Pain Induction Part 2

My interactive massages continued for the next few hours with me still working even after most the booths were dismantled by the maintenance staff, the cleaners were sweeping the carpet, and everyone else (except the few who were awaiting their ride) had left.  Most of the clients were students from COSTATT, but I also had one from the AVON booth and another from the Optometrists booth.  The showdown was between the AVON lady and a student.

 She told him that she had been waiting and four persons got their massages ahead of her and she had to have hers before she left.  I decided to stand back and let them work it out.  He had been waiting too, and felt he should have a massage having missed most of the activities because he was at classes, and now he had a long ride to Sangre Grande which is usually taxing on his body because he is too big for most of the car seats that the Japanese folks made for themselves.  In the end, it was ladies first.  He waited.

She explained how she usually gets stiff-neck and feels it has to do with the amount of stress she has to deal will.  I’m always amused at how an invisible thing like stress is blamed for pain.  How exactly does stress cause pain?  She said: well, you know…  Uh-huh.  I know.  But I was hoping for a step-by-step guide as to how nothing climbs onto the body and becomes something.  So I said what I know, limiting it to perception and how that affects the endocrine system causing it to release too much of some hormones while suppressing others.   

She is a nervous case too.  Said there are times when her head suddenly jerks back.  Hmmm.  She needed a separate consultation under difference circumstances.  The guy was still waiting, and a lady who appeared to be a supervisor of the day’s operations seemed to be waiting for me to get out.  The guy said he does massages for his mother and other folks, free.  He spoke of taking on people’s pain.  The flexors of his left far were particularly painful and he explained that he had recently gotten a puppy and had to fetch in on his arm while carrying his heavy bag on the other and strained his muscles in the process.  But it was worth it, for now it’s not just his mother for company, but a cute puppy also.  Bless you.  A grown man and his puppy.  Are wives becoming outdated?

Getting back to the first client who does/likes deep massages…  She reminded me of a story I heard from a student.  She had gone to the savannah to hopefully work with some members of a football team and encountered a Medicine Woman (MW) who was attached to the team.  The lady studied Sports Medicine.  The MW advised the student to do deep massages on the guys, to put pressure on injured areas too, break up the stuff, make them cry and thing, and most of all, don’t pamper them.  Poorly articulated for someone who pursued the level of studies that she did.  

But nonetheless shocking to me – her request.  Are these the intentions that we are seriously supposed to have?  No wonder the sporting world has ignored me.  I lack the ‘right’ intentions for the job.  The student called for my advice because on the one hand she wants to get in her hours of practice, but on the other hand she did not want to be accused of not following orders by doing what she considered best for the athletes based on direct consultation with them.  And as if that is not tough enough, the MW advised her that if she pulls this off well, she will refer her to some other clubs that she works with.  So here are the prospects of sparkling future in the world of sports, if only she could make the guys cry.

Look out for the final Pain Induction Part 3