Get Some R.E.S.T.

In these stressful times, we could all benefit from a relaxing massage … but it's easy to dismiss actually booking one as a selfish extravagance. If you need your, um, arm twisted to go get a rub down, the folks at Bliss have come up with the prefect excuse: a treatment that includes a healthy donation to the R.E.S.T. Initiative, a New York City-based nonprofit that provides free massages to chemotherapy patients while they're undergoing their treatments.

The R.E.S.T. Initiative is the brainchild of Pamela Schein Murphy, a former magazine editor and a breast cancer survivor. (Big Apple foodies may also know her as the wife of Marc Murphy, chef and owner of Landmarc Restaurant.) Her own chemotherapy experience made her realize how a pleasant distraction like massage could counterbalance the pain of the treatments. Her organization provides two different therapies — reflexology and scalp massage — free of charge to chemotherapy patients that are receiving treatment. Although it is based in New York, the goal is to eventually offer services in hospitals nationwide. (R.E.S.T., incidentally, stands for the four things its massages offer patients: relief, energy, synergy and touch.)

The new service at Bliss, which is called R.E.S.T. Intentions, is a traditional one-hour massage with an additional 15-minute reflexology or scalp treatment. R.E.S.T. Intentions gives 20 percent of the price of each treatment to Murphy's organization, which trains its therapists, who provide their services for free. Although the R.E.S.T. Initiative is based in New York, Bliss' treatment is based at its spas across the country, located in W Hotels in cities like San Francisco, Dallas and Scottsdale.

If you still can't see yourself spending time and money on a massage (even one with a charity component), keep in mind — particularly with Mother's Day a couple months away — that Bliss also offers gift certificates for this (and all its) treatments. Between the pampering massage and the included donation, you can rest assured your present will be stress-free.

For more information on the R.E.S.T Intentions Massage, go to www.blissworld.com.

For more details on the R.E.S.T. Initiative, go to www.restinitiative.org.