With the New Year’s calendar spilling out in front of us, many feel the desire to examine their historical patterns and work towards change for the coming months. This is the time to plan a journey for the sake of ourselves.

From diets, to exercise regimes, to the whirlwind trips, most people have no shortage of changes they would like to make. Better jobs, shorter hours, creative outlets, that elusive language, and on and on. 

While the source of motivation can be a vast as points on a map, they all share one common thread: To improve health and happiness.

Health, like happiness, is very personal. Change requires internal strength to first discover what you need to do and then sheer will power to keep on that path towards your goals. The number of people who start the year with the intention of a ‘fresh start’ but somehow fail to meet them are a sobering reality of the difficulty.

If improving health can be so challenging, can improving happiness be easier? Actually based on research, many people overlook their personalities when planning for happiness and that can lead to disappointing results. 

Basically: if you are easy going and generally agreeable, no amount of planning will make your experience better. Save yourself the time and stress and enjoy the simple route. If you find that you have more particular needs - carefully planning the details will result in satisfaction and a more pleasant experience. Seems logical enough, but most people don’t factor themselves into their own lives with deep sincerity.

How does massage therapy fit into this? The process of caring for yourself is a choice and must be something you believe in. By including massage therapy as something you find value in, you are in turn valuing yourself.

In addition, a multi-modality massage can allow you to discover greater insight into your needs and what brings you closer to your ideal physical/spiritual health. By not being bound by a single ‘type’ or modality of massage, you can mix & match techniques to discover what works best for you. This will gradually allow you to tailor your session until it serves your needs perfectly.

Intuitively, you will discover more about yourself which will encourage you to ask more questions and create more space for consideration about your future sessions and the treatment paths you choose.

This self-valuation, self-care and self-development can bolster a person who didn’t factor their personality or needs into plans for future happiness into a person with a clear sense of themselves and being very comfortable asking for what they need from the world around them.

Happiness can be knowing what you need, knowing how to get it and know you deserve it. Since happiness and health are so closely interwoven, that desire for self-care can push forward to integrate better choices that support your health goals.

Like any new journey, knowing yourself is as important as knowing your destination and learning about yourself can be a wonderful side-effect of intuitive massage therapy.

Best of luck and we hope to be part of your journey in the new year!

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/01/14/people-neglect-who-they-really-are-when-predicting-their-own-future-happiness