A Relaxing Massage

Picture yourself lying back in a nice comfy lounging chair, eyes closed and arms hanging limp at your side. The smell of lilac is in the air and you can hear the sound of a distant ocean, it's waves rising... then washing up onto shore... then rising again. The roar is punctuated with the occasional bit of child's laughter or the squeal of a happy seagull that found a particularly delightful tidbit on the beach. Everything seems very peaceful and relaxing. You've been waiting for this break for a long time.

You feel a pair of fingers tracing the outline of your cheeks, working their way around your face, up towards your eyes then over and back down to your jaw. You keep your eyes closed as you were hoping for something like this. A facial massage is a rare treat and what better setting for it than the peace of the mid-afternoon at the ocean?

Once reaching the chin the fingers move along the jaw line; just barely making contact, almost feeling like a feather is being run across your skin. Back along the jaw they waft, up towards your ears. The sensation of having both sides touched this way at the same time is particularly appealing. It's a balance between feeling delicate because of their soft touch, and feeling safe because of the two strong hands that are enclosing your face, protecting it from the outside.

You let out a slight giggle as the contact with your ears produces a tingling sensation. As the fingers find all of the contours on your ears, back and front, inner and outer, the tingling continues but it no longer tickles. The tingling spreads even though you know it's only your ears receiving the attention. You feel your lips part as your face relaxes as that sensation moves out to engulf your entire head. The pressure of the fingers increases slightly, more so on your earlobes, and your ears begin to feel warmer. As your earlobes are kneaded and the outer edges of your ear are stroked the warmth spreads, just as the tingling did. Soon your whole face feels flushed, and you suddenly feel embarrassed... but no, you are perfectly comfortable. The emotion has arisen as a memory of past times when you blushed and felt this same way. As you recall this, tension drops out of your neck and your head seems to sink into the ground.

The two hands are now completely around your ears, cupping them as though forming a safe little womb as the fingers find the small knots behind your ears and slowly work their way into the tension. The thumbs join the act at the top of your jaw, also seeking out the tiny little knots that have been hiding in the muscles of your face. It almost seems like they are moving in slow motion now as their circular strokes have slowed to a crawl. The increasing pressure though continually relaxes those neglected muscles. Your mouth opens a little further and you hear a small sigh escape. But at this point you're feeling almost separated from your body, your relaxation has gone so deep. You realize that the hands are working on you and are vastly enjoying their touch, yet paradoxically your mind doesn't really "feel" them. It's just experiencing the deepening sense of peace you have about you.

The fingers and thumbs are now working in tandem, leaving behind the loose muscles that once held so much tension. They work their way back up the jaw line towards the chin. The combination of the feathery touch of the thumbs gliding across your cheek and the strong pressure of the fingers running along the underside of your chin makes for a particularly pleasant balance. Back and forth they go. Your attention alternates between the touch on your cheeks that is so light that it seems to fade in and out, and the strong feeling under your chin that holds you safe and brings back that tingling. Soon the two feelings blend into one that's not quite soft and not quite strong but something wonderfully elusive.

Then the hands turned to your cheeks, which felt rosy and alive, almost uplifted even, probably from the grin that no doubt graced your features. Your mind momentarily drifts to an old Norman Rockwell picture of Santa Clause with big red cheeks that is surely the way you look now. At first all you can feel is that light feathery touch again as all of the fingers start working their magic on you. It seems odd but even though your skin is barely being brushed you can feel it right down to the bone. You sense each layer below your skin and immediately know where the tension is, and as that awareness arises the tension drops away from you, like a tree shedding leaves.

Wonderful minutes (or was it hours?) later the fingers have found a resting spot where your jaw hinges and go back to that slow sinking pressure. As the fingertips sink further and further into that small island of tension the tingling sinks with them, going down through your cheek and reaching its tendrils into your tongue. As the sensation moves through the back of your tongue and up to the tip you briefly imagine what it would be like to have that area massaged. As you imagine this your mind's eye slips inside your own mouth and you see your tongue as though you were standing on it. The tingling you feel is visual, showing as blue sparks jumping along your tongue and arcing in from the roof of your mouth. As you watch the sparks move along your tongue the tingling moves with it. Finally as the blue lightning leaps off the end of your tongue the tingling stops and your attention jumps back out. You now have an awareness of your tongue, as though the lightning had stimulated it and got the blood flowing faster, making it swell slightly.

The hand rises higher still and you feel the fingers tracing the edge of your hairline. The fine hairs underneath react to the presence by bristling slightly and a vague itching sensation forms that is soothed as the fingers pass over each area in turn. The tracing continues, the fingers moving slightly downward with each pass. They started at the hairline but are soon following the outline of your eyebrows and temples. Once again the fingers slow to a stop at the indentation behind your eyes to work into the tension. As they go deeper your eyes start to feel sluggish and you become more aware of the effort it is taking to keep them closed. You let go of them and discover that not only were you holding your eyelids tight but also your eyes were also moving around underneath, as though searching for the daylight. As you release, your eyes go quiet and you can almost feel them droop inward and the inside of your head quite suddenly becomes more open, as though the muscle had been bunched up but was now free to take on its natural form.

As your temples loosen the fingers work on your eyes with that soft touch you've come to anticipate. Although providing a similar relief, this is much more gentle than you rubbing your eyes when they feel irritated. It's almost as though the level of irritation was so low that you didn't notice it until these smooth fingers started washing it away. They move slightly harder along the outline of your eye sockets and as they do your internal "vision" momentarily lights up, showing you bright yellows and reds even though your eyes are fully closed. As the fingers continue brushing along the eyes the palms are lowered onto your cheeks, holding your entire face close, yet gently, in their embrace.

The palms move in a slow circle, rotating on your face so that the fingers now reach your lips. Again you feel that familiar soft stroking as they trace the outline of your lips. This time you expect the tingling but it is particularly strong in this area. The fingers are moving so slowly it takes a full minute to make an entire circuit around your lips. Although their motion is barely perceptible the tingling is moving around quickly, flashing the entire width of your mouth and back, then flooding inwards to your gums. On each lap around your lips the fingers move closer, working their way to the inner part of your lips where they meet your gums. If it were possible for fingers to kiss this is how it would feel. Even though your eyes have been closed the whole time you have the sensation of closing them even further and as the tingling subsides you drift off into sleep.