twinsparksmassage.com

To really be good at something, anything really, requires a level of excitement, enthusiasm, in a word, passion. Without passion, your work, though acceptable, will never demonstrate excellence.  I had a crazy drive to become a Massage Therapist. Massage itself was not my passion,  it was the desire to help people heal:  massage became the vehicle to achieve that goal.

Of course,  18 year ago, when I began my career, the profession was much misunderstood,  many viewed massage as fluff, a luxury for the wealthy,  a palliative, or, at worst, a cover for prostitution. Today, the profession has advanced and made some inroads.  People are beginning to hear good things about the benefits of this old healing practice. At the same time, the popularity that many of us massage pioneers helped create is being lost in a flood of new under- trained, under- qualified recruits who through no fault of their own cannot meet the higher expectations of today’s informed client. The pressure to make big money has led to a decline in the quality of service provided. Substance and performance have given way to slick promos and empty promises.

Massage is more than what meets the eye. For Instance, each human body has it’s own unique topography. Each person has a quality of depth, composition, and complexity which is like  no other, and presents a different challenge.  Nowadays, the average massage therapist delivers a massage much the same way a house painter applies a coat of paint, uniformly, superficially, and repetitively, with no regard to the unique qualities of the individual. Witness the birth of “fast food” massage.

Massage was known in Europe since the times of Hippocrates, 480 BC. It consisted then, and now, of various applied movements administered with hands upon the skin, tissues, muscles, tendons, ligaments and organs. Using techniques involving friction, kneading, tapping, vibration and more, health could be maintained and more so, restored. In that time, Massage was considered  the “original” Physical Therapy, without all the lights and gadgets. Massage co-existed with exercise…..The ancients saw that combining the two would produce benefits. Take heed,  athletes and weekend warriors.

Among the first recipients of Massage were the Greek and Roman Gladiators, who appreciated it’s positive effects; under severe stress a poor “performance” was often  a final performance.

The modern day Gladiator (business person) grapples with phones, conferences, meetings, presentations, computer screens, and although each exchange is not a matter of life or death, it ought to be reconciled that each little stress-or adds up. Stress can and does kill.