Cupping is a traditional Chinese therapy that’s been used for thousands of years, but it gained even more popularity in 2016 when everyone noticed that Michael Phelps had large perfectly round discolorations on his back while competing in the Olympics. Many people before that had never heard, or never been exposed to this type of bodywork.
To learn more, continue reading!
Let’s face it, getting a massage takes a lot of vulnerability. You are letting your therapist see parts of your body that you don’t allow most people to see. Your stretch marks, scars, cellulite, and birthmarks are exposed and you’re trusting us to respect your boundaries and treat you with the utmost honor and respect.
While some people have an unlimited supply of self-confidence that allows them to feel comfortable in most any situation, some put themselves under a microscope critiquing every inch of their body. We often forget that each mark is a memory or a lesson. Your stretch marks may mark an incredible journey of the time you welcomed a child into the world, the time you chose a healthier lifestyle and released extra pounds you had, or the time that you decided to enjoy life and be happy with who you were instead of obsessively counting calories or limiting yourself. Your scars may be from an accident that taught you how precious life was, or the time you refused to listen to your mom when you were 5 and learned a valuable life lesson. Your cellulite shows that your skin isn’t absolutely perfect, just like all those people using photo shop and filters to fool the world. Your birthmarks show you live, that you are uniquely made and there is no other like you. But there’s another common concern a lot of clients have, particularly women.
Every year during the holiday season, we get a serious urge to start working on our New Year’s resolutions. Everyone is deciding what it is they would like to change in the upcoming year in order to better themselves and that involves making new changes. For some this breeds anxiety and sometimes even sets them up for failure when thinking that their resolutions must match those of others. Be careful not to fall into that trap. Make a resolution that speaks to you! Only you know where you’re at in your life, the things you struggle with, and the things you could work on. What means a lot to you may not mean a lot to others. What will be a massive change for you, may be a minor change for others and vice versa.
When you’re relaxing on a massage table, it’s easy to see massage as a gift. Whether you’re there to reduce pain, to ease anxiety, to help you recover from the physical and mental stresses work or athletic training or parenting or simply being alive, massage is a moment of freedom in an occasionally crushing world. If you’re thinking of sharing the gift of massage with someone else for a special occasion or “just because,” you are almost certainly doing so from a place of love and generosity.
Obviously, I’m a big fan of giving massage as a gift! But just as with choosing to visit a massage therapist yourself, there are some considerations when offering this kind of gift.
You’ve been doing Olympic lifting for a while. Or stocking tall shelves. Or cheerleading, throwing your partners overhead. Everything was great! Until suddenly, it wasn’t. Ice and ibuprofen didn’t quite do the trick, so you visited the doctor. And lo and behold, you’ve got a rotator cuff injury and two questions:
How the heck did this happen?
and
What on earth do I do now?
Millions of people throughout the world battle chronic pain. While many think of it as just some mild achyness or soreness somewhere that comes and goes on a regular basis, those who live with it every day know it is far more than that. If you suffer from chronic main or just wish to learn more on how it can affect the body, read this week’s blog.
Stress, Anxiety, and Massage
Why get a massage? According to a survey conducted by the American Massage Therapy Association, 28% of Americans who get a massage do so for relaxation and stress reduction. That’s a lot of people in the US who feel strongly enough about their own experiences with massage for stress reduction to put their money on it. But aside from individual feelings, what exactly do we know about massage and how it relates to stress and anxiety? And what does the research have to say about that?
Stress is your body’s response to demanding circumstances. Working late hours? You’ll experience stress. Prepping for a big competition? Definitely stressful. Toddler throwing a tantrum? That’s no doubt stressful for both of you. When you’re stressed, your blood pressure goes up, your breathing and heart rate quicken, and you feel jittery and distracted. All this is useful if your stress is a result the big race you’re running, when you can put that energy to good use. It’s less helpful if your stressor is a friend in need of patience and comfort.
People who regularly put themselves into stressful circumstances on purpose (public speakers, for example) often learn how to channel that stress response for their own benefit, but it takes practice over time. When stress goes from being an occasional experience to a chronic condition, health problems result.
Anxiety, on the other hand, isn’t necessarily a reaction to circumstances. Most often, it’s related to anticipated future or potential stress. As with stress, anxiety isn’t necessarily an immediate health problem, although it’s unpleasant. Feeling a bit anxious about an upcoming exam, the imminent birth of a baby, or the quality of a presentation can give you a push to prepare as best you can. But anxiety becomes unhelpful when it is overwhelming, requiring you to focus all your energy on surviving your immediate feelings rather than addressing their roots. Pacing, nail biting, trembling, and vomiting are signs that anxiety is veering into unhelpful territory. Test anxiety, social anxiety, and decision anxiety are all common forms of anxiety.
Anxiety disorder is the general name given to chronic, excessive anxiety in response to everyday situations. Anxiety disorders include
● Generalized anxiety disorder: excessive anxiety in general.
● Social anxiety disorder: anxiety disorder related to interacting with others.
● Separation anxiety disorder: anxiety disorder related to separation from specific people, often parents or caregivers.
● Phobias: subset of anxiety disorders characterized by persistent fear of a specific thing.
● Panic disorder: anxiety disorder characterized by reoccurring panic attacks.
Many people discover that they have more than one type of anxiety disorder, or deal with anxiety combined with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, alcoholism, or substance abuse. While stress and anxiety are more general terms that you can probably identify in yourself, anxiety disorders can only be diagnosed by a physician.
Stress: While stress levels are largely subjective, studies focused on pain, sleep, and other outcomes often find that patients report decreased stress levels as one of the major benefits they receive from massage therapy treatments. In one study on pain in acute care settings, more than half of the patients mentioned relaxation in their survey responses. One described the experience of receiving massage as “very helpful, soothing, comforting, and relaxing,” which is notable considering how stressful being hospitalized is. Improved emotional well-being and sleep were also mentioned by many patients and nurses, both of which are good indicators of stress reduction.
Anxiety: Most studies done on massage and anxiety have focused on specific populations. One study found significant improvement in both state (long term) and trait (immediate) anxiety in children with cancer and blood diseases who received Swedish massage. Another measured the physiological responses to stress (blood pressure and pulse) in hospitalized children and found similar results. Cardiac care patients were the focus of another study. Again, massage was shown to be helpful at reducing anxiety. Still, larger and broader studies on the matter still need to be done.
Anxiety disorders: There have been relatively few studies on massage therapy for anxiety disorders specifically, and those that have been done have been small and generally lacking good control groups. One randomized controlled trial found that massage therapy was significantly helpful for people with generalized anxiety disorder, but no more so than thermotherapy (relaxing with hot towels placed in different locations on the body) or being in a special relaxation room with no additional treatment. This study only measured improvement over multiple weeks, and not feelings of anxiety in the short term, before and after treatments. Because this study didn’t have a no-treatment control group, they weren’t able to state whether all three were equally effective or equally ineffective.
People regularly feel that massage helps reduce their stress and anxiety. There are also other techniques that seem to be helpful to varying degrees, depending on the situation and the person. This is helpful to know, because not everyone enjoys massage. For some, touch itself can be a source of stress and anxiety, so it’s helpful to know that there are other complementary therapies available that also create positive results.
Stress and anxiety are closely tied to pain, sleep, and other factors. Reducing pain reduces stress levels. Reducing stress levels can also reduce pain. Improving sleep can impact both pain and stress, and vice versa. Does massage therapy work primarily through either pain or stress reduction, or does it impact both equally? This is an area for further study.
Massage therapy is a fairly safe way to manage stress and anxiet.y With relatively few drug interactions and a very low chance for injury, massage therapy can be helpful to a wide variety of people dealing with stress and anxiety in different situations. From the smallest infants to athletes to people in hospice, there are few who could not benefit from massage therapy.
There is a lot more to learn. While there is a lot of research on massage for pain, massage for anxiety (and especially massage for anxiety disorders) has less research to back it up. It will take time and money before a large body of knowledge has been built up.
If you’re feeling stressed or anxious, massage therapy is worth trying. The evidence is still rolling in, but what we have is promising. Are you ready to give it a try? Book your next massage today.
It’s a myth that you can’t afford massage – the truth is that if you want to stay happy, healthy and full of vitality for longer, you can’t afford NOT to fit regular massage therapy sessions into your schedule.
Massage might have a reputation for being something that’s a treat, a fluffy afternoon in a spa with aromatherapy candles and whale music, but that’s not what it’s all about. Massage is healing, reviving, relaxing and in fact it can save you a whole lot more money than it costs you.
Massage therapy has been proven to treat the symptoms of conditions as diverse as depression, chronic pain, fibromyalgia and MS. This is according to the Touch Research Institute, who has carried out over 100 separate studies into massage and its many benefits.
Even if you’re not managing a particular health condition, you still need massage in your life. It can help you if you’re an athlete, or just enjoy a workout. Massage can help keep your joints and muscles supple so that you’re less prone to injury. It’s great for dealing with stress, even if you’re not actually depressed, and improve immunity and sleep, making you more present and productive at work.
According to recent figures, the average massage session costs about $50 for 45 minutes. {1} That’s about the same as tank of gas and an oil change, erring on the cheaper side. The average price for a trip to the doctor, spending approximately 10 minutes with a doctor – is $68 {2} (without insurance). Although most insurance companies aren’t enlightened enough to cover massage, there’s no arguing that massage DOES play a bit part in injury and disease prevention. Experts know that a regular massage session will help to keep your body healthy.
What’s the worst that can happen if you neglect your massage routine? Plenty of people struggle through with sore backs, a bit of repetitive strain, or hurt themselves while running, what’s the big deal?
Did you know that back injuries are the second most common reason for worker’s compensation claims? That’s everything from muscle spasms, problems with discs, and injuries leading to disability. Thirty-one million Americans are thought to experience low-back pain at any given time.
Most of these injuries could be prevented with better posture, rest and massage. So many back problems can be directly attributed to over-use and fatigue, and most problems are mechanical that is, not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.
On average, managing back pain costs Americans over $50 BILLION a year. Still think you can’t afford that massage?
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