I practice what I preach, and have a weekly massage to maintain all aspects of my wellbeing in order to provide the best service! |
We all know the meaning of wellbeing. Or do we? Is it well being, well-being or wellbeing? And what does it mean exactly?
There are multiple definitions of wellbeing:
'Well-being is the experience of health, happiness, and prosperity. It includes having good mental health, high life satisfaction,
a sense of meaning or purpose, and the ability to manage stress'.
From Rollins College:
'Many of us think of wellness in terms of physical and mental health. At Rollins, holistic wellness has nine interconnected dimensions: physical, emotional, creative, environmental, financial, occupational,
intellectual, social, and spiritual.'
There are many more definitions of well being, too many to list here!
If I miss out on a massage for over a week, it is not just that my legs still need massaging from strenuous dancing,
I feel that my moods are impacted and I feel less creative. In short, I have learned that to be the best version of me, I need regular massage! And I would encourage everyone else to do the same! It's not a luxury, it's an absolute necessity!
Put another way, when I am in good nick, I have a proactive, prolific PMA, Positive Mental Attitude. Deprive me of my regular massage, and I don't accomplish quite as much in a day.
'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'. As a child, we still measured weight in terms of ounces, pounds, stones and hundredweights, now long gone except that many items are still sold in packets of 454 grams, formerly one pound!
Twenty years have passed since I started this gig. My clients are 20 years older, too, have a better understanding of Remedial Massage, and I hope are now more receptive to the notion that regular maintenance is highly beneficial, and not a luxury!
It's hard to get a large oil tanker to do a U-turn when it is going flat at top speed, but that is what I am now trying to do with my practice.
For 20 years I have focused on relieving aches, pains, headaches and stress IN AS FEW VISITS AS POSSIBLE.
This was as a result of being in pain for years and discovering some practitioners who just wanted you to keep coming back over and over and over, spending heaps of hard earned money,
without seeing any long lasting improvement. It was, indeed, one of the reasons that prompted me to change careers: to provide a service aimed at resolving people's issues in as few visits as possible.
On that score, having worked on around 7,000 clients, I feel I have by now already made my point!
I spent several years of my childhood in a children's homw run by nuns. It's fair to say that we had religion for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with double helpings on Sundays! I thought to myself that when Jesus performed his miracles, he didn't give people a treatment plan and ask them to keep coming back. I thought it was a model worth following! I make no claim to perform miracles or to 'fix' people, but I aim to lengthen tight muscles so that clients' bodies heal themselves, and to do so in as few visits as possible.
I was perfectly happy and content with my philosophy. However, along came Covid, accompanied by its companions of stress and strains on people's mental health
with lockdowns and border closures.
The physical manifestations of such stress drove many new clients to my door, and I believe the benefits of treatment go far beyond lengthening tight muscles: it improves people's mood and wellbeing.
So these days, I am slowly trying to turn my oil tanker around, as it were, to encourage people to have massage on a more regular basis to maintain optimal health, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, creatively etc.
And I am using the price mechanism to encourage regular massage, by offering discounts to regular clients!