitively knows how to touch, and what techniques to apply for this to occur. This is compassion in action. This is pure magic. This is how we care for each other so we can pick up the pieces and go on.

Life is not always easy, fun, and delightful, but with massage, our options of creating ease, fun, and delight are much better. This is a teaching we share every week in our massage classroom at Bodyworks. And sometimes, even those that carry this teaching to others need to walk the talk. I am so grateful for massage.