Day 75 – Relish in Receiving

Wish I could do today’s first for the “one new thing a day for 100 days”new years resolution for the next 25 days and call the mission complete!  My first on this fine day was an unexpected treat at the gym I go to – Free Massage by Alexis.

As a licensed massage therapist, I felt particularly grateful for this experience as it had been awhile since I received and I was reminded of what a gift it is.  The power of touch is profound.  It heals, influences, grounds and soothes.   It’s no wonder our skin is our largest organ (with an area of ~20sqft).  It is the pathway to touch – one of our most important and most powerful functions.  Touch is as vital as food and security for long term wellbeing…(*added interesting facts about our skin below the pics..)

Interesting Facts About our Skin!

• The average adult has approximately 21 square feet of skin, which weighs 9 lbs and contains more than 11 miles of blood vessels.
• The average person has about 300 million skin cells. A single square inch of skin has about 19 million cells and up to 300 sweat glands.
• Your skin is its thickest on your feet (1.4mm) and thinnest on your eyelids (0.2mm).
• The skin renews itself every 28 days.
• Your skin constantly sheds dead cells, about 30,000 to 40,000 cells every minute! That’s nearly 9 lbs. per year!

• Some sources estimate that more than half of the dust in your home is actually dead skin.
• Dead skin comprises about a billion tons of dust in the earth’s atmosphere.
• Your skin is home to more than 1,000 species of bacteria.
• Skin that is severely damaged may try to heal itself by forming scar tissue, which is different from normal skin tissue because it lacks hair and sweat glands.
• Skin can form additional thickness and toughness — a callus — if exposed to repeated friction or pressure.
• Some of the nerves in your skin are connected to muscles instead of the brain, sending signals (through the spinal cord) to react more quickly to heat, pain, etc.
• Your skin has at least five different types of receptors that respond to pain and touch.
• Changes in your skin can sometimes signal changes in your overall health.