In my twenty years teaching yoga, I heard countless times “I’m not flexible enough to do yoga,” and “I could never meditate because I can’t stop thinking.” With bodywork, I’ve heard, “I can’t relax enough to get a massage.”
What a loss. It makes my heart ache.
Yoga is for everybody: people considered flexible, people who say “I’m stiff as a board,” and people doing yoga in a chair—or a bed. The point is to bring gentle, mindful attention to the body, find some ease, and sustain whatever functional mobility we have.
Meditation is for everybody: No one’s brain can stop thinking. Meditation leverages our ability to observe our swirling thoughts, allowing us to gently guide the attention elsewhere. Repeating that process, even many times per second, is the very act of meditation.
And massage? It’s the same: Relaxing doesn’t come naturally to everyone. The only way to relax is to practice. While some clients relax easily, on or off the massage table, other clients (and, ahem, some massage therapists) have motors that rev high and seem to be always running.
Welcome!
Bring yourself to our massage tables just as you are. There’s nothing to apologize for. If I’m gently supporting your arm while working on it and we find you’re holding it too, you can use that information to note My arm is active even though I’m not using it, and ask yourself, Can I release it? It’s a question. The answer is not assured. And it may change with repeated visits. Simply observe.
Or don’t ask. Just bring yourself. Just be here. Maybe you have felt judged and found wanting for how you look, how you feel, how you are; bring that and know you’ll be accepted. Perhaps a long veil of life flows behind and around you. There’s no need to push it away, and attempting to do so can set up yet another internal conflict. Just bring what comes with you. Let that rest here too.
You, all of you, are welcome. That, all by itself, is relaxing.
