You're walking out of your office, with a melted iced latte in hand, checking your Instagram before having to return to reality, once again.
Pilates is at five, oh shit.
You buckle your seat belt and zoom off.
It's now 8pm. Your stomach is rumbling and you have about thirteen million pages of nonsense to read.
But, you cannot garner the energy to stand up and be productive.
You know what you need? A massage.
Yes, it sounds boujee, but I am being serious. Alter your perceptions; spas aren't only meant for Victoria Beckham.
This is what I like to call some good ole self-care.
Life is a jungle ripe with anxiety. We are eleven pounds overweight, our lease payment is two weeks past due, and our "boyfriend" has a wandering eye for his model ex-girlfriend. Take a break, disconnect. If you need to justify spending fifty dollars on a glorified nap, let's call a massage a monthly medical expense. You are indulging in a form of therapy, for your body and your mind.
According to the Mayo Clinic, massage therapy can be helpful in treating:
- Anxiety
- Digestive disorders
- Fibromyalgia
- Headaches
- Insomnia related to stress
- Myofascial pain syndrome
- Soft tissue strains or injuries
- Sports injuries
- Temporomandibular joint pain
If none of these apply and you are lucky enough to wake up every morning pain-free, then let me diagnose you with something a little different: millennialism. Social media is a constant source of self-comparison. We facetune our posts -- smooth the forehead, pull in the waist --- because we suffer from crippling insecurity. Your condition is not uncommon, whether you admit it or not, at one point or another we have all felt the dull aches of not being good enough.
Perhaps your problem is slightly different. It's a Saturday and you have spent the past six hours plugging decimals into a chart. Your friends are wearing mini skirts, cheering on the football team, and you have been listening to a classical jazz playlist for six hours straight. You are not the academic your parents imagined, but you will slave your life away in a hospital to prove yourself worthy of their love.
While there is no cure for this epidemic, I again, will suggest a remedy to your stresses: lay down and let Bridget release your tension. Inhale the lavender, melt into the egyption cotton sheets, as she presses into your spine. Free your thoughts and let your mind heal.
Types of massage:
- Swedish
- This is your run-of-the-mill massage. Think warm oil and soft hands tracing your spine. While there are variations of the classic Swedish treatment, most of the time, this is an hour of rubbing and relief.
- Thai
- If you are looking for the ultimate hour of relaxation, this is not the massage for you. Your body should experience discomfort, as the masseuse manipulates your limbs into pretzel like positions. I like to think of thai massages as "assisted yoga". However — for the workout junkie, triathlete, or mom of five — this treatment is ideal. The masseuse stimulates your lines of energy called sen. Maybe, you're 6'4" and touching your toes is an impossible feat. Don't fret, with thai massage, your therapist does all the work, while you lay there and relax. You'd be surprised what your body can do, when drenched in lavender oils.
- Aromatherapy
- Imagine this. You are laying in a white room, artificial bird chirping murmurs in the background. With each inhale, essential oil molecules enter your lungs, putting you into holistic daze. Aromatherapy is a form of healing through smells. Highly concentrated scents like chamomile, lavender are thought to have calming effects. While rosemary and eucalyptus create that I just drank two espresso shots and a wheatgrass smoothie kind of sensation. Whatever state of being you desire, there is an essential oil for you.
- Deep Tissue
- Maybe you have just competed in the Iron Man triathlon. Now even walking to the bathroom feels like an arduous task. While you may like to believe you are the hulk, unfortunately, you are plagued by the pains of your humanness. The spa seems like an appealing remedy to your woes; however, a little sandalwood and dainty finger tapping won't do the trick. Choose a deep-tissue treatment instead, and let the hands of another work out those knots.
