How to make the most of your massage

Photo Credit: Alexander Popovkin

First off, there is a trend currently to "maximize" experiences and efforts. Inherent in this trend is our fixation with more and with perfection. If some is good, more is better. If I don't do this perfectly, I've failed.

So, step one in making the most of your massage is to make space for what is, and what is is perfectly imperfect and completely incomplete.

Step two: Give yourself the gift of comfort. If something isn't comfortable with the table, the temperature, the pressure, or anything, say so. Your massage therapist can't know what you are thinking or feeling and they should be glad to know that they can do something to enhance your comfort so you can truly settle and set the stage for the best experience and outcome.

Step three is to recognize that your massage experience is not only a world apart, but also part of a continuum. If you are able to make a transition between "real life" and massage both before and after your session you will likely have a deeper and more fully rounded experience. Practically speaking, if possible you could allow for some extra time before your massage to center yourself, set an intention for the session, and arrive early so that you can transition smoothly. Immediately after your massage, you could take a short walk or just take some moments to integrate the experience, allowing it to soak in.

It can be challenging to squeeze in extra time before and after your massage, but the extra benefit of doing so will be worth it.

Step four is to be an active participant in your health maintenance. In our lives of busyness and in this medical system of experts who try to "fix" us, it is easy to become passive inhabitants of our bodies, and we lose track of the importance of mind health for body health and visa versa.

One of the reasons massage is so effective is that it offers you an opportunity to take a break from doing and to be in the space of receiving and noticing. This reset and any awareness you have gained during this experience can inform how you live your life. Some massage therapists suggest exercises and stretches of various kinds that clients can use in their day-to-day. More rarely, massage therapists invite clients to anchor the positive feelings and experiences that massage provides them. When you continue your self-care between massages through movements, stretches, or recalling an experience that you have anchored in your psyche, you elongate and deepen the effects of your massage sessions, and you can set a new and better baseline for health.

I don't expect that these ideas are new to most readers. It does seem though that in this world of maximizing, perfecting, and other unattainables, it's nice to be reminded that we are enough (step one), we don't need to rush (step two), and we have agency (step three).

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