How to NOT see your therapist

One of the first questions you always have to ask yourself when you start a career path is, "Why?" Why are you doing this? Why do you WANT to do this? What's your higher purpose? When I started Massage Therapy, I wanted to be able to help people feel better and actually know what I'm doing. As I've gotten older, my higher purpose turned from just helping people feel better to educating people on feeling better on and off my table. It might mean they don't need to see me as often, but I'm ok with that.

There are many ways for you to take care of yourself, but let's start with one of the easiest which is water. As a therapist, I'm able to tell when clients drink water and when they don't. When they do, the skin is softer, the muscles are more pliable, and even if I feel knots, it's infinitely easier to work on them. When they don't, the muscles feel like beef jerky. 

The problem in our world is that we tend to depend on soda for energy as well as thirst quenching. The thing that fools us into believing that our thirst is getting quenched is the carbonation. But the truth is, we'll end up feeling even more thirsty because of the sodium. (Just a reminder, sodium is not good for blood pressure.) Sports drinks are not a good option either unless you're a hard core athlete. The best way to quench is plain pure H2O. Try exchanging 1-2 drinks for water for a few weeks and see how much better you feel.

Why get a massage?

Have you ever heard the phrase, “There's always a million reasons NOT to do something.” This can apply to starting a new career, starting a new relationship, having a baby, but unfortunately, it also applies to relaxing. A couple months ago, I surprised my husband with a massage at my job. It was during his vacation from school, it was on his day off from his work, and it was with his favorite massage therapist. (Aside from me, of course.) And yet, he seemed irritated that I did this for him. It seemed as though he was finding every reason he could think of to get out of it. However, afterward, he was in a state of permasmile and he was very grateful. So, why was he resisting? We determined that he was afraid to relax.

Many people consider anything relaxing to be a luxury; something that implies that we're lazy or we don't have anything better going on. It's almost considered a badge of honor if you don't have time to relax. They tend to have the same mindset as my husband, that if you relax, you will lose your momentum and stop being productive with anything your doing, be it work or school. In my opinion, this is not totally without merit. But with too many people having stress related disorders like hypertension, increased cortisol, heart disease, we cannot use the excuse of decreased productivity as a reason NOT to relax. People are not willing to risk their careers, but they are willing to risk their health. What is wrong with this picture?

That also begs the question, does relaxation cause you to decrease productivity? It depends on how you utilize it. We're always told that if you feel thirsty, you should have been drinking water a long time ago. The same is true of relaxation. If you feel like you need to relax, you should have been relaxing a long time ago. When you wait too long to take a time out from life and decompress, then you'll be in such dire need to relax that you're more likely to not want to get back into life. If you take time to regularly relax, then getting back into the craziness of life won't be so difficult. If anything, I believe it will increase productivity because you will be thinking more clearly and working more thoroughly. You may not SEEM to be working as quickly, but remember the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race.