Let’s Talk…Thai Massage. And why I love it.

I had big plans for this week’s Talk To Us Tuesday, the new “no rules – just talk” linky party hosted by Impulsive Addict and Shawn. 

I was going to share some pictures of some cool stuff I recently received.  But that post is going to have to wait, as those pictures are still on my camera and not on my computer.

BUT!  don’t worry.  I still have things to talk about.  I mean, I’m a girl.  I always have things to talk about.

This week’s topic:  Thai Massage.

Don’t know what that is?  I didn’t either, until recently.  But I had my first Thai massage on Sunday and ohmygahhhhhhh  it was good.

The best part?  It happened on a complete whim, on my parent’s living room floor, while I was lying on my favourite blanket, wearing a pair of oversized pj pants and a sweatshirt. 

Can you say COMFY?!?

See, my brother’s girlfriend, Amanda, has recently changed her career path.  She is now teaching Yoga, and she is starting into Thai Massage as well.  Given that I have taken an interest lately in Holistic Health (inspired by reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, as well as by Steph at Newleaf Wellness, and my own attempt to lose weight and become a healthier ‘me’), Amanda’s passion for Yoga & Thai Massage has me intrigued.

I’m not ready to jump on the Yoga bandwagon just yet.  As I explained to Amanda, I played around with a few of the ‘moves’ (what do you call them?  poses?  whatever, you know what I mean) on my Wii Fit, and I am far too large and off-balanced to do Yoga.   I tried out two of them, and not only did it hurt, I was also apparently very bad at it.  My computer-animated trainer told me so.

 

Amanda asked which ones I tried.   One was just deep breathing.  The other was leaning over to the side as far as you can go.  So basically I suck at breathing and stretching.  Go me.

I think I need to get skinnier before I tackle Yoga any further.

But the Thai Massage??  Now that’s  something I can totally get on-board with.

Amanda put a call out to her Facebook friends last week to let them know she was looking for “guinea pigs” after taking the Intro to Thai Massage course.  She needed some people to practice on.   Before long, she had 30+ comments from people willing to “help out”.  I was one of them.

So on Sunday, when she & Luke were at my parents’ place, I volunteered to let her practice.  I’ve had massages before, but I think what I loved about the Thai Massage was that I got to wear comfy clothes.  That’s right, no stripping down to nothing but a towel.  You get to wear your comfiest sweats.  Sweet, right?

According to Wikipedia, Thai Massage is explained as follows:

The massage recipient changes into loose, comfortable clothes and lies on a mat or firm mattress on the floor. It can be done solo or in a group of a dozen or so patients in the same large room. The receiver is put into many yoga-like positions during the course of the massage.

The massage practitioner leans on the recipient's body using hands and usually straight forearms locked at the elbow to apply firm rhythmic pressure.

I’m not going to lie.  There were parts of it that were painful.  Luke was watching from the couch and he was taking quite a kick out of some of the faces I was making.  It was the part when she worked on my inner thighs that hurt the most, but she explained that many people carry their emotional baggage there.

Apparently I had a lot of emotional baggage stored up there.  Yeeesh.

Otherwise, though, it was very relaxing and it sure worked out the kinks and pains I had in my neck and back that day.  My legs also felt so good when the 45-minute massage was over.  When she was done, I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

Thai Massage = awesome.  I highly recommend it.

So that’s what I’m talkin’ about this Tuesday!  Be sure to go visit Impulsive Addict and Shawn, grab their cute little button, and tell them whatever your little heart desires!