After a cluster
of curveballs at work left me with some niggly pain in my neck and shoulders, I decided it was time to treat myself, and made an appointment at the beauty therapist for a relaxing facial
and massage.
A young
girl greeted me at the desk and ushered me through to a room with
instructions to disrobe and lie on the bed under the big towels. She was back a few minutes later, pulls a
chair up to the table, produces a clipboard and pen and asks me:
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“So Claire, how do you
feel about your skin?”
The
question took me by surprise. How DO I
feel about my skin? Of course, I am
grateful for it. I am glad I have it…
what is she getting at here?
“Umm…
Good?”
She looks
at me intently – evidently, that was the WRONG ANSWER. She tries again…
“What issues do you
have with your skin?”
“None really, I think my skin is fine.”
Why is she making this difficult? Enough talky talky, more rubby rubby!!
“So what skin problems
would you like me to address today?”
ARGH! All I want to do is lie here and bliss out for
a couple of hours while you rub several different kinds of goop and put warm
towels on me. That’s it. Big words and problem solving are a couple of
the things I had hoped to escape for a while by coming here, so can we please just get started?
“ Well I booked in for a relaxing facial and
massage......”
She must
have thought I was one tough cookie…
“OK well let’s cleanse
and then we’ll take a closer look…”
So it turns
out I have a pimple and some un damage. I
don’t see these as problems that need to be rectified - I see them as part of
enjoying life! Sometimes I eat chocolate
and sometimes I spend entire days in the sun and I if it gives me pimples and sun damage, I am fine with that!
In fact, life would be pretty shit without chocolate and sunshine, even
if I did have flawless skin!
The girl
did a great job and I got to bliss out for a while and left the salon feeling
wonderful.
But the
experience got me thinking – why are they trying to make problems out of our natural
conditions? I almost felt like I should have problems, or that the lack of a problem was a problem
in itself! And it’s not just about skincare or women - Ads on the radio tell me that balding is now a
medical issue, and in the States, there is a
medication to "treat" shyness. Wikipedia
says “Therapy is the
attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a diagnosis.
In the medical field, it is synonymous with the word "treatment".
Pimples
are not a health problem, shyness is not a health problem.. Cancer is a health
problem! In our effort to recognise optimal body-mind
wellbeing, are we creating more problems than we are solving? Shouldn’t we sort out the real problems
first before we start making up new ones?
