Rejuvinating Your Mind and Your Body -- Part 2

Back on May 8th, I talked about taking my friend, Todd Barden’s advice and giving massage a try.  If you recall, Todd had schooled me on the benefits of massage for my body.  Massage releases lactic acid from your muscles, improves blood circulation and heals muscles he told me.  But most of all, he insisted, it rejuvenates your body and keeps you in top shape to play whatever game you play.

As I write today, I’ve had my second massage, both with a young woman named Kate.  I have to admit that the whole experience so far has challenged my metrosexual aversions.  You have to kind of give into that right off the bat.  But, so far, I think it’s been worth the hour or so of not being as manly as perhaps I think I should be.  They make it easy, too.  I’m given a robe and a pair of sandals, some water and the chance to relax in the sitting room.  The massage area is dark like a movie theater, piped with soothing music that makes your eyes heavy.  Here I wait until Kate comes to get me.

The massage itself is surprisingly, at least for me, rough.  Not rough in a rugby-like way, but rough like Greco roman wrestling, in a leverage-like way.  I’m surprised at how much leverage Kate can apply to certain parts.  Sometimes I kind of feel like she could snap me in half if she wanted to.  While she’s working, I find myself drifting in and out, sometimes focusing intently on what she’s doing because it either hurts or feels good, and sometimes being so relaxed, I simply doze off for a minute or two.  The hour goes fast, and I feel tired when she’s done.  It’s a welcomed tired, though, like what you feel after a good workout in the gym.

I’m still a novice at this whole body rejuvenation thing, but I’ve learned enough so far to realize a couple of key things:

1. Todd was right, to rejuvenate our minds, we must also rejuvenate our bodies.
2. My hamstrings are as “tight as guitar strings,” according to Kate, so I need to work on my stretching and flexibility.
3. I owe my wife, Jamy, an apology for what I’ve realized has been 20 years or so of woefully inadequate backrubs.

I’ve also realized one other thing.  Taking Todd’s advice challenged me to do something that, for me, was uncomfortable but necessary for me to make another important progress step in my life.  It would have been easy for me to remain in my comfort zone and dismiss his recommendation without even trying it, choosing instead to tell myself I know what it would be like.  But as we all know, comfort leads to complacency and complacency is the enemy of progress.