Falling in Love with Massage
Before I ever had a massage, I knew I wanted to love it. I didn’t know why I needed massage in my life, I just knew I did. The first time I had a massage, I went because I was ALL knotted up, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Massage doesn’t just work with the physical body. It also has the ability to touch the emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies. I have always been a sensitive person. As a child, I cried easily. My feelings were delicate. I held onto the weight of the world. My body took it all in.
I had just graduated from high school when I first considered massage. I had heard the word but never considered it something that was useful or proper. But one night after a trip to the ER my mother’s nurse suggested we might look into massage and reflexology, explaining the benefits for stress and headaches. Not long after our conversation, just about a month, my mother passed away. I spiraling into deep grief, all the while having a strong curiosity about how massage might have made things different. Could my mother have found a way to a less painful life if she could have experienced massage?
I would never know the answer, but I was determined to discover all I could about this touch centered therapy as a way of discovering what might have been.
My Mother
I never suffered from migraines, but I felt a kind of overall inflammation that came with the grief of losing her. I use inflammation not as a medical term, but more of a descriptive. My soul felt inflamed. The grief was pervasive, and I had little coping skills.
That is how I got knotted up. I got to a point where I was tired of the knots and the inflammations. I found my way to a massage therapist. The massage felt great. As she worked on me, I felt as though she was releasing a kind of tension that went beyond the muscles. My spirit felt like it was gently opening. I was emotional for days afterwards, but I knew it was the storm before the calm.
Massage would change my life.
Over the course of several years, I got massage as often as I could afford (every several months) and eventually followed my love of massage to school to get my license. I went into massage looking for how to help get beyond just the physical benefits. I wanted to give an experience that invited healing for the whole person, the same kind of experience I had been given.
Along the way, I discovered subtle nuances that offered that. They were the same elements I cultivated in theatre and art classes, the same I now use as a Life Coach and Creativity Mentor. They rise out of a feeling of safety, out of mutual respect, deepening trust, and a willingness to listen with empathy.
Sure the mechanics of a massage are important, but I am believe in treating the whole person.
These are also the seeds of the community that is coming together under the umbrella that is Creativity Tribe. It is a sanctuary for Creative Spirits. For some, that might seem like I am talking about art, but for me creativity goes much deeper than that. Creativity at its core is the fashioning of life itself. It might take shape on a canvas, in between rows of dirt in the garden, on stage, or page. It might also find its way – most certainly finds its way – into our relationships, our choices of how we treat ourselves, what we do with what the day gives us, and how we make meaning in our lives.
Massage called to me all those years ago, over two decades ago, so that I might give that gift of creativity and of touch to my body and then share in the creating of peace in the body, mind, and spirit of others.
When was the last time you had a massage? Don’t you think it is time? Your body will thank you for it.
