New Year’s Resolution, or Reason #527 that I Love Massage

I haven’t thought much about New Year’s Resolutions this year. They’ve just been appearing overnight as if rooted out by my subconscious, surfacing while I sleep.  Two days in a row now, I’ve woken up with a little intention on my mind. Today’s was almost sweet in its simplicity: Do one thing at a time.

Sounds so basic.

And yet.

Where are you reading this? On a phone or tablet, riding the bus? On a computer with several tabs open at once? At work, perhaps, or working from home, a sneaky break from your mind being elsewhere? These are frenzied times we live in. And so, in 2014, I resolve to do fewer things in any given moment, to give fuller focus to the things I am doing. I have a head start, lucky thing that I am, in the form of a wonderful day job.

Before I became a massage therapist, I worked in a field where the ability to multitask was highly prized. Prioritizing was great, but doing-everything-all-at-once was even better. Sound familiar? It seems pretty common.

One of the things I love about being a massage therapist is the singular focus of the work. When practicing massage, it’s all about just one person in just one room, and it is just complex enough to demand full attention. Reason #527 that I love my job: there is no multitasking in massage. It is simple, peaceful work.

All the lovelier, of course, is receiving massage, phone turned off, tuned out for an hour or so from text messages and email and the steady march of media social and otherwise. There are no groceries to buy or last-minute gifts to pick up. No acquaintances to call back or loved ones to check on. It’s all about breathing, tapping in, seeing how fully muscles can melt. Call it meditation, call it comfort, or emphasize the work in bodywork, actively seeking some bodily change. Whatever massage means to you, just do that thing for a little bit. However complex your inner workings, whatever you bring to the table, there’s a great simplicity to getting a massage. It’s just one thing. And a wonderful thing at that.

This year, I challenge you to do one thing at a time. Not every moment, all year long (let’s be reasonable for goodness sake), but sometime. Whether it’s something great like massage or something as mundane as doing laundry, I invite you to join me in dropping distractions in 2014, bit by little bit.

Wishing you a happy, healthy new year!