Massage

For the past few years I have been in desperate need, and want, of a nice long professional massage. Until now, I could never find the time to get one, and just simply couldn't justify spending the money on myself. Well, today I finally broke down and scheduled an hour long deep tissue full body massage. I really had no choice because after last quarter finals, then the holidays, and all of the other things that are going on around here, I was about to pull my hair out!
Now I've never had a professional massage before, but I have been on the receiving end of a wonderful massage by my loving husband, Michael. However, his massages usually only last somewhere around five minutes, because his hands get tired. Five minutes just isn't enough, I wanted the full hour.
I went in around 11:30 this morning, and met my therapist, Lisa. I had requested a female because I knew I wouldn't feel right having another man's hands all over me. She was very nice, very calming, and seemed to really know what she was doing. There was soothing music playing, and the lights were dimmed, and the sound of flowing water filtered out all other noise in the room. I stripped down, and with my sheet covering me, laid down on the very comfortable massage bed. I knew I had a lot of tension in my neck, shoulders, and upper back so I asked if she could concentrate on those areas.
She began with my neck, using a warming gel to massage deep into the muscles at the base of my skull and the nape of my neck....I couldn't relax.
She then worked on my shoulders, between my shoulder blades, and worked her way all the way down my back to my hips...still couldn't relax.
She massaged my feet, calves, thighs, and then flipped me over and massaged the front of my legs, and the front of my shoulders and sides. Still, no release in tension.
I did not relax one time throughout the entire hour. Lisa spoke to me in soothing tones, told me frequently to just relax, told me to release all of my tensions and I just couldn't do it! Not only did I not relax, I wound up leaving there with a terrible headache, one that I did not have when I went in.
Apparently I am not a huge fan of professional massages! I didn't like it, and I really don't think it was Lisa's fault. She did a fine job.
At least for now I think I'm going to stick with my five minute Mike Dalton massages and just ask for them more frequently. Maybe one of these days I'll try it again, but it will be a while. I feel like my money has been wasted and now I feel guilty...which, in turn, is causing me more stress!