Massage is for GOOD for your Mental Health

Stress & triggers vary for each one of us, we are all the same yet all very different because our triggers and coping mechanisms vary. When do we give our bodies the chance to decompress and create that healthy calm, restful feeling?

Why Massage?

Massage is a wonderful hands-on therapy where the health benefits go far beyond the reason you likely booked in for your treatment, perhaps to improve your quality of sleep, maybe to support blood and lymphatic circulation, enhance immunity, or even moderate inflammation. Perhaps you have restricted mobility, suffer with tension headaches, aches and pains or maybe you even caught a glimpse of your posture in the mirror. My massages have increased sporting performance and helped achieve personal bests (which as you can imagine is hugely rewarding) and yet here there is  is gargantuan support to your mental health which is every bit as important as your physical health, because they are interlinked.

  ‘Massage 4 positive mental health’

Several scientific studies find effective massage therapy as helping regulate physical and emotional responses. My own feedback from clients is they feel the benefits throughout and for some time afterwards, and what’s great your physical and emotional resiliency is reinforced.

What does that mean?

While some will perhaps consider hands on therapies, massage / facials as a luxury or a special treat, the truth is, regular investment in ourselves will offer significant improvements in our overall wellbeing, performance and coping mechanisms.

So, if I said to you that I could support the way you feel, the way you move, the way your body functions, the way you look, create an inner calm, would that be of value to you?

Do you want that?

 Do you need that?

Reduce anxiety, improve mood.

Chronic (ongoing) stress impacts on many levels, it’s inflammatory for starters!

With the potential to affect organs and processors, such as intestinal issues, irregular blood pressure, depression, interrupted sleep and fatigue to name but a few conditions.  Did you know chronic stress elevates blood sugar levels and we are all aware that persistent high blood sugar levels and pancreatic stimulation can lead to type 2 diabetes, which unfortunately has the potential lead to further health complications. So when you engage in massage therapy you are doing far more than alleviating muscle achiness, you’re giving the body time to alleviate that sense of heaviness in the corporeal and take a step back from the pressurised space we live in.

Hormones

We have a very busy endocrine system (a network of glands) producing various hormones (chemical messengers) effecting virtually every organ of the body. Their purpose to create an optimal balance for the physiological processors of the body (homeostasis) such as metabolism, respiration, growth and much more, all very complex and fascinating.

Massage can alter the biochemistry of a person, both immediately after massage and over a period of massage therapy treatments. My clients often tell me how calm they feel and could sleep after a therapeutic massage, but don’t just take my word for it, the research is out there, saliva and urine tests show reduced cortisol levels (cortisol damages our natural killer cells and potentially immune function) and increases serotonin and dopamine (sleepy hormones) hence you’ll get your best night’s sleep………………..and we all know how important a goodnights sleep is.

Specificities to health conditions uniquely vary, however in common reduces the stress hormone cortisol and enhances the activation effects of serotonin and dopamine.

Massage V Non-Massage

Research data of a around 100 menopausal women received aromatherapy v non aromatherapy (non-essential oil) massage and a no massage placebo group (2 x week for 4 weeks) and according to menopause rating scale (MRS) the benefits of improved menopausal symptoms for both massage groups improved significantly and non-massage group did not.

Darsareh et al effect of aromatherapy massage on menopausal symptoms:a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial menopause 2012 Sep;19(9)

PS Cortisol will impact your ‘beauty’ personification, psychological stress > increased blood sugar promotes a cascade of processors that damages the structure of the skin, the degradation of dermal proteins occurs and barrier functionality compromised, so I guess we could say massage will make you not only feel but also look beautiful 😊