Body Image and Massage

If you turn a critical eye toward your image in the mirror, if you judge yourself by your weight, your level of fitness, your age, or your size, you are not alone. Our culture is a tough one in which to live with self-acceptance and self-love. Attitudes about how we "should look" abound. Many people are slightly, or in some cases, profoundly uncomfortable about his or her body and are therefore hesitant to seek out massage as a relief for pain or stress. I have met both women and men who feel discomfort, embarrassment, or shame, with the appearance of their body. I have heard concerns about weight, size, degree of hair, and any number of other worries that clients have about the body in which they live. Here are my recommendations for helping to put your mind at ease so you can relax and make the most of your massage:

1. Your therapist is not looking at you judgmentally; we work with compassion and respect and honor the trust you put in us

2. We have seen many bodies, in many sizes, types, states of fitness, and we understand the myriad types of bodies in our world

3. We often have our own eyes closed to ‘see’ with our hands

4. We think about range of motion and tension level of your soft tissue structures such as the state of tension or flow in your fascia

5. We are focusing on your muscles; how do they feel?—tight, knots, loose, flexible?; note this has nothing to do with how your body looks

6. We don’t care whether or not you’ve shaved your legs, you are hairy, or your skin is dry

7. We care about helping you feel good in your skin and with yourself

8. We care about helping you enjoy pleasurable touch, pain relief, and that feeling of well-being massage can give you. We care about helping you be at peace in your body.

Massage is a wonderful way to get out of your head (the place where the fears and anxieties in the form of thoughts begin) and into your body. Bodywork can be a great way to trust your body again as the wondrous machine it is. Take this time to enjoy sensations, to recognize all that your wonderful body can do for you, for the miracle of self-healing your body is capable of, and to recognize that you are part of, in and beyond your physical body.

Picture from Digital Experience/Art Installation;
http://www.digitalexperience.dk/?p=320

For more information about massage visit
www.karenpeckmassage.com or email Karen at info@karenpeckmassage.com