Hello Ventosa, We meet again

I was so stressed out last week from "almost-marrying-my-laptop" that I needed to have two massage in a week. I had a back massage and a pedicure on a Thursday, then I went back to the Spa last Sunday to have Ventosa done.

The first time I tried Ventosa or Cupping Therapy was back in... 2006 (I think). The Spa that I go to just recently offered Ventosa Back Massage back then and I decided to give it a go. Ventosa, according to Ezine Article is:

 is performed by placing glass on specific accupoints on your back. A technique is used to create a vacuum inside the glass placed on your back which lifts the skin. The practitioner then moves the cup toward the outside parts of the body sucking the air away.

The first time I tried it, I had my sister tag along with me to take pictures. Since my back looked like Philippine's Chocolate Hills in the pictures taken while on it, I just decided to just grab decent ones from the internet.

This is what it looks like:

This photo is from this blog

I got this photo from this blog, but I am assuming it originally came from here. 

I'm such a huge fan of long hard massage. I always always ask the therapist to give me a hard one and I usually go in the opening hours because that's when all the therapists are not tired yet. I'm lucky because I don't get back bruises like this one from the net.

I got this from this blog

I know it looks painful but not really. It's very therapeutic especially if you've been complaining about the stress of your back for so long. 

A friend of mine also had a Ventosa back then and she wore it with pride. She wore razor back top that looked like this, showing off her Ventosa marks.

I got this from this site 

Of course those who don't know what it looks like and where it came from were horrified at how painful-looking it appears, but in my head I was thinking: " Aaaaah... she had a really good massage and a guaranteed good night sleep."

Next time, I'll save up for Hot Stone Massage:

Source

I tried this once (because it's a little expensive compared to Ventosa) but this is the best massage I've had in my entire life.

I tried so hard to stay away from the Spa whenever I get stressed, but it appears that it is my guaranteed pick-me-upper. So for my new month resolution, I'm going to cut back on "other things" and  save enough dough to pay for my massage preferences. :)