Final Months

At the end of this summer I will move to Santa Cruz and continue my journey as a student and practitioner of the healing arts. I have been deeply nourished by my time in Oakland, both personally and as a massage therapist. Over the last four years I have had my studio and massage school less than a mile from my home, and I have sunk in with my neighborhood. I have only two months left to practice massage here and share with the community that has taught me so much, and it is with deep respect and joy that I am practicing here with you.

Thank you for a lovely ride, Oakland!

Sarah Eve

how to get what you want

After writing about all the wonderful things that getting a massage can do for you, I want to add more about how to help receive those benefits.  For some of us it is difficult to fully appreciate a massage because we don't have a lot of practice in how to relax: and letting go is always a practice.   

Safety and Comfort:

The one and only way to activate that "rest and digest" mode of operating in our body, the only way to let our muscles release pain and tension, and the only way to feel that increase of creativity is to be in an environment where we feel safe and comfortable.  Some therapists are wonderful at creating that environment while others are not, and some clients are wonderful at getting into that state very easily while the rest of us need more support.

Make sure your body is comfortable

We can always wiggle and move when receiving massage.  If our arm or leg or neck is in a funny position, we should move it until we are in a position where we can rest completely and allow the table to hold us up instead of feeling like we need to use our muscles to hold ourselves perfectly still.  The more we can relax into the table, the easier the therapist's job is, and the more healing work we can receive.  Even if we are receiving very high pressure, deep work, we need to be able to relax completely to let it in and get the benefit of the release.  

It sounds obvious to make sure our body is comfortable during a massage but I can't tell you how many times during the first several massages of my life I used to wonder to myself something like, "can I move my arm yet?" but not do it because I thought I was supposed to be perfectly still the whole time.  Not true!  Move until you are comfortable, and then let go.

Ask for what you want

A massage therapist is working on you because they want you to feel good.  So if you are distracted by the light, the music, the angle of the headrest, or even by the way the therapist is working, please, on behalf to all therapists let me beg you to say something!  A wonderful therapist on their best day will ask you all those things, and keep checking in with you, but sometimes we get so deep into our rhythm that we forget.  Ask!  We want you to be comfortable at least as much as you do, and even though as a client you may not want to muster that initial energy to say something, the result will be a more pleasant and relaxing experience for everyone.

That is especially true about asking a therapist to change the way they are working.  Feedback like, "Could you work lighter there?" "I feel like that area has had enough" "My right calf needs some more work" or whatever you want to ask for is only going to make the therapist's job easier in creating a relaxing environment for you.

Very rarely a therapist can be defensive: "Well I know it hurts but you've got to get that tension out of there."  In that case, it is the client who is right and therapist who is wrong.  Nothing in a massage should hurt in a way that makes you want the sensation to stop.  There's the therapeutic pain of, "Wow, that's a lot; I really needed that," but if something feels too deep or too fast to the recipient, then it is, no matter what the therapist might think.  In the rare case that a therapist doesn't want to respond to your feedback, feel free to calmly and lovingly end the massage.  Any spa or massage professional I have ever met will gladly refund your money and/or reschedule you with another therapist who will be a better fit for you.  That way you can get into that safe, comfortable mode and receive the full mind/body/spirit benefits of having a massage.

Make all the noise you want

If you need to laugh or heave a deep sigh of relief on a massage table, or even shout in surprise or burst into tears of emotion, just go on ahead and do it.  The energy we spend by holding back those noises just helps keep the tension in place in our body instead of letting it go.  By making the noise, we allow ourselves the chance to heal, and we give our therapist a better understanding of the healing that is taking place.

Take the deep sigh, for example.  That often seems to me to be the very sound of tension as it leaves the body.  So by making that sigh, we are encouraging the muscle to release as well as sending a reminder to our conscious mind that something important is happening, which will allow the muscle to maintain that relaxed state longer.  Another thing sighing does is send a message to the therapist about when, where and how we let go of tension.  This communication allows the therapist that their work is effective as well as giving them clues of how to keep working on you most efficiently.

Any noise you make helps the body release and heal and also sends feedback to the the therapist about what is working in the session.  Give it a try.

Even if you have to fart!  It's honestly better to just do it than to hold it back.  What happens when we get on a massage table and start to relax is our digestive system starts to work more properly than it did before, so that's why so many people feel they have to hold back gas.  If it helps you to giggle or mention it to the therapist, go ahead, but trust me, they've experienced it before, and they know how to deal with it.  Once you're not clenching the cheeks of your glute muscles, you'll be able to get a better massage and the therapist won't have to spend the whole session wondering, "I wonder why I just can't get this client to relax."  I know it sounds silly, but it's better than spending an entire ninety minute session in agony.

Move and get comfortable, ask for what you want, and make all the noise you need.  Then let go, and let your body heal you from the inside out!

get a massage

Get one.   It's so obvious, right?  The benefits are numerous, and many can't be articulated in words, but let me do my best to describe what happens when we get a massage:

Time to let the body heal:

First off, there is the simple fact that for a whole session, be it ninety minutes, or sixty, or fifteen, there is nothing we have to do but receive.  What a relief!  The less we can actively "do" during a massage session, the more fully we can reap the benefits of what we've come for.  This practice of not-doing activates the parasympathetic nervous system/puts us in "rest and digest" mode, and from there our body can do what it was made to do: move food and fluids effectively, and scan itself for areas of infection or dis-ease in order to flush out weakened tissue.  We are self-healing machines!  All we have to do is give ourselves time to do what already do well.  This leads to better digestion and a healthier immune system: more protection from the flus and colds that attack our friends and co-workers.

For me, that right there is enough, and there's more!

Freedom from pain:

Another thing that happens during a massage is areas of tension in our muscles break down under the therapist's hands.  This is probably the most commonly shared phenomenon while receiving massage.  That feeling of pressure going over a speed bump in my shoulders and then noticing that the speed bump is gone.  Substances such as lactic acid can move from being locked up in my soft tissue to moving freely through the body as they should.  Suddenly I feel light and flexible in areas that had felt tight and painful. 

Enhanced creativity and better insight into problems:

When we take a break from worry about our cares and responsibilities, our minds are free to come up with new and creative ways to solve the puzzles and problems of our lives.  When we know that we are safe, a new form of insight can come to us, even if it doesn't happen on the table.  It may be days or weeks later, but after we've had a chance to let go for a moment like we can on a massage table, a formerly impossible situation may suddenly seem to resolve itself, the solution is so obvious.

As I write and reread this, it feels like I'm making unreasonably marvelous claims about the benefits of massage, but the only reason I say these things is that I've felt it happen in my own life so many times, and I have watched it happen over and over in the bodies, minds and lives of my own clients.  I have seen how the simple act of attending to the health of a person with my hands, or receive that kind of work, simply makes my life better.  I feel healthier and free from pain, I make better decisions, I have more fun in my body.  

Go get some work.  And let me know how you feel.

Descriptions

Here is a readers' digest version of my interpretation of the three forms of bodywork I borrow from most heavily as I create a massage session for a client:

-Shiatsu massage is a Japanese form of bodywork using pressure with the therapist's hands.  It is practiced on a mat on the floor or on a massage table.  Shiatsu can be done over clothes, over a sheet, or directly on the skin and can range from comforting and soothing to deep and athletic.

-Craniosacral therapy is a still, holding form of bodywork that allows for deep release from the inside out.  The client lies clothed, face up on a table and the therapist places their hands gently along the spine and at different points on the head.  From these positions the bones and structural parts of the clients body begin to unwind and find proper alignment and core-level relaxation.

-Deep Swedish blends the best of Deep Tissue and Swedish massage.  Swedish, also known as Esalen massage, is the most well known Western form of massage and is practiced with lotion on the skin to calm and sooth the body and central nervous system.  Deep Tissue focuses on the many anatomical layers of the body and uses specific pressure to break up adhesions and allow for recovery from tension.

In the end, it's all about receiving exactly what you need at the moment, and just as in life what we need or how we feel varies from moment to moment, a client's needs are going to change from session to session and even from moment to moment in a session.  It is a wonder-full journey to have and to learn so many technical tools to pull from to improvise a wonderful massage.

I begin

I just confirmed it with my business partner: I am opening a studio in Oakland!  Now all the classes and working at the spas and the meditation and study and healing I've done in my own body will be put to the test, and Oh, how I've been longing for a test.

I have loved, absolutely adored, these last two years of prayer and contemplation.  I feel I have been given a gift: I learned how to live as simply as I could and work as little as I could and spend all the rest of my time simply Listening.  Well, getting still took the longest part, and then listening.  I could stretch all afternoon in my room, or garden all day in my backyard, start a job and quit it, or leave town for as long as I wanted.  Take any class, make any friends, and eat all the best food thanks to my amazing farmer friends (bless you!).  As long as I was working enough to pay my bills, or enough to pay off the credit card debt that would often creep and then subside, I have been doing fine.

Now through all that joyful resting, I learned that there is something organically occurring in ME that desires to work, with passion and with a purpose.  I had to sift past all the societal expectations (they sounded something like, "Go wear a button-down shirt and push buttons on a computer and get some points on your scoreboard called money!") and sit and sometimes mope, but always keep resting until I finally found the voice that sounds like authentically me and is ready to move forward.  I understand that to move forward I will have to work hard and maybe wake up really early or even try harder than is comfortable for a while.  I can do this for two reasons: I have learned that I want it, and I have learned how to rest and replenish myself.

So WHAT do I want?  I want to sustain my life financially by working with clients to help them achieve the most health they can in their body.  I am a massage therapist, now I want to earn my living doing it.  And I will still pursue all of the rest of it: gardening and prayer and meditation and proper eating and sustainable relationships and yoga and movement; all these things join together to create life and wholeness in me, and maybe the more I learn the more I can pass on to someone else some day.  Today, though, I will learn and study and practice massage, and maybe help a few people live in to more fullness.  Maybe one of those people will be me.