Many people think of massage therapy as a luxury, or for the elite.
However, massage is much more than simple relaxation or being pampered.
Research has shown the therapeutic benefits of massage to be effective in:
- Decreasing pain
- Reducing stress and anxiety
- Improving range of motion
- Reducing muscle tension and soreness
- Decreasing the symptoms of carpal tunnel
- Relieving headaches and migraine pain
- Easing labor pain and stress
- Promoting tissue regeneration
- Boosting the immune system
- Lessening depression
- Easing withdrawal symptoms
- Treating cancer-related fatigue
- Improving circulation
- Improves muscle tone
- Promotes skin rejuvenation
- Improves sleep
- Reduces edema, as well as joint inflammation
- Releases negative holding patterns from previous injuries
What kind of massage client are you? Do you make an appointment after someone gives you a gift certificate? Do you try to get in every now and then for a stress relieving tune up? Or do you see your therapist religiously every week or month?
- One way in which frequent massage can improve our quality of life is by alleviating stress. Experts say more than 90 percent of disease is stress related, and nothing ages us faster-inside or out-than the effects of stress. As stress related diseases continue to claim more lives every year, the increasingly deadly role stress plays in modern day life is painfully clear. Massage is a great way to take charge of the situation. This being the case, it only makes sense that those aches and pains you see your therapist for might disappear faster, stay away longer, or even go away altogether with more frequent visits. That makes for a healthier whole, allowing us to continue to live life at its fullest, even as we deal with each new stress or challenge.
- In so many ways, massage is preventative health care. Yes, it can address injuries, scar tissue, chronic pain and provide relief for cancer patients, among so many other valuable benefits...but when the healthy, and trying-to-be healthy, among us seek out massage on a regular basis, it helps us live a proactively healthier life. Since bodywork influences every system in the body, there are enormous possibilities created by increasing the frequency in which you address those systems. It's best to discuss your treatment goals with your therapist and together create a plan of frequency that meets your needs, while taking into account your therapist's best advice.
