The Real Reason You Need Body Work

Hint: Not for relaxation or Pain!

This past week, I had the unfortunate occurrence of a headache. I tried rolling my muscles, drinking more water, eating a little something, taking some remedies, but nothing was working. Happily, Angelique Sanchez, from Be Present Massage offered to come in and work on me.  Now, I work every day with her, the room she treats clients in is in my office, but in all honesty, it had been months since my last massage. I like many people get busy, I pass off sore muscles, and occasional limitations in my posture as work-related, maybe stress, sitting too long in one place, or not having moved enough that day.  I always move on, drinking my water, stretching here and there, rolling my muscles, and figuring I have it mostly covered.  But as I lay on her table Wednesday, and my body became more relaxed, I remembered what it felt like to be pleasantly in my body.  No tasks, no stress, feeling the enjoyable sensations of muscles being softly freed of metabolic waste, being urged to let go, realign, and renew and become functional once again.

As my body was freed from patterns it had accumulated lately, my mind became creative, sparking with inspirations about questions I had been pondering recently, feeling a surge of positive possibility and renewed vitality. I got off the table with the usual massage fog, my brain mellow, by body quiet and relaxed, my spirit peaceful and content. Which drew out into the rest of my day.  The next day, I found the fluid movement of my body to be so lovely, rediscovering how fantastic it is to feel relaxed and powerful at the same time.  To feel an effortless ability to hold good posture, and breathe deeply into my body with great presence and joy.

The experience reminded me that massage and all other forms of bodywork are meant to be used to maintain our balance, to nourish our spirit and assist our physiology in performing its best work all the time.  Waiting until we have pain is like cheating ourselves out of a total immersion because the pain serves as a distraction and limitation to just how far into total peaceful alignment we can go.  Nourishing ourselves cannot be a luxury, although I know in our western work-based society, it is certainly viewed as such.  We have been trained to feel guilty about taking time away from work, family and other obligations in order to indulge ourselves for what is deemed rather "surface" care, when it is through regular attention to our bodies in this way we avoid needing intensive care for serious pain, fatigue, and dysfunction later.

Simply put: You are worth it now, will always be worth it and have always been worth it......care for what you have now, it allows you to have the best possible experience of this life at this time in this body.