Just a Minute. Or Two

 

Written by a customer of Daniel Beauty.

 

We all know ‘Every little helps’, whether we dash off to Tesco or not. We may also know ‘Every minute counts’ in various contexts. including massage.

But – oh no! – looking up one massage service in my local area, not Woking, it shall remain anonymous so as not to give it poor publicity. The details showed pricing as more expensive than Daniel  Beauty, and time before and after the actual treatment showed as 5 to 10 minutes included in the session booked, depending on what treatment is required, e.g. you get 50 or 55 minutes treatment, but pay for 60 minutes. Though at least this is explained beforehand.

 

It’s disappointing to read, and then possibly say ‘Oh, I didn’t realise preparation time was included in the sessions’. Also, it’s sneaky to shave off a minute or two before and/or after an actual treatment. In these cases you won’t be experiencing your full shave, waxing, or whatever treatment you have. It will have been shaved off time-wise though!

 This seems poor practice. It never happens at Daniel Beauty, and there are probably many other places too where it never happens. But every minute definitely counts, with, to spell out the costs, the rate in some cases being over £1 per minute. It is necessary nitty-gritty. We wouldn’t bother about 5 minutes if it only cost 5 pence!

 

Anyway, it advertised as "preperation" time, whatever that is! You want the best, and will hopefully find, or have found, Daniel and other colleagues at the same venue now and again, of excellent repute, as you enjoy your full allocation of the minutes you book. 

You won’t find any minutes ‘unjust’, in the sense of them being non-existent due to having less than your full time, so you won’t be short-changed for your massage either.

What makes you desire a Massage?

 

This is not a discourse on making sure you attend your massage appointments or give enough time if you need to cancel them. But please read on!

In part of the brain’s workings there is Selective Attention. It is, in simple terms, the ability to select certain things to give attention to in daily life.

This can be endogenous, ‘from within’. An example is that when we feel hungry, have empty tummy rumbles, etc, from within ourselves, and give our attention to preparing a burger or whatever we choose to eat.  Or it can be exogenous, ‘from outside’. An example is that we see an advertisement for burgers, or other food, and give our attention to that, though we may not be hungry at the time.

 This could apply to massage. If we feel like, wish for, or desire a massage or other treatment, we act endogenously, and may make an appointment with a masseur.  If we see advertisements, videos, etc, of massage or other treatments, we act in an exogenous way. The images remind us of massage, and so we may make an appointment, though not having previously been thinking about massage.

Thankfully we don’t have to consciously trace whether we are acting endogenously or exogenously each time. The endogenous, ’from within’ things may happen more consciously, where we use our wills, make decisions, choices, etc. The exogenous, ‘from outside’ things may happen more subconsciously, where we had not been previously, thinking, mulling over, etc.

 Whether endogenous or exogenous, where your selective attention may turn to massage or other treatments, come along for another visit. Of course, you don’t have to know and understand all the workings of the brain (phew!) of which this is but one area. 

We hope you will be ‘selective’, maybe including being choosy, preferential, what takes your fancy, wanting more of a good thing, etc, and give ‘attention’ to Daniel’s massage services.

The perfect Massage

 

We may come across people, hopefully not very often, who may not be as ‘people-people’, or as heard more in the singular, ‘people-person’. This could apply in various areas, such as employment, education or socially. Though socially you may not want such people in your mix of friends, and they would be unfriendly anyway.

With relating to employment, if you unhappily have a manager or worse, more than one, who is not a ‘people-person’, there can be a tendency that employees are treated as things or objects, and hardly as human beings. If assertive enough, we may say ‘Look, it’s me; I am human; I am here; I exist’.

 

In the area of massage and other treatments, customers or clients are surely seen as human, and there is friendly interacting and relating between masseur and customers.

There is always the risk if there is a feedback option after customers have experienced a service, from whatever customer service we may have experienced, masseur or non-masseur. 

A masseur (or other business) can trust they have given and done their best for customers. The feedback is then hopefully seen in testimonials, positive comments, by word of mouth, online, etc, that are wonderful, glowing, ‘all good stuff’ sort of things.

If, for example, there are star ratings that customers can give, it can be detrimental or even disastrous if not maintaining a 5-star level. Some customers may think a little less of a service if it has even a 4.9 average. Sometimes it is entirely variable though. 

A customer may give a 1 rating, and some other customers may give a 4 or 5 rating, knowing from experience it is at least better than a 1. But no-one wants to receive any zeros! Though in all this, there does not HAVE to be feedback. Some business may not ‘do feedback’ for whatever reasons.

 Your massage or other treatment may be 100% perfect – we hope it is! But it will be good, we trust,  whatever you have, as you can read in our Massage testimonials. 

 

Can a Massage help with my aches and pains?

 In life, though this is not a thesis on the human condition, there may be various ailments, maladies, troubles, etc. These may be of body, soul, or spirit, or a mixture of these, as human beings. Aches and pains, troubles, illnesses, etc, may be short-term, medium-term or long-term. Some may be temporary and some may be permanent.

Massage and other treatments can play a role in helping to alleviate adverse or negative conditions we may have, whether to remove them partially or completely. It may depend on each individual, their openness to particular treatments. Or it may be just massage or whatever treatment for a treat, luxury, or pampering of oneself.

 

When we do not have something for a while, whatever duration of time we may be without it, it is sometimes only at those times that we miss it.

Though we might not have intentionally taken things for granted, but had been in a settled and agreeable state when we did not have it, e.g. we may have enjoyed good health, but then had some ache or pain that we did not always have, or never had before. But now we find we have the ache or pain, for some reason or cause, that may be known only to ourselves, or not know why we have it.

In this area, massage or other services provided by a masseur can hopefully be of genuine help to bring ease, freedom, lessening of troubles, etc. Or just to bring peace, relaxation, and pleasantness, if not affected by anything adverse or negative. 

There is a phrase ‘captatio benevolentiae’, meaning ‘seeking of good will’. We can recognise ‘benevolent’ in part of this phrase. This can surely apply to massage and related treatments that clients experience. Come along to experience it for a first visit, or for your ten thousandth visit - high hopes that you’ll find it that good!

 

Massage Treatments And Therapies

 This is not about introverts and extroverts, but is ‘inversion’

It is up to people’s own preferences of what treatments and massage therapies they may choose to have, or not to have. At Daniel Beauty there is a comfortable table, or couch, which you can see in the picture in some previous Blogs (e.g. 6 October 2020) if you have not seen it in person. This is not like the one shown below which may conjure up some thoughts of a torture chamber, yet if we seem to get on with inversion therapy it is the sort of table we shall use.

 

Inversion therapy is said, among other things, to help back pain, and to help return to some ‘rebirth’ stage when fully inverted, or tipped upside-down, in other words. It can symbolise a baby’s position in the womb before it is about to be born, but not connected to any spookiness of reincarnation.

There can also be some feelings of loss of control, though this will not happen in massage treatments. It may be something psychosomatic (‘body-to-soul’) that causes odd feelings when inverted, with being in an unnatural position, all the blood rushing to your head, etc. Or it may be plainly physical, due to the position one is in. My view, as a client of Daniel’s contributing to his Blogs, is that inversion therapy can also be frightening.

You will, anyway, remain the right way up during massage or other treatments, even if laying down. It may seem a little torture if you have, e.g. Sports Massage, though this is with a positive purpose, with hopefully an outcome of healing sooner or later.

Take care if considering alternative therapies to massage. It is one’s choice every time though. What works for one may not work for someone else, whether fully or partly so.

 

Contemplating Completion for Massage

 Are you contemplating a massage treatment, or a completion of a treatment you may have started? If so, it will be completed after the required number of sessions, or in some cases after a one-off session.

We can think of Franz Schubert. How does he link with massage?! See pictures of him, age 30, without spectacles; and age 28, with spectacles, painted by separate artists. 

He lived 1797-1828, and was the author of The Unfinished Symphony, which he started. What happened? He only composed two of the usual four movements of this Symphony. Admittedly, he developed an illness, and only had a short life, dying at nearly age 32. Though when writing this Symphony he lived on for a further six years afterwards.

 

Symphony (a little Greek again!) is derived from symphonia, with one meaning being ‘agreement or concord of sound’. Symphonia is derived from symphonos, meaning ‘harmonious’.

You will hopefully experience all these in your massage treatment – agreement, concord, harmony. It won’t be that things are left unfinished, but that you will progress to completion, satisfaction, well-being – whatever your musical preferences!

The Gateway to your next Massage

 

Visiting Daniel Beauty may be your gateway to various pleasant massage experiences, we trust. There are some pubs named The Gateway also. Here is one in a town in Berkshire (see picture) near a Railway Station.

 

With beauty treatments, as with going to pubs, there can be some similarities, such as enjoyment, feeling refreshed, good company. At The Gateway in Woking, the home of your friendly masseur/therapist, at the Woodham Lane entrance there are two small white fences either side of the road. These could symbolise gates, though there are also some nearby at Woodham Waye (see satellite picture on Google maps).

 

If going via The Six Crossroads Roundabout, don’t go too far along Woodham Lane as it’s about 3 miles long! Turn off at the white fences about half a mile along.

 

A gate is an entrance or exit to or from another path, track, etc. Maybe go through that gate as a new experience, and have a massage or other treatment. This may be as a new experience, or as a return visit. You might travel the shortest route, yet it may seem a scenic route, literally, by car. Or a pleasant walk, taking in the geographical features of the area, via part of The Saturn Trail by the Basingstoke Canal.

 

If travelling from Woking Station end, don’t miss the Monument Road Bridge turning, or you may go on for miles! You will have gone too far, and might see the massage therapist waving to you from his back garden, (and you wave to him too) which backs on to the Canal. But by then you will be on the opposite side of the Canal, with no bridge for quite a while – or turn back to the last bridge.