These days many people experience a level of stress that is unprecedented in history. Between working 40 or more hours a week and juggling home and family, life can be truly overwhelming! Men and women alike balance all of these myriad responsibilities. For single parents—and a growing number of them are men—the workload in all these arenas is even greater.
Just the act of having someone else take care of you is nurturing and well worth your indulgence, but few take the time to give themselves this gift. One easy way to garner this nurturing and achieve healing is through spa services such as massages, facials, wraps, manicures, pedicures, laser treatments and so on.
There is nothing like relaxing under the caring hands of a professionally trained massage therapist. There are many different massage techniques available now, and you can easily find someone skilled in whatever style suits you best. The pressure and release associated with some techniques, such as Acupressure/Shiatsu or Mayo-facial Release allows those knots in the shoulders and back to dissipate. You’ll breathe easily with the long strokes of a Swedish massage. Enjoy the unusual Hot Stone massage for a totally different relaxation experience. Whichever style you choose, when your massage is over, you will feel nurtured, healed and rejuvenated. You just might want to make massages a regular habit, at least once a month, or even weekly, if your time and budget will allow.
While you can visit a massage therapist in a variety of venues, a “wrap” is almost exclusively a spa service and is designed to promote healing from the outside in different ways than a massage. Your body is slathered in a creamy substance based on sea vegetation, mineral-rich mud or even your favorite fruit! Some wraps draw toxins from the body and replace minerals; some tone the skin; most make your body feel silky smooth. Lie down, relax and have your body enriched with minerals, your skin softened and your mind tamed with soothing music. Following such a luxurious treatment that’s all for you, how can you not feel healed?
Facials are another calming and healing experience. Your face is your most obvious presentation to the world and a facial will bring out your beauty. The esthetician uses creams, exfoliants and steam to cleanse the skin. Then come toners and moisturizers. Of course, massage is used throughout the treatment. How luxurious! When your face carries a healthy glow, and you feel calmer and happier following a facial, people will notice. They will feel your calmness and it will, in turn help them to relax when they are around you. Good vibes all around!
If you are constantly the giver and nurturer, allowing yourself to be nurtured is critical for your rejuvenation. A person can’t just give and give and expect life to continue on a positive note. Just like computers that most of us use on a daily basis, we need to defrag and run maintenance, otherwise we get sluggish and could be headed for a breakdown.
Even a manicure or pedicure can help your healing process. Consider this: we use our hands and feet extensively all day, everyday and yet, we rarely do anything special to take care of them! There is some extra special healing that happens when we take the time to care for body parts that we normally take for granted. Significantly, there are numerous acupuncture and acupressure points in the hands and feet. Each of them corresponds to specific areas and organs of the body. Stimulating those points with something as simple as a hand or foot massage—even when you don’t know what the points are—can bring healing and relaxation to the entire body!
As you allow for your body to be cared for on the outside, you experience a deep nurturing and sense of calm. Your balance returns. You are rested, relaxed and able to calmly handle issues that suddenly feel a lot smaller than they did before your chosen treatment. When you feel relaxed, your body can work the inner healing process more effectively. Stress can weaken the body’s immune system and cause a variety of problems. Taking the time to care for the outside of your body on a regular basis can only serve the inner healing, both mental and physical, that many of us crave.
We do things every day to take care of ourselves in different ways. We go to the gym, shop for groceries, cook meals, get our hair done…you get the idea. Those are all things that we do in the frenzy of our regular activities, things we squeeze in without much thought. Why not add something to your schedule that allows you to step out of the frenzy, something that both not only relaxes but also heals your body and mind. Make visits to your spa as important as all of the other things that fill your calendar. Then, you can return to your routine with a little—and maybe a lot—less frenzy!
