Short cuts

When I walked into the treatment room, my new client lay on the table with her head turned away from the face cradle. I asked if she preferred not to use a face cradel. She said she’d been delaying putting her face into the cradle for as long as possible because they are so uncomfortable.

I suggested she try the face cradle. I told her we’d do whatever it took to make her comfortable, with or without the face cradle. She rested her face into the cradle and said, “It’s much more comfortable than I expected.”

This client made a natural assumption. She was here for relaxation and comfort. Experience told her that she was in for some discomfort, so she delayed it as long as possible.

At Massage Vermont, we’ve gone through less-than-delicious-feeling face cradles. Oakworks, who makes our massage tables, came out with the Boiance Face Rest. It’s the best we’ve found and we’ve added them to our treatment tables. Atop the cushy, supportive surface, we’ve placed microfleece face cradle pads. On top of that, each client gets a fresh face cradle cover made of organic cotton flannel. It’s quite comfy for most. Still, face cradles are an imperfect blend of art and engineering that work better for some clients than others.

But this post is about short cuts. We make dozens (hundreds? Thousands?) of decisions daily to enhance life and achieve our goals. We simply don’t have time to evaluate the minutiae of the countless choices we make.

Yet we also attend to our health and wellness needs with effective body-mind techniques such as bodywork, yoga, and meditation. This presents an opportunity to slow down and attend to the full range of life within each moment.

We can choose to observe each breath, each sensation. We can watch the thoughts float by. We can observe each choice we’re presented with, and pause before making the choice with curiosity about the deeper motivations behind our first impulses.

At times, we can take this approach with our quotidian existence. Waiting in line, sitting in the car, being with others at the dinner table are also included in the only moments we’ll have while we’re here on this earth.

I take shortcuts all the time. And I endeavor to show up for as much of my life as I can.