BEFORE YOUR TREATMENT

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The following are a few suggestions I find are helpful in maximizing the benefits of your massage. 

Feel free to try one or all of them and see what works for you. 

Regardless of where you are coming from before your massage - work, home, visiting with friends - we recommend turning off your phone as soon as possible. This is your first act of separation, of dedicating your time to yourself. 

~ Refrain from eating a large meal within the hour before the massage.

~ Meditate quietly for 10 minutes. This can be at home or even in the car, on the bus, on your bike, or on your walk before you come in to your appointment. Find your breath. 

~ Try to use this quiet time of reflection to separate out your day to day plans and think actively about what is going on with you. Scan your body for clues, feelings and messages.

~ If you like music, listen to something that reflects how you feel right now: it can be relaxing, if that is how you want to feel, but it can also be anything - dance, metal, trance, rap - whatever you are feeling. Let the music awake the feeling fully in your body. 

~ The last preparation is to take out a piece of paper and write a few feelings you have right now: spill them out, in no particular order, exactly what you are feeling. Say as much as you need or keep it limited to one feeling. Put this in your pocket and bring it with you to the massage. 

After Your Treatment

~ Keep the phone off for as long as possible. If you can, stay with yourself, alone, for as long as you can before running into others. You are like a sponge now and may be susceptible to absorbing other people's feelings more readily. Allow yourself to take the time to transition back into the busy world.

~ You can start your reintegration with music. Maybe the same music from before the massage or something that matches your new mood.

~ Drink a lot of water. Again, be a sponge and soak it up! Water is the liquid of life.

~ Eat a good meal. Treat yourself to something filling and nutritious. 

~ Don't do any strenuous sports or aerobic activity for two days following the treatment. While you may feel joyful and want to jump right into something energetic, your body needs time to rest. There is a passive process that occurs after the massage where the body begins to clean and renew itself.  Adding more energy to the body too quickly will stunt this process. There may also be times when the treatment goes very deeply into the muscles, which can be somewhat exhausting for your body. This is excellent because the muscles are releasing lactic acid build up and new awareness is brought into areas that were previously blocked. Still, this process takes time and you do not want to undo the benefits of your massage by jumping back into your regular routine too quickly.  

Listen to the new body you've received. Try to understand how it feels now, what is different and what may be beginning to happen. 

Lastly, thank yourself for giving yourself this gift. For taking yourself out of the race for a moment and preserving yourself. Try saying your words of gratitude out loud.