Bonus Mental Health Benefits from Regular Massage Therapy (you didn't know you needed!)

Hurry up and get to work. Get the kids to school, stress over the water bill. Live the American Dream.

Unfortunately, now you can't sleep, your back hurts, there's tension in your neck and you have a chronic headache.

You've heard massage therapy can help. So you give it a try, hoping for some relief from the stress induced, chronic pain that is slowly creeping in to steal your life. What you find however, may be more than simply relief from pain, or a spa experience.

Defeating the Unspoken Pandemic - Pain

Pain is a global issue with an impact on everything from productivity in the economy, to the quality of our relationships. The scariest part of pain, is how much misinformation is floating around. Practitioners across different fields don't always agree on how to effectively treat pain, and often don't understand what the root cause is.

Pain is a funny thing though. Especially when it isn't related to a structural or physical problem. There are times when lingering pain, is more like the brain's inability to forget an old injury or stressor. When this is the case, traditional treatments such as pharmaceutical pain management simply won't address the cause.

Massage therapists are uniquely positioned to help with pain relief/management. Because massage therapy is a multi-sensory approach. This means it engages the whole body and encourages the nervous system to feel safe. Effectively teaching the brain to"feel safe" causing the sensation of pain can begin to decrease.

As a non-invasive treatment option, massage should be considered a first choice in working with chronic pain. It is (arguably) not addictive, with no side-effects, and overall positive outcomes.

Tell me how you really feel.

The brain sometimes takes things a step farther than just not forgetting. In some cases, the brain actually starts obsessing over its love of pain, and begins to seeks it out. Sometimes even labeling every sensation it doesn't quite know how to classify as a pain signal.

When the brain becomes so pre-occupied with pain, you become irritable. We all know what happens to our lives when we are chronically irritable. Every mole hill of a stressor becomes a 14,000 foot jagged peak. Socks on the floor become legitimate excuses for world war 3 with our spouses. Answering emails requires more energy than we can surmise.

When life is hijacked by stress and it's associate pain, it becomes nearly too much to bear. Massage therapy works not only with muscles to relive tension, but also with the nervous system to calm it down and help improve life.

Improved Outlook

As the nervous system calms. It makes the perception of life more reasonable. While none of the stressors change, integrating massage therapy regularly helps to build the nervous systems resilience to stress.

Even when the kids are screaming and dishes are piled up, a healthy nervous system that is allowed to wind down through therapeutic massage therapy is better equipped to regulate itself. That is to say, avoid spiraling into unreasonable responses.

Massage therapy can be the preverbal rose colored glasses for a time. Sometimes, a short break from the daily stress can be just what the doctor ordered to begin the process of healing.

Improved Relationships

Let's be honest. Nobody likes when their partner or best friend, parent or sibling is constantly in a bad mood. If we get really deep into the nitty gritty, we don't even like ourselves when we are in a bad mood.

Chronic pain, or sever acute pain that interferes with our ability to live our lives can challenge even the most positive outlook. The combined benefits of specific and targeted massage therapy calming the nervous system and stimulating healing will by extension have an effect on the recipients mood.

Reducing the stressors, helping with a positive outlook will ultimately have a ripple effect on those around you and how you relate to them.

Improved Productivity

Many studies confirm that taking breaks and resting increases productivity. We also know that 1 hour of massage equates to about 8 hours of sleep for the amount of rest and healing your body experiences.

Preventable disease processes cost millions of dollars in lost wages, treatments and potential loss of ability to work in worst cases.

Simply taking an hour or two out of your month to go rest on a massage table, and allow your therapist to help your body heal and recover can help both prevent disease, rest and improve your ability to be productive.

Quality of Life

All of the above mentioned points have one thing in common. Improved quality of life. Ultimately, this is the goal and motivator for all that we do as humans. We go to work and manage stress all day to provide a life for those screaming children, maybe have a little left to enjoy.

Massage therapy is an accessible reprise from the daily life. In instances of musculoskeletal pain, it is an effective therapy that should be used as a conservative early intervention before other methods of pain management. The effects of all types and modalities of massage reach beyond the muscles and circulatory system though.

By caring for yourself through massage, your life can improve in ways you weren't necessarily expected. (hint: this is why people get hooked into life long believers).