Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Ep# 221: Tea, Touch, and Transformation: A Community Mission at Arash Massage
What makes Arash Bains with Arash Massage a good neighbor?
Massage therapy is often viewed as a luxury, something we indulge in on special occasions or when our muscles scream loudly enough. But what if regular bodywork could be transformative healthcare that addresses not just physical pain, but our chronically overstimulated nervous systems?
Meet Arash Bains, owner of Arash Massage in Asheville, North Carolina, who's redefining what massage therapy can be. With a background in economics and spa management, Arash observed the limitations of the "turn and burn" approach of traditional spas—where efficiency and profit margins often override therapeutic outcomes. This realization inspired him to create something different: a "luxury healing sanctuary" where everyone deserves to be treated like royalty.
What makes Arash Massage unique? It begins with a tea ceremony—a ritual creating space for genuine connection before any hands-on work. This thoughtful approach acknowledges the inherent vulnerability of bodywork and establishes trust. By understanding clients holistically—their stressors, emotional state, and support systems—Arash delivers more effective treatment targeting not just muscles but the nervous system itself. The results speak volumes, with clients often reporting they "haven't rested like that in years."
Even more remarkable is Arash's commitment to community service. When Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina shortly after he launched his business, Arash provided free massages to exhausted emergency workers and discounted services to affected residents. This community focus continues today through his Community Care Project, making therapeutic massage accessible to those who need it most, regardless of economic circumstances. As Arash puts it, "If you can't pay and you need to pay zero dollars, that is perfectly fine, because you deserve quality access to quality care."
Ready to experience the difference between a massage and a healing sanctuary? Visit www.arashmassage.com or find @arashmassageasheville on Instagram to learn more and book your session.
To learn more about Arash Massage go to:
Arash Massage
828-222-3731
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So, if you like, if you're a fan of massage as much as I am, and my wife is even more of a fan you're in luck today, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, mr Arash Baines, who is the owner operator of Arash Massage. Arash, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you for having me on Skip.
Speaker 2:We're thrilled to have you. Like I said, I'm a major fan of some massage therapy. Brother, it can change your world, and so I'm super excited to hear all about what you do, and I'm sure our listeners are too. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about your business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I started Arash Massage late last year, right before, unfortunately, our area was devastated by Hurricane Helene and started out as a different sort of business. But it's really evolved since then. We've become like a mission, what we call a mission-oriented, impact-focused business. We're really. We've launched a lot of community programs where we're doing we're just making massage and body work accessible to people, because it is usually expensive. But we view massage as not just a luxury but a necessity. Body work, consistent body work is a necessity, and so you know, and we really focus on helping people heal through targeting their nervous systems. These days we're all in fight or flight. There's so much going on in life and it's rare that we get a moment to just breathe and just stop and reset and just be taken care of, and so our business is really about giving people the space to do that, a safe place to do that, a sanctuary, to have that transition. Uh, to to that. I have that transition.
Speaker 2:so very cool. That's. That's unique too, by the way. I've not, uh, talked to many massage therapists that that have and, uh, that's that's pretty exciting to me it's.
Speaker 3:It's sort of like a you're giving people the opportunity to completely unplug completely unplug and not have to make a lot of decisions and just you know when. Again, the goal being taking someone out of that fight or flight, into that rest and digest and be able to. You know, and though you know it started with an idea, but the results are speaking for themselves and people are having very powerful, life changing, transformative experiences, you know, being able to get the rest and the healing that they deserve. I mean, I have clients who often tell me like I don't. After a session they'll say I haven't rested like that in years, you know, with everything they've endured.
Speaker 2:And so Wow, that has to be pretty rewarding, I would think.
Speaker 3:It is super rewarding. Yeah, that's why I do it.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Well, tell us. I'm sure there are some myths, but any myths or misconceptions in the massage business, body work business that comes to mind.
Speaker 3:Well, the the ones that I deal with, and part of our mission to is to educate the public in terms of what is possible in the world of massage and body work. You know, I mentioned before massage being a luxury. That's how most of us view it, because of the price point generally. And also, you know, how often do we, you know, when we get massages, when we go on vacations or oh, for a honeymoon or anniversary or, and that's all great.
Speaker 3:But I think that just me, being in the industry and in this work, understanding that there is so much you know, we have this saying that you know, for us massage is preventative, corrective health care, and now that's a different, you know, way to look at it. That's a different paradigm. And so people hear that and they're curious like, how? So you know the body and the mind, the emotional, you know everything. Trauma, all of those things, it's all one system, you know. Trauma, all of those things, it's all one system, you know. And when things you know can manifest physically, that are, you know, years of chronic stress and holding patterns in your nervous system being that fight or flight, you have health issues that arise. So you know it's one. I'm not at all promoting massage as some cure-all. It's a very powerful, the right kind of massage, getting it consistently, is a very powerful tool in your toolkit to longevity and being in good health.
Speaker 2:Very good. Well, Arash, how did you get into the massage business to start?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I have a degree in economics and I was working most recently before I started doing massage in one of the biggest spas in Asheville downtown, asheville, north Carolina, working on the business end of things, building that up. Then got inspired that to you know, being around a bunch of massage therapists, I was like let me check this out and I immediately connected with it. I went to school. I knew I found my calling. You know people say my, this is my thing, and uh, so you know I was working in the spa. The problem with that um environment, a spa environment, is it's what we call turn and burn, and so you're getting people in and out as quick as you can because, like any business, it's profits before people. We're bottom line, that kind of thing. As long as you're doing well enough, then good People are happy enough. But just who I am, and because I'm so service-focused and mission-focused, focused, impact focused, I always want to do more and thinking about what more can I do? How can I do it better? Because good enough is not good enough for me, you know. And, and so that's how Raj Massage was born. It was, you know I'm not inventing anything new here, but let's innovate, let's take what exists and make it better. So how do I? The question was, how do I get better therapeutic outcomes for my clients?
Speaker 3:And I realized you know the work we do massage. It's inherently intimate. When we think intimate, we think you know, you know the sexual nature. But that's not true. Like intimacy can be. Even you know human touch is intimate. You know, if you meet somebody you do a quick intake and all of a sudden they're on the table and now you put your hands on them. That just never really made sense to me.
Speaker 3:So I said that's why I decided, you know, before every of our sessions we have a tea ceremony, you know. So it feels like you're coming in, you're having tea with a friend, we're getting to know each other on some level. We're getting your history. You know. What do you? Not just what does your body need, but what you know, what's going on in your life. We ask about your stress levels, how's your mood? Do you have enough support in your life? You know those kind of things. And when you get a whole picture of someone in your life, you know those kind of things and when you get a whole picture of someone, you can effectively treat them better, not just on a physical level, the emotional, mental and when you're trauma-informed, as I am, you know you can. That's, that's the reason we get the life-changing outcomes that you know people tell us, you know um, in our reviews and all of that and it's, you know, super satisfying and it's working, it's. I'm very happy with what we've created, so very cool.
Speaker 2:Starts with a t huh, that's, that's interesting. Starts with a t yeah, any it's.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, I was gonna say any particular kind of tea yeah, well, so we have um, um, I'm I'm indian origin and so, um, I do a masala, masala chai. It's made with oat milk, it's decaf, so everyone can have it. It's really tasty, and we do like herbal teas too as well. Um, chamomile, all of that, and but the. The bigger point is the ritual, because rituals are important and we've lost a lot of the sense of ritual in our culture. You know um, so absolutely, I'm fascinated.
Speaker 2:Well, outside of work. Uh, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:if there is time for fun, yeah, that's the thing being a business owner, right, um, you know, at this point I'm 32 now and I, the older I get, I realize things are getting in perspective of what's really important and that is quality time with my friends and family, because I realize it's easy to say I don't have time, oh we can meet up next week, oh I'll visit my parents and whatever. But you know, I, I don't want to live life like that anymore. I want to share the most amount of time I can with the people I love, and so and that that's it, and just having experiencing life and uh, you know, just uh, always learning, learning something even if it's through making the same mistakes.
Speaker 2:Always learning. That's something we all do, absolutely, absolutely Well, let's switch gears for a second. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome, whether professionally or personally, and how it made you stronger in the end?
Speaker 3:Well, I will use. The most recent example was me starting this business, a new business, right before Hurricane Helene hit us here in Asheville, western North Carolina. There was already the difficulty of starting a new business in a very competitive market. You know, here doing massage A lot of people do massage here trying to differentiate yourself, all of that. But then the devastation from the hurricane, not only physically but the economic impact you know we're a tourist town the loss of revenue, the loss of service workers, you know established businesses failing. You know it was dire for a time. Then after that is failing. You know it was dire for a time.
Speaker 3:Then after that we went into winter and it's it's. It was grueling, it was really grueling and there are many times when I decided just to give up on this, let me just fold, let me move back in with my parents, you know whatever. So we had a good run, but it was after the hurricane. I decided to do a free massage program for the EMS workers who were you would see them go everywhere in ambulances. These people were working nonstop, you know, trying to get our power going, our water going, trying to put fires out, keep us safe water going, trying to put fires out and keep us safe and that, and also doing a 50 discount for all residents in the area. Um, once those people started coming in and I was realizing the impact it was having for them and that they valued it, I was like I can't. I can't give up on this, even if I'm exhausted, and that kept me going. That purpose, you know.
Speaker 2:Awesome man, that's awesome. So you were giving free massages to EMS workers. That's incredible, I tell you I I've been so impressed. I'm about 45 minutes west of Asheville, just across the state line into Tennessee, but it's been traumatic and horrible. But seeing people like you doing what you did and are doing to help other people, it's just been amazing to me what neighbors helping neighbors in Asheville and Marshall and Hot Springs and, uh, hot springs and all throughout western north carolina it's just been. It makes my heart swell, you know it's, it's been incredible we have gold here.
Speaker 3:I mean, our community is is gold and we've all absolutely now realized that. Um, I'm really proud of us you know absolutely well you should be.
Speaker 2:You should be well, uh, arash. Um, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about arash massage, what, what would that be?
Speaker 3:um, I'd I was going to sum it up that you know we, we bill ourselves as a luxury healing sanctuary, ourselves as a luxury healing sanctuary, and I can break that down. You know, when we think luxury, we think exclusivity. You know, or it's fancy, highfalutin this and that we're redefining the word luxury. We believe everyone deserves to be treated like royalty. You know, and that's the approach we take, like, yes, all the intention to detail everything we put into the environment, the services. It's extremely curated and to you, and especially when we have that conversation we're, we are going to make whatever changes necessary to make it your experience.
Speaker 3:This is, once you step in here, this is your sanctuary, your experience. You get to feel safe. You know we have clients that you know they have emotional releases, they cry, they, you know, laugh, they have. You know this is to see someone be able to just open up like that, you know, shows me that there. You know how much value that we have here. And so you know, I think, in a world that is increasingly hustle and bustle and demanding and uncertain, finding places like this, or you know wherever you can find them that are, you know, literally a sanctuary or a refuge, is going to be increasingly important, and so that's you know. We're open to everyone. Everyone's welcome.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, I tell you, I've been under a lot of stress lately, so I think I could use several visits actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there's a lot of our listeners who are, like me, super interested in coming and checking out your place and unplugging. How can they learn more?
Speaker 3:You're welcome to visit wwwrajmassagecom, our website. There's a lot of good content on there. You can check out our services page. You can check out our about page just our, our, our about page, just our mission. There's just so much goodness on there. If you're on instagram, it's arash massage ashville, that's our handle and you know you can. There's videos and content around what we do and me talking, um, and I and I want to mention as well, um, our community care project that we launched in February, which was an evolution of the free EMS program, all the post-Haleen stuff we did. We are a tourist town and so you know we pay a premium here for a lot of things, but a lot of our local residents and the community care project is open not to just Asheville locals but Western North Carolina locals as well.
Speaker 3:This is our initiative to help rebuild, make massage and body work more accessible to people, and so, in that spirit, we're all of our services are 20 percent off for people in Asheville and Western North Carolina. Of people in Asheville and Western North Carolina. Um, so if you book online, you just have to use the code community, all caps and uh, you'll receive 20% off, um of your service. Um, so that makes us, it makes it a lot more affordable, um, and so you know if you and also we, have a financial assistance program where people can reach out to us, if we, you know, I still do free massages for people. There are people who still haven't recovered from Helene and who have lost everything, who are dealing with family stress, you know, have health issues, and you know we tell people if zero, if, if you can't pay and you need to pay zero dollars, that is perfectly fine, because you deserve quality access to quality care.
Speaker 2:So Awesome. That's incredible man and I hope, I hope that that when you type in community, that you know for those of us that live 10 minutes over the state line, hopefully there's no geographic?
Speaker 3:Yeah, just just type it in. You know it's okay. We're all one family out here. It's not a, you know, it's a. Service is number one for us.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome, very well. I am so impressed, arash, with what you're doing to change people's lives, and you don't know how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend some time with me and with our listeners and wish you and Arash Massage and your family all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, gibson. Thank you for your time and having me on and, yeah, I hope to see you in the future.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Maybe we can have you back sometime in the future and talk about how things have recovered from Helene. That would be great. All right, thanks so much, man. Take care, have a great day.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.