You deserve a massage

Why you should get one once a month and the best spots for under $100

I walk through life with what my therapist likes to call a “finely tuned sensitivity,"  easily finding myself overwhelmed by my emotions and frequently grappling with bouts of anxiety. Basically, I’m a big scaredy cat and cry baby.

While I’m generally drawn to others who share my overly emotional sensibility, there's one friend who stands out for being the complete opposite. Whether she’s dealing with a parking ticket, running late for an appointment, or accidentally burning what’s in the oven, she always manages to handle trying situations with an enviable laid-back attitude and rationality. Things that would send me into complete and utter panic, she simply acknowledges with a nonchalant "That’s annoying. Oh well!" It’s incredible, but it’s also kind of maddening.

Long story short, a few months ago, over a glass of wine, this friend revealed to me that she gets a massage once every two weeks. I immediately thought: of course, this must be the secret to her unbothered state of being. She’s too tranquil to not be getting a massage every two weeks, you know?

I couldn’t stop thinking about her massage schedule. In doing this, I also remembered that when I lived in downtown Manhattan years ago, I would frequently pop in to my local “foot spa” and get cheap, thirty-minute foot massages every now and then—especially in the summer when my sandaled feet were blistered and bruised from the harsh New York streets—and it did, in fact, improve my general quality of life.

I don’t know when I started reserving massages for special occasions or when I’m in dire need due to an injury (I fell off the roof of my parents house a bit ago, don’t worry about it.) But following my wine-date revelation, I decided to start incorporating massages into my monthly routine and adding extra appointments here and there when my budget allowed. And holy cow, out of all the "little treats" I've ever indulged in, consistent massages have proven to be the most remarkable and transformative by far. I know it might seem obvious, like asking if water is wet – of course, massages are relaxing. But I never fully grasped the extent of their impact on my overall well-being, both mentally and physically, until I made them a consistent part of my routine.

These monthly massages have genuinely become my sanctuary, offering precious moments of pure relaxation amidst the stress and madness of this hellscape that is life. It feels like the only opportunity, apart from literally going to sleep, where I can truly unwind and let go. I’ve started booking my massage on Wednesdays as a mid-week pick me up, and it makes the work week infinitely more bearable, especially considering most of my job is writing while hunched over a laptop. And now that I think about it, maybe I do feel a bit less neurotic and uptight these days.

So I encourage you to stop reserving massages for special occasions and start making them a recurring monthly appointment in your calender. And if you’re concerned about the price, fear not: a great massage doesn’t have to be expensive. To make it easier for you to get one on the books, I've curated a list of my absolute favorite massages under $100 in Los Angeles, New York City, and London.