The Path to Enlightenment

I've started a new obsession: relaxation. Although I hear the whole point of it is to not be obsessive. Baby steps.

Eh, I suppose I shouldn't really joke, or pretend it's just a silly idea. Really, it's more of a last-ditch effort to haul myself out of an all-encompassing depression, which has been creeping up on me for months. For awhile I didn't really acknowledge it, but just started dropping all the parts of my life that just seemed too overwhelming to deal with. Which, after a few months, was bascially everyone and everything. Eh, even that's not entirely true - I kept going as much as I could, but everything has just seemed so much harder.

But, that wasn't what I meant to talk about. Relaxation. I meant to talk about relaxation.

Today's lesson was skipping work and spending the day at a ridiculously overblown spa. I went to Oasis down on 17th Avenue, mainly because it was the only one I could think of. I can't compare it to anything (except for an extremely unrelaxing trip to a Hungarian bathhouse many years ago), but I think it was a good choice. There's a tone of hushed reverence that permeates everything, infusing the massages and pedicure with a near-religious sense of ritual. I liked the feeling that all this drinking fresh lemon water and padding around in slippers was, in fact, terribly serious business.

First, I had cranio-sacral treatment which aimed to get the energy moving along my spine and through my chakras. I'll admit that I believe in the basic idea of energy in the body, but I've never given much thought to the nature of it, or whether chakras are a legitimate concepts. I couldn't really say what she did, just a series of light touches. But I did feel better during and after. Apparently my root chakra and third chakra are seriously blocked. And I analyze too much (because I don't know what my gut feelings are, because my third chakra is so blocked). Yeah. The easiest thing for me would be to blow it all off as garbage. And maybe it is, but I've reached the point where I almost don't care. It made me feel better, and that's all I care about this point.

The second treatment, a hot stone massage, was also all about the chakras. Who knew? I'm pretty sure everything she said about hot stone being adapted from Buddhist traditions was crap, but it sounded nice. And lying down while someone places warm, smooth stones down your back definitely feels nice, so I won't argue.

I was taking this all so seriously that it almost shocked me to see other patrons act a bit blase towards it. I saw two women dash to the locker room between treatments to check messages on their cells. I don't know, maybe they do this kind of thing a whole lot more often than I do, But I can't imagine caring. I tried as hard as I could to banish every work-related thought that drifted into my brain. Aliens could have taken over the earth and I wouldn't have cared as long as it didn't upset my carefully arranged massage stones.

So, step one in my sanity plan is complete and was successful. Next up, learning how to cope without burying myself in fluffy robes and essential oils...