Guest blog by @ilovelomi
‘May the work of your hands be a sign of gratitude and reverence to the human condition.’
Mahatma Gandhi
When people ask you what you do, what you tell them? Not too long ago, I used to market children’s books, which sounds lovely (and often was), but what this actually meant to me was sitting at a computer all day and a constant push for sales targets. Call me a hippy but I strongly identify with what I do for a living.
This April marks a milestone for me. My business, Lomi Massage Leeds, is six months old.
Now I can say, I make people feel wonderful. I aim for people to leave me standing taller, breathing deeper, and feeling focused, calm and connected. I can see a direct result in the work I do.
To me, massage is about more than just muscles. It reminds us to be gentle with ourselves, and others. We are all tired. We all ache. It’s a gentle nudge towards how we’d like to feel—physically, mentally and emotionally—and a signpost to help us find that place again.
I’m excited about where the next six months are taking me—I’ll be working with folks like The Bivouac and Leeds Wellbeing Centre—but why wait to celebrate? In my last job it was traditional to bring cake in on your birthday; in my new business I’m offering a massage. It’s my way of showing my gratitude for being able to do what I love.
How to win
To win an hour of massage (£45 in value) just tweet leave a comment telling me something your grateful for in the comments box below. If you’re feeling super-generous, you could even nominate some one who you think deserves some TLC. A winner will be picked on Saturday 21st April 2012.
Smallish print
Winners must be able to travel to LS7. The offer expires at the end on January 1st 2013. The massage must be taken in one go e.g. one appointment of one hour. The offer is non-transferrable and cannot be exchanged for cash or vouchers.
My standard terms and conditions apply: www.lomimassageleeds.com/downloads/terms-and-conditions
… at the moment I am still really graetful for the absolute fantastic sunshine I had during the week of hiking/walking the absolute breathtaking “dales way” in Yorkshire in the beginning of April … althought my body is still affected by this (partly exhausting) hiking trip …
I am grateful for having had enough energy and having kept chronic illness flares at bay enough to have done so much campaign work for the NAS this year. They gave me so much when I was coming to terms with assessment and diagnosis, for which I am also grateful.
I’m grateful for hugging my husband as I fall asleep for the first time since I’ve lived with him – 13 years
I’m grateful for the beautiful sound of the birds waking up when I’m having one of those sleepless nights. Their cheeky chirping tells me it’s not so bad being awake at that time:)
I am grateful for my life in total. I work as a fundraiser, live with my soul mate and enjoy life to the full. And I would nominate my wife for the massage as she deserves the very best of everything.
I am grateful to have eveything that I do have – a home, a family, friends, a job supporting families with disabled children, my caring & genius partner and our businesses too. Most of all, I always thank my lucky stars that my daughter survived meningitis when she was a baby – though she has been left with disabilities, she is so incredibly brave when she has her operations and is very clever – I’m really proud to be her mum (even when she’s being a moody teenager or winding her 3 year old little brother up!).
I guess I’m grateful because it wasn’t always this way – I was 17 when I fell pregnant with my daughter, and ended up in a homeless hostel, single, and fully reliant on the state for every penny. Her dad was worse than absent, he was mean and fickle.
Anyway, her coming into my world inspired me to change everything about my life – I went to college, then uni, then got a job doing something I love and now we have our businesses too. Yep, everything! But, I’d like to nominate Katrina Newby who is a total supermum – she is a working single mum of 2, who also is training to be a social worker. She never gets a moment to herself and always puts her family first. She way deserves a massage because she is an amazing, caring person. Sorry for the essay – keeping things short is not my strong point!
Extremely grateful that the sun is shining, that I’m in Buenos Aires, that work is almost over, that there’s a 2 week holiday ahead, for meeting distant relatives, for being supported by a loving woman, for family, for friends, for life! And of course, for having a body that loves and supports me and allows me to be an active part of this world even if i don’t treat it with as much reverence sometimes as i should.
I think it needs a treat 😉
I also nominate my girlfriend Jayne Rdogers who I’m also extremely grateful for
I am grateful for a healthy and happy body and mind. I love to dance and move an am grateful everyday for that freedom to move. I am grateful to be working with dance health and healing and love sharing it with the world. I am grateful for all the beautiful and loving hearts/ energies that surround me. I am grateful for love and the many shades and contrasts in my life.
I am grateful for my Mum. She works as a carer for people with learning difficulties, a job she really cares about that requires her to work long shifts, often overnight. As well as that, she helps look after my two young children so I can go out to work and keep a roof over our heads.
This means that they have developed a really strong relationship with her – enough for us to have recently been able to leave them for a short break. When we came back, they were so full of excitement at their holiday with Grandma and Grandad that they barely registered we’d been away at all!
Although she loves getting a massage, she just wouldn’t think to buy one for herself as she always puts everyone else above herself. I would love for her to win this massage, so that I could let her know again just how much she means to us all and how grateful we are for her support. It would also be a wonderful way to ‘force’ her to take some time for herself to be cared for and nurtured for a change…
I am grateful for kale.
I am grateful for all the blessings yet to come 🙂
Lovely to see your article, very well written, and something not many can identify with x
There is so much to be grateful for. I am grateful that my husband has a job after 16 months of on-off redundancy and that we now both have jobs that we love….which brings me to..
I am grateful for my job – I am so proud of all that my lovely pupils achieve and so thankful that I wake up every morning looking forward to going to work!!
I am grateful for my lovely friends who are just fantastic.
I’m just grateful for everything!
I am so grateful to have such overwhelming support in finally being able to realise my dreams and make theatre. Not only have my family and friends always encouraged me to follow my heart but they have often dispaired that I fell in to day-job drudgery.
Now I find I am rich in kindness and people who listen, discuss and help me pick apart and develop my ideas, who encourage me to continue to write, think and blog and even offer their time to help me realise my projects.
It’s been a long time coming. And I think maybe they are grateful that I am finally making it happen.
I try to remember to be grateful for everything in life. Day to day, however, this can be difficult as one rushes from one imminently urgent task to another from morning until night. Often, we do not realise we are grateful for something until we have had it taken away from us. For this reason, I am grateful for all the things I have not yet had to acknowledge gratitude for.
Thank you to culture vultures and to Jo for the massage I had this evening. I’m now grateful for twitter, the web and the wonderful little cabin because I feel very relaxed and happy