The Best Compliment

Sometimes you get the nicest compliments from clients when they don’t say a word.

So it was Friday when a client came in after a hell week at work, plopped on the table and pointed at the right side of his neck.

A few minutes after getting his lymph flowing and addressing the rebar in the area where his trap and posterior scalenes should have been, the big thank you came.

“Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….”

Gee, I felt good.

What is the best compliment you have ever gotten from a massage client? Come on now, you know we kind of live for them. They are a blast. I bet when someone does a great job on some horribly long commercial litigation case, the client doesn’t often give up a hug.

I’ve gotten hugs. Tips, yeah they are great. But that spontaneous expression of total relaxation followed by a good nap? I love the sound of good buzz-saw snore.

So what does it take to really snore up a storm? I had a therapist friend once who would get crabby if the clients fell asleep. “She fell asleep while I was working on her SCMS!”

I’d like to think it was a compliment, not exhaustion. Not too many people will let you play with their violin strings like that.

Catching those Zzzzzzzzz on the table came at the end of a long week of fun, feel-good moments. One lady I wasn’t sure of at all – fibromyalgia, lots of accidents, lots of angst - called back after a detox lymph massage to say she felt reborn. Usually massages give her the flu-feelings for a few days. Not this time.

We talked for a bit before doing her second massage about modulating moods and fatigue with breathing and mindfulness. She had heard about these things before, but I got the sense she was connecting the dots.

“I feel really good. I’m impressed!” she said.

Now if I can only get her to drop into the Zzzzz-zone.

I like nothing if not a challenge. And it sure beats commercial litigation.