Revive: Fit to be Thai-ed?
Parents Get Recalibrated with Thai Massage

Parents, let’s face it: you don’t get much personal time anymore, do you? To paraphrase an acquaintance, you’ve got “demands coming out of your demands” and the relentless pace of your life these days means that the once-important regenerative time is the first thing to go. Parents have unrelenting schedules and often feel like they’re working 2½ jobs with only 24 hours in a day to do them. Feeling adrift merely goes with the territory... and while you might get away with that for a while with a spouse or your immediate family and friends, you just can't be adrift with your kids.

It happens to the best of us, but here in the Cool Cleveland Kids area, we’ll be offering up a semi-regular “Revive” item to help you reclaim some down important down time. As a parent, if you’re not taking care of yourself, that lack of energy will spill over and challenge your number one objective: taking care of those little ones. Carving out that personal time is critical to keeping your patience, stamina and enthusiasm at levels where they need to be to keep up with those Cool Cleveland Kids. So, what do I do when I'm fit to be tied? Well, that's when I’m fit to be Thai-ed... only two words will center me: Thai Massage, sometimes known as Yoga Massage.

In many ways, Thai Massage is actually like guided Yoga: the participant, dressed in loose-fitting clothes, is maneuvered into many different yoga-like positions on a mat on the floor. The massage “practitioner” leans on, folds and bends the participant’s body using forearms, hands and (in some cases) legs to offer pressure to areas of the body. Some say that Thai Massage has its roots in India and is based on the Ayurveda, but that it came to fruition in “ancient Siam,” now known as Thailand. Origins aside, it’s estimated that the Thai people have been at it for some 2500 years or more.

“I love Thai massage, because it opens you up to different parts of your body that are not directly accessed in a regular massage, or even utilized in your day-to-day activity,” offers Tabitha Ansley, owner of Sacred Hour Massage and Yoga in Lakewood. “It works internally in many different ways, along the meridian lines like acupuncture does. In some ways, it’s like a dance, with the two people working together. In the West, people look at Thai Massage – and massage in general – as a luxury. For people Far East see this is a preventative tool for health and well-being, to reenergize the system when we feel dead in our skin.”

Ansley says that beyond health benefits (reduction of stress, increased circulation, energy, focus and flexibility) she sees Thai Massage as “almost like readjusting a person’s body” and helping that person to get all of their systems back together and working in concert when stress has taken over.

“They have to live a healthy lifestyle, but if that person is taking care of themselves, it can be one of the most regenerative, meditative and centering things a person can do to heal what stress does to the body... It’s almost like a dance the way it is done. We even do couples side-by-side Thai Massage now in our new Yoga studio. I think we’re the only people in Northeast Ohio doing that now, so there’s a great date night, too,” she adds with a laugh.

It’s hardly the “passive” experience that some make it out to be – particularly if you’ve grown accustomed to a more sedentary lifestyle. Practiced only by a few specialists in Northeast Ohio, I thought engaging in such a Thai session would hobble me up. I resigned myself to the notion that I would walk out of a session looking like a pretzel and feeling like a crick-necked prize fighter who came in second place. As it happened, I strolled out of my first session of Thai Massage at Sacred Hour in Lakewood feeling like a, well, like a brand new dad. I was relaxed, less stressed and felt more energetic, flexible and centered than I had been in good long time. I'm going back in a couple weeks.

Next time, we'll revive with Reiki and reflexology. Stay tuned.

Visit Sacred Hour Massage and Yoga online at http://www.sacredhour.com and learn about and participate in Thai Massage, Pilates, Pregnancy Massage (for expectant moms), their brand new Yoga studio and other services.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com
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