Reasons Massage Therapy Improves Well-Being
Life can be hard no matter what your age is. You can be a young person suffering from sports injuries or you can be older and have knotted muscles from constant stress and tension. Exercise and meditation can only do so much — you need to do something else.
Fortunately, there’s another option. You can go see a licensed massage therapist and have them work on your body. Here are several ways that massage therapy can improve your life - both physically and emotionally. You’ll find a lot of pain relief, among other things:
It Can Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Life can be stressful in so many different ways. You can feel anxious about everything from your job to your relationship to the state of the world. While it can be easy to bottle it up, doing that can have a very negative impact on you.
Not only will you feel tense all the time, your body will mirror that. You will have high muscle tension, which can be seen in everything from having your shoulders hunched as if you’re expecting a battle all the time to hands that are sore from being subconsciously clenched all the time. You might go to bed each night exhausted from having your body be in constant fight-or-flight mode.
There’s another thing that can happen to your body when it’s stressed - it produces more cortisol, which is a stress hormone. Too much of this can affect your body in different ways, and massage therapy can reduce that. This will help your body a good deal.
That is where therapeutic massage therapy can help you. You can talk with the therapist and discuss your medical history. You might have to get clearance first if you have a blood clot, aneurysm, or any other clot if you’re having them massage the affected area. But you will leave the session feeling a lot less tense.
It Can Improve Your Mood
The tension can affect a lot more than just your body. Your mind can also suffer from this. If you’re in a constant state of worry, then you’re going to just be surviving, not living your life. Massage therapy can improve your mood.
How? When the therapist is doing their work, it can make your body release things like endorphins and serotonin. These are chemical messengers that will help your body relax and feel good.
As a result, your brain and body will be a lot less stressed. As a result, you’ll have a much better outlook on things. You can also think a lot clearer much of the time, which can help you figure out some ways to keep from getting stressed in the future.
It Can Decrease Pain
Pain is something that can greatly reduce the quality of life. Rather than being able to focus on whatever one needs to do, people tend to be bracing for the next wave of agony. This can be the result of an injury, fibromyalgia symptoms, or even cancer pain.
The pain intensity can vary, too, ranging from mild to debilitating. While people may rely on medication to relieve pain, they may also turn to massage therapy for pain management. It’s a way for them to be able to feel better without having to take a pill or get an IV.
Being able to approach each day knowing that there won’t be any or as much pain as before can help one’s daily approach. It’s a relief to both their mind and body to not have to worry about the next bout of pain.
It Can Enhance Circulation
Your body is an amazing thing. Blood flows through a network of veins and arteries and your lymphatic system also works to keep you healthy. But there are times when that circulation is affected, and it can cause a lot of different issues with your health.
Usually, the therapist will use manual therapy on various areas of your body, including your head. They will have a thorough knowledge of human anatomy, which will allow them to target whatever area will provide relief. This includes knowing where to massage to increase circulation in your body, which can provide health benefits, like a stronger immune system.
Another benefit is that it can help you with muscle recovery and tissue healing. This is important if you do a lot of exercise like lifting weights. While stretching can help keep soreness away, massage therapy can also help you wake up the next day and feel a lot better in terms of range of motion.
It Can Boost Your Immune System
Remember when we mentioned cortisol earlier? That can negatively affect your immune system and make you more susceptible to illness. If you feel like you’re constantly getting sick while being stressed, you should get massage therapy.
The therapist will work on making you feel relaxed. This will include everything from making sure that the environment around you is serene to using essential oils to targeting tight muscles that need to be loosened. This will help your anxiety be reduced to next to nothing.
As a result, your immune system will be a lot stronger thanks to stress reduction. You’ll be a lot more likely to ward off any illnesses going around or recover faster from something that might have set you back for a longer time.
It Can Help You Sleep Better
Sleep is an incredibly important part of your well-being. It allows your body and mind to recuperate from the rigors of the day. Unfortunately, a lot of people have trouble both falling and staying asleep, and they often get far too little of it to stay healthy.
Massage therapy can be a tremendous help in this area since having relaxed muscles and a better state of mind can allow you to drift into dreamland a lot faster. Then you’ll feel a lot better when you wake up in the morning, too.
As a result, you’ll be able to focus for a lot longer during each day and won’t have to rely on things like caffeine to keep you awake. If you can have a regular sleep schedule, then you’ll be much better off.
It Can Improve Your Flexibility and Range of Motion
If you find that you have a limited range of motion, that can affect a lot of things, including your mood and quality of life. Fortunately, massage therapy can help you get that back. This can be done in combination with something like physical therapy.
The massage therapist can help loosen muscles and joints and you can then do exercises that you might not have been able to do before without that range of motion improvement. While you might have to push yourself, the therapist will ensure that you don’t do something to hurt yourself while doing that.
They will do an assessment and may even talk with the physical therapist to see what they are working on. That way, they can combine to help ensure that you get your body working the way that you want it to.
Other Things to Know/Consider
Massage therapy varies depending on the circumstances. Talk with a professional about the best types of massage techniques. They may suggest anything from sports massage to therapeutic massage to hot stone massage or even Swedish massage therapy or trigger point massage into a complementary and integrative health plan to allow you to be the healthiest person you can be. Talk with a professional about the best types of massage techniques that would suit you and your lifestyle - even prenatal massage therapy is an option if you’re pregnant.
These massage sessions can include all different types of essential oils, though you can always elect to not have them use them. You can also discuss what types they use and you can see if there’s a particular type that oil that you like the feel and smell of. The goal is to help you have the best result each time you go there.
Best of all, there are a lot of different types of massage, ranging from the classic type of massage that can have everything from gentle pressure to deep tissue massage therapy. You can also get an integrated massage, where you can have the therapist create a plan for you, especially if you have joint pain or reduced range of motion or want them to massage other soft tissues.
Suppose you want to delve deeper into the different options. In that case, there’s also CranioSacral therapy, which can offer relief for everything from headaches to arthritis pain and can be done to people of all different ages, Ayurvedic Aromatherapy massage therapy, which uses a unique Ayurvedic oil which is often handcrafted, Table Thai massage which is fully clothed and uses Yogic/dance-like sequences, and Reiki-Massage combo, which can be customized for each individual.
Reiki is also known as hands-on healing, which involves the therapist moving their hands all around your body to help do everything from lessen the pain to improving mood and even aiding in digestion. You, the patient, get to dictate what areas are touched. It’s gentle and can help you in many different ways.
If you want to improve your quality of life, regularly getting massage therapy is a worthwhile investment. As the weeks, months, and even years go by, you’ll divide your life into pre-massage and post-massage therapy stages. You owe it to yourself and your family to try it.