A relaxing massage is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. There’s nothing quite like lying on a warm padded table and having expert hands work the tension from my skin and muscles, reinvigorating the body and soul while clearing the mind of all its cares. My massage therapist calls it a moment to just “bliss out”.
The whole experience is, every sensory aspect of it, is a pure joy. I hate being cold, so having a comfortably warm room and a heated blanket on the table helps me to drop the tension from my body and sink into the table. There’s usually some sort of soft instrumental music or natural sounds playing — something calm and soothing to listen to. Your eyes are closed, so you have the quiet isolation of lacking visual input — just a serene blackness, not a dark void but a calm sea that blocks out the chaos of the world for a moment. Then you have the delightful scents of essential oils – my particular favorite is lavender because it reminds me of the smell of henna on my skin. When the massage therapist even so much as applies the oil to her hands from across the room, the scent carries directly to my nose and makes me instantly calm. And, of course, there’s the pure physical joy of having hands applying just the right pressure in all the right places, stimulating the skin, working away the knots, revitalizing the body. Part of me just wants to drift off, but part of me wants to stay awake and enjoy every second of that relaxing touch. Everything from my back and shoulders, down to my feet, and even up to the slightest pressure on my forehead and around my eyes — and finishing with a good gentle scratch of nails through my hair, massaging my scalp and banishing the stress in my head — nothing could be better.
Then again, I suppose if you have the opportunity to share such an experience with someone you love, it could be infinitely better. Sharing a moment of intimate, relaxing touch, calming away each others’ stresses and tension and leaving nothing but a blissful peace and relaxation, bringing two bodies close together in a silent, serene moment, enjoying the simple, basic human desire to touch and be touched. It can be simple, intimate, sensual, or erotic, but at any level it satisfies the body, mind, and soul.
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