By Candace Lokken, licensed massage therapist, Sans Souci Massage
Winter is hard on our bodies. Everything from dry skin, which body treatments are good for, to physical aspects and stressors such as shoveling, different exercises compared to summer exercise, and yes even shivering, contributes to winter stressors. There are also holiday stresses that weigh heavily on many of us, from family visits to spending the holidays without a loved one. Holiday stress can affect us in so many ways—physically as the body tenses, emotionally sometimes as depression and exhaustion, and even in a dietary way as our eating habits are different.
This is the time of year that most of our clients like heat and warmth. We use different ways of warming our clients: our tables are heated, we use rice bags, and we use hot stones and different types of heated towels. As always, we do an integrative massage for each client that is detailed to meet their current needs. We definitely do more hot stone massages in winter. This type of massage is very warming, detoxifying, and can be relaxing or can be more of a deep tissue massage with heat to help the muscle tissue relax.
Essential oils are used throughout the year, but there are oils that can address dry skin and that can be warming. Make sure you or your massage therapist choose the right essential oils. Stay away from synthetic oils and look for therapeutic-grade essential oils. The top 5 essential oils you could have on hand for this time of year would be: frankincense, lavender, lemon, peppermint, and tea tree. If you are looking for specific oils for dry skin, geranium, lavender, neroli, rose, rosemary, myrrh, frankincense, and sandalwood are great. If you are looking for specific oils to help with warming of the body, try rosemary, myrrh, ginger, black pepper, and clove bud. Adding your essential oils to a carrier oil such as unrefined, cold-pressed, organic coconut oil is a good way you can apply them to your skin without any type of breakout. Some essential oils can be very harsh for your skin if applied directly. You can add the oils to a hot bath, diffuse them into the air, or apply them directly to the skin with a carrier oil.
Each Sans Souci massage therapist has at least fourteen years of experience and customizes each massage to the client’s needs and preferences. We do all different types of massage from individual therapists doing specific types of massage such as craniosacral, lomi lomi, ashiatsu, and thai yoga therapy. But also we always do a thorough health intake with our clients before the massage so that we know specifically what each client’s problem areas are, and then we work specifically on those areas.
Winter is a good time to get a massage, but it is good to receive massage throughout the year! Even a 30-minute massage gives us enough time to work on a specific problem area. It is not enough time for a full body massage though, but it can be helpful.
For the holidays, gift certificates for massage are always a great gift. We sell them in our office or they can be bought online and printed through our website.
For more information or to make an appointment, visit www.sanssoucimassage.com.
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