Many of our guests for massage and facial services at the spa prefer to completely zone out and enjoy much needed quiet time, without the harassing buzz of e-mail alerts or demands of family or co-workers.
Sometimes guests ask if it is rude if they relax quietly and the answer is a big, resounding NO! If quietly venting about your stress to your therapist helps you to relax, then by all means, feel free, but don’t feel like we expect you to talk or you have to engage your massage therapist or esthetician in conversation.
The truth is, your service will usually be much more beneficial with longer lasting results if you do take some time to quiet your mind. Your therapist can focus more on what he or she is doing and can really concentrate and “listen” to your tissue and feel for subtle changes in the muscles. If you zone out our doze off, your muscles tend to relax a bit more to allow for deeper work because your mind isn’t telling your muscles to tighten up or hold tension patterns.
If quieting the mind doesn’t come easily for you or if you find yourself needing to squeeze in a short massage between meetings, we’d like to offer a few ideas to help get into the right frame of mind to relax during your spa services.
1. If at all possible, arrive 5-10 minutes early so you can read a magazine, sip some tea or water, and feel like you’ve had a minute to transition to a spa frame of mind.
2. Leave your phone in the car or at home. Just knowing it is nearby can be enough to keep someone out of the zone and an unexpected beep or buzz can startle you back to reality.
3. When your therapist leaves you to disrobe and climb under the sheets, take a moment to enjoy the peaceful feeling of being alone and take some slow, deep breaths as you set an intention for your service and repeat it to yourself. Ideas include “I will let my mind rest,” or “I will let my tension go.”
4. During your massage, continue taking slow deep breaths and focus on the way your body feels and responds during the service.
A great resource on the benefits of a quiet treatment is the article The Healing Effects of Massage Mind. Click here to read the article. Click here to book your next spa service and mental vacation.
