So I went for my monthly massage yesterday. Yes, I get a massage once a month - part of my self-care plan because I work in a high stress environment, and I get good benefits.
Anyways, I'm on the table and my RMT starts working my muscles and I am so ridiculously tight that I think I can actually hear her panting with the strain, and feel the sweat trickling off her forehead!
She's working on my right shoulder for what feels like 20 minutes, then she actually has to get her elbow involved. She says to me "nice shoulder", to which I reply, "yeah, I put it to good use."
Near the end of my massage, she's working on my neck, and it feels like somebody decided to hide a bag of marbles back there. I say to her "Wow! It's been a while since my neck's been this tight eh?" "I don't think it's ever been this tight."
Today, I feel like I've been hit by a truck, then the truck driver came over to see how I was doing and decided to beat me up to finish the job! Everything hurts! It's crazy.
I understand the mechanics of a massage, that my muscles have tightened and shortened. That an RMT manipulates that muscle, puts strain on it to trigger a release so the muscle can stretch out to what it should be. That over time, since muscles have memory, they will "remember" being stretched and proper and resist shrinking and tightening (and stretch more easily next time).
Here's what my day of muscular agony got me thinking about:
I try and eat healthy - protein load at lunch to keep me alert, increase the carbs at night to promote sleepiness, no caffeine, minimal sugar, "healthy fats", etc...
I run 3 times a week - I'm not a star, but I'm faithfully doing it
I get massages once a month
I "debrief" intense calls with co-workers or supervisors as needed
I have good friends, watch good TV, and have good fun
I am basically scheduling what's good for me - or what's suppose to be good for me.
Why do I have to work so hard at achieving "balance"?
It seems a little contradictory to me that I seem to have filled-up my life with complications (as evidenced by my muscular revolt) in order to try and simplify my life.
I heard it said somewhere that when the internet and mobile phone technology were first introduced some business head honcho said "This is a great technological leap, in 10 years we will work half the time and accomplish twice as much".
I feel like I work twice as hard and accomplish half as much.
I can't even imagine how people survived when it took half a day to make a loaf of bread to feed your family - how did they get anything other than bread making and eating done?
Ah well, enough pondering - back to my TO DO list.
4 comments:
Ah, the fundamental problem with technology (recall that the same things were said about mechanizing labour): it's always seen as a more efficient way to do things until someone notices that workloads are actually doubled because there's more time to fit production in. Don't even get me started on how the current capitalist model depends on these "more effecient" processes to drive the economy.
Any way, my solution is to unplug, at least some of the time. I honestly can't imagine trying to fit TV into my daily schedule, so I don't. My cell phone is off once I get home. I'll spend an hour on the internet, if I want, to unwind, but try to get some variety into how I relax (reading, talking to friends, watching a movie, knitting, cooking, playing with dolls). :)
Miriam, I LOVE your blogging. They're WAY better than mine. At least people comment on yours. It's great. I love it. It's like watching Seinfeld or Friends :)
Keep up the good work!!
Love and miss ya...
That's kind of a neat idea about picking a different way to unwind each time.
Seeing as I talk to people about their problems all day - when I get home, I need about an hour with no talking to other people. (I know it's shocking to hear ME say no talking!) An hour of TV is just about right - I tidy my room and change and check the post and stuff while watching. Then I'm ready to re-join the world.
Sounds good to me. I usually try to take at least a half-hour to do nothing productive when I get home from school/practicum/anything else stressful, too, especially on days when I'm busing it in the winter (or carried a lot of stuff in my backpack) and get home exhausted from all the layers/the work of walking while carrying extra weight around; I'm always feeling better once the half-hour is up.
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