Make Every Moment Vivid

A massage only feels as good as your attention. I learned that face down on a table, trying to relax, discovering that the difference between dull and transcendent was where I put my mind.

It was a couples massage, and the spa felt like a hidden greenhouse. Waterfalls whispering, vines draping over warm pools, staff moving with quiet confidence, everything immaculate.

The room was dim, the air soft with incense. I chose a deep‑tissue massage to work out the shoulder and back knots I collect from hours at a computer.

As she warmed the muscles and began to dig in, my mind slipped its leash. Future plans, where we’d eat, a new idea for work, a hundred small to‑dos. Then I’d catch myself and come back. To her palms and elbows pressing into my shoulders, the hot line of pressure along a knot, the sharp, almost‑twitch pain that broke into relief. Every return made the massage better. The difference was immediate and obvious. Distracted mind, dull massage; present mind, deep pleasure.