Some people just know ‘how to relax.’ For the rest of us, relaxing, paradoxally, takes some effort. With these quick tips, you can make the most of your hour on the massage table:
1. Arrive a few minutes early so you have time to decompress, change without rushing, and share any necessary information with your therapist.
2. If you have any concerns, new health issues, new pain symptoms, or needs, your own oil or lotion you’d like her to use, or allergies to lotions or creams, share them with your therapist before the session begins.
2. If you have any concerns, new health issues, new pain symptoms, or needs, your own oil or lotion you’d like her to use, or allergies to lotions or creams, share them with your therapist before the session begins.
3. If you have a special musical request, for example, restful, or percussive, classical, or new age, feel free to say so. One of my clients brings his own musical selections for me to play.
4. Take three or four deep breaths at the start of your massage and as you exhale, imagine all the stress, worries, or preoccupations you carried in with you, leaving you for this one hour.
5. Many people find clearing their mind of ‘things to do’ and picturing tranquil nature scenes to be helpful in letting go. Ask your therapist to do some visualization exercises with you if you find you are unable to relax.
6. Relinquish your need to be ‘helpful.’ Be limp, like a rag doll, and let your therapist do the work.
7. If you are uncomfortable, cold, hot, need a different bolster, don’t like the degree of pressure, or area the therapist is working, or pain or tickling sensations are causing you to flinch, say so. We want to make your experience wonderful and we won’t mind.
8. If you feel the need to talk, do so. Honor any emotions that surface.
9. If you want to ‘zone out’ and remain silent, do so.
10. This is your time. Be conscious of the touch, and enjoy the sensations and relief you are receiving.
To summarize, make the most of your massage: breathe, let go of thoughts, let your therapist do the work, be mindful of how good the massage is helping you to feel, and you are sure to leave the massage feeling like a new person, full of energy, vitality, movement, and peace.
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