What a Therapeutic Massage Looks Like

photo reposted from pinterest:  kitt3yzzz.tumblr.com

photo reposted from pinterest: kitt3yzzz.tumblr.com

I totally agree with this quote.  Music, to me, is EXACTLY what feelings sound like.  Whenever I listen to music (particularly classical) feelings, emotions, and scenes play through my head and my body.  Music always describes a story or a feeling to me.  It’s how I experience what I’m hearing.

Something I struggle with is describing a therapeutic massage.  It would be so much easier to talk about massage therapy if I could just take a picture of it.  Like a work of art.  An artist blogger can snap a photo of what they’re working on so you can see what they’re describing and discussing.  Of course it isn’t the same as experiencing their work first hand, but it really helps.  You can look at what they’re describing and discussing.  But a massage is a completely sensory experience.  You can’t look at a massage.  You can’t see it.  You can’t listen to it.  So I’m asking myself today, what would a picture of a massage look like?  Would it begin with pain or discomfort?  What does that look like?  Stark colors, perhaps.  Shocking yellow against gray-brown with lots of sharp edges.  Maybe.  Then the massage would enter.  A gentle hue.  Maybe robin’s egg blue.  Swirling gently.  Increasing in intensity and color.  Washing away the sharp edges.  Softening the hues.  Changing the consistency and intensity.  Morphing the picture into soft blues, royal blues and purples, silver and gold threads woven through.  A tranquil yet powerful picture. Abstract.  Powerful.  Clear.  Clean.  Vital.

After I wrote this I googled “the color of pain”.  This is what I found:



It’s quite similar to what I had envisioned in my head.  I like this.  So, what can the internet serve-up so we can “look at” the entrance of therapeutic massage into pain and discomfort?  I’m going to google “colors of soothing, healing”.   This was the first image I liked:images

It works, but it’s not what I was picturing.  So now I’m going to google “swirling blues”, because that’s what I envisioned as the entrance of massage into pain and discomfort.  This is more like it:  images-1

and:  images-2

Now I’m going to google “the colors of tranquil power”, because those are the best words I can think of to describe the post-massage experience.  Let’s see what there is.  Voilá:

082108_mood02  found on apartmenttherapy.com

082108_mood02 found on apartmenttherapy.com

Mandy Meyer-Hill

NYS Licensed Massage Therapist

Stairway Healing Arts Center

1 Washington Street
Cambridge, NY  12816