twinsparksmassage.com

Successful companies like Google don’t get that way by accident. Even in these difficult times, the company thrives. Why? They think outside of the box. They throw  most  conventional thinking out the window. They always ask how they can improve what they are doing.  Of course, unlike most companies, their employees are highly motivated and very creative. Fortune magazine ranked them as the number 1 company to work for. It was no surprise to hear that all their employees can receive massage as a job benefit, right at their  facilities.

 Google’s Massage therapists are treated with the kind of respect not often afforded in the “real” world, working no more than 12 hours a week. Contrast  that with Massage Envy’s sweatshop- like conditions and meager wages that take advantage of under-trained and undereducated recent “graduates”. I bring this up because Massage Envy does a lot of the “massage” business  but they don’t really provide  much steak, just the sizzle. So, it is not really massage you receive and, therefore, it is more a luxury then a real benefit to your health. Don’t take my word for it…….here is what others think! The Massage Envy ?  or this spa site.

 At Google, the therapists are well trained and represent what massage is really all about. Does the company you work for provide massage for employees?  No? Well maybe they ought to think about it, think outside the box!

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression “stone faced”. If you’ve ever known  a person possessing such rigid facial features, the chances are it’s not only their face that is rigid. Probably, along with the face comes a stiff body and a person who has trouble being  expressive or animated. Underneath the facial skin and fascia lie the muscles which give shape to the facial features above. Those taut muscles tell a story of emotions trapped inside, becoming toxic.

As a massage therapist, I do “face lifts” all the time. Unlike the plastic surgeon, I don’t force a permanent look on your face. If you come in with a “long face”, I massage you in an upward direction, pulling the cheeks upward, relaxing your jaw muscles, removing that stress from around your eyes, and when I complete the massage, your “baby face”, that youthful appearance, has returned. You feel good, in an honestly healthy way. Instead, you could go the “plastic” way and construct a smile that lasts long after you have shed your mortal coil. What kind of “smile” are you going to opt for?

A few years back, Duke University Medical Center conducted  a study of men who had already had heart attacks. The researchers were monitoring  the patients’ hearts with a special imaging technique, asking questions, all while  videotaping facial expressions.

The scientist predicted that when they asked the patients questions that angered them (angry facial expression) it would have a negative effect on the heart. They did. Many patients experienced silent ischemic episodes; the left ventricle of their hearts partly collapsed which caused blood to be restricted to the heart. This could  easily precipitate another heart attack.

What surprised these researchers while correlating facial expressions, questions and heart monitoring, was that only one other facial expression gave rise to this silent ischemic episode- when the patient smiled! Not just any kind of smiles, but those fake smiles, the ones with no real enjoyment behind them.

When you smile you use the zygomaticus major muscles; it is what raises up the corners of your lips.  For the smile to be genuine, another muscle, orbicularis oculi, must also be engaged. This muscle, which circles around the eyes,  lifts our cheeks and creates the crow’s feet effect. 

So when you smile, smile from the heart, so to speak. Make it real, not painted on. Now for my most favorite expressive guy……Marcel Marceau!

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.

Even legitimate Massage Therapists can be rubbed the wrong way. Understand, I have been a Massage Therapist for over 17 years. It still hurts to hear the one liners from people who ought to know better, or maybe not.  I look at Massage ads in the paper, or in a phone book, or under the category “Therapeutic Massage” on craigslist, and I feel sick. Of course, many of these “people” are not Massage Therapists but they fly in under that banner, and because of it, potential clients become leery about Massage. I understand, and believe you me, it gets under my skin. Sometimes I just want to give it up.  But no, perhaps these Massage impostors are going to end up ruining it for all the really good hard working Therapists that have done so much good for our communities. I don’t know, but I don’t want the art of Massage lost to the public, it is much to needed, to be squandered away.

On the other end of the spectrum are establishments like Massage Envy, who I believe under-compensate, their mostly new graduate fledgling Therapists, and hard sell the customers into Massage “packages”. These  overworked therapists break down fast, and the turnover is high. Customers are also pressured into tipping. I’m sure there not all like that, however I hear it quite a bit, and more.

This is the dark side of the Massage business