Rant

I was thrown off guard a bit yesterday when I visited one of the women who takes care of my body. I go to this particular woman because I like her treatments and she will see me any time. There is no need to book days or even weeks in advance.

As the weather was shitty yesterday, I figured she wouldn’t be doing too much, and I wasn’t either, so I thought I would try my luck for a treatment. She was going away the next day and thus welcomed the money. ‘’Come right on over,’’ were her words.

While her hands work wonders, often her mouth lets her down. She is one of those people who speaks before she thinks and I know has offended people in the past.

I was told once, when I was lying face down on her table, that she didn’t have any decent clients. Fortunately, I knew what she was referring to and that was anyone who came with regularity, perhaps weekly or fortnightly. I have always been hit and miss, letting my body tell me when I need work. So, I let that comment slide that time.

But yesterday’s riled me up. First, she brought up my son, saying how he was shy and how much she loved bringing shy people out of their shell. I informed her that I have a shy nature, particularly when in a group situation. When everyone is being talkative, I generally find it hard to get a word in.

Her next comment was that shyness was a disability. In other words, both my son and I have a disability. I informed her that shyness was not a disability, rather part of one’s character. It has never ever stopped me, nor my son, from doing anything in the past and I am sure it won’t in the future. It is just part of who we are. I then informed her I would rather be quiet than loud-mouthed, to which she told me I was now being nasty. She went on to say that I was obviously sensitive about that and needed to calm down. I saw her words as an attack on my very essence, like, to have that quiet kind of nature was somehow detrimental to one’s life. Further in the conversation, it transpired that her daughter suffers so much shyness she is unable to do things she would like to do. My guess is her daughter is suffering some kind of anxiety – different from being shy and she has equated the two as one, from her daughter’s experience. However, as much as I tried to tell her that shyness was not a disability, she wouldn’t buy it.

To add to my discomfort, she began to work on an area behind my knees, that I learnt in my training, was an endangerment area. In other words, one doesn’t go there. I need to remind her this each treatment but yesterday I blurted out. ‘’That is an endangerment zone. That is why I don’t want to be worked on there.’’

Then on to my neck and she was applying excessive pressure to my C2 vertebrae. Again, I had to stop her and point out that pressure should never be applied directly to one’s spine in that area, she would need to work on each side of it. I didn’t want to come away and suffer for weeks because she had done something that could cause damage.

There are two new therapists who have started up business out here on the Peninsula, one of which I have heard is very good. I haven’t heard anything about the other. I have resisted both of these because I have been happy with what I have received from my regular woman. However, now I think I may just try one of these new ones out. One is particularly vulnerable when one is lying on a table and to be insulted whilst in this state is not something that one wants to return to. But in saying that, part of our growth is often that we move on from people as we evolve. Perhaps I am doing just that or perhaps, when I have tried one of these other women, I might decide, that the treatment I receive is worth the odd insult or two, after all.

And what is my advice to people - when something pushes one’s buttons, there is work to do. Obviously, those comments were triggering something in me. I see a bit of work coming up.