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■在辦公室工作時間長，容易感到腰酸脖痛。資料圖片
Fai
In the last 5 or 6 years, I gradually found that I was not as sprightly（活潑）as I used to be. I would feel tired during the day, but when it was time to go to sleep, I would perk up（活躍起來）all of the sudden. When I managed to fall asleep, I would wake up in the middle of the night and stare at the darkened ceiling for hours before falling into fitful sleep again. In the morning, I would wake up with a stiff（僵硬的） neck and shoulders and an aching head, and would walk around in a haze（沒精打采，一片模糊）for the rest of the day.
Every now and then, I would half-heartedly（不太熱心地， 敷衍地）try to get back into a better sleep pattern. In my heart, I was not hopeful, because I regarded this general decline of my heath as a natural part of getting old. There is nothing much one can do about it.
I was wrong. Aging is of course unavoidable, but what I experienced is not only the result of a natural process but also the common complaints of any city dweller.
Or so I was told by the teacher of a massage class that I joined 4 weeks ago. In our first class, he declared that in addition to teaching us the basic techniques of massage, he would focus on ways to bring relief（減輕痛苦，減輕負擔）to some of the most commonplace ailments（病痛）. He believed that that was the main reason that we wanted to join the class in the first place. He then turned to the class made up of mostly young female office workers, and asked:
"How many of you have constant headaches?"
Quite a few hands went up.
"How many of you have shoulder pains?"
"How many of you have computer wrist and elbow?"
"How many of you have dry and smarting eyes?"
At every question, more and more hands went up.
"How many of you have trouble sleeping?"
His question had touched a raw nerve（觸到痛處）and a collective groan came forth from the class, accompanied by tired and forlorn shaking of the head among some members. Clearly, sleeping disorder is a problem that affects the overwhelming majority（絕大多數）of the class. No more explanation is necessary. The conditions he had pointed out are all associated with a sedentary（長期坐着的）way of life.
My teacher came from Beijing, a metropolis in its own right. He is therefore no stranger to the demands of city life. Yet, having lived in Hong Kong for a number of years, he could see that life in the fast pace of Hong Kong is particularly grueling. People are always running here and there. They work hard, and, they are proud to proclaim, play hard, too. They may think that they are living their lives to the full（盡情過活）, but fail to see that playing hard is not necessarily playing right. Very often, we find our co-workers coming to the office after a weekend more tired than ever. One would think that after 1 or 2 days of rest, they would return to work with renewed vigor. Well, it turns out that they have been playing long into night. Their sleep pattern is further thrown into disarray. Instead of having their energy restored, they deplete（用盡）it even more.
My teacher is quick to point out that massage is not a panacea（靈丹妙藥）. It does not provide a permanent cure to these disorders. Rather, it is a kind of maintenance work that has to be administered to the body regularly, like bringing a car to a garage every now and then in order to get it fixed. In the long run, we have to learn to use our body wisely. Do not walk with hunched（彎曲的）shoulders, or slouch when we sit down. At work, we can raise our chair a few inches, or alternatively, lower the computer keyboard by the same. Position the desk lamp in such a way that it does not shine in our eyes. Most importantly, even though most of us have to work to stay alive, we do not stay alive only for work. There are a lot to do besides work. Unless we learn to keep a healthy distance from work, we might end up giving our wholes lives to it. kingfaitam@gmail.com
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