Most people who get regular massages find it extremely effective for their health. But why is this massage therapy so beneficial? The answer is actually pretty simple. Massage is a non-invasive, drug-free, and effective method of improving both our physical and our mental health. Here are some of the benefits of massage therapy.
Massage Relieves Stress
Stress can be a useful tool in small amounts, but prolonged exposure to it will often have a detrimental effect on our overall health and wellbeing. Thankfully, the soothing movements of massage encourages the release of our feel-good chemicals called endorphins, which can cancel any feelings of stress or anxiety. That’s why so many people feel stress-free after a relaxing session with a massage therapist.
Massage Improves Posture
Poor posture is often responsible for increasing back and neck tension, whereas correct body alignment actually helps to improve our digestion and breathing capacity. The good news is that massage corrects bad posture by loosening muscles and alleviating much of the pain or discomfort that bad posture causes. Massage can ultimately help train your body to reposition itself in its proper and natural posture.
Massage Relieves Pain
Our body can usually heal itself quite well on its own, but massage can be used as a tool to help it speed up the healing process. By focusing on any specific problem areas, massage can be used to increase blood circulation and gradually loosen stiff muscles. This helps relieve, reduce, and alleviate all types of pain, whether caused by an injury, arthritis, and many other conditions, often reducing the need for pain medication. Massage can effectively reduce inflammation, whether it’s caused by damaged muscles, adhesions, or scar tissue, especially therapeutic techniques like deep tissue massage which is ideal.
Massage Increases Resilience
While rehabilitation after any type of injury can often be extremely frustrating, the main goal of physical recuperation and healing is to increase flexibility, strength, and resilience. Massage can be used to supplement almost any standard procedures for injury therapy by relaxing muscles and boosting circulatory movement. This helps improve flexibility by increasing the amount of oxygen in our bodies and providing more nutrients for damaged tissue, which ultimately allows the injury to heal at an accelerated rate.
Massage Relieves Depression
The benefits of massage aren’t all about the body, but it can be good for the mind as well. When our mind is feeling sad or down, we can often hold onto those feelings so much that they affect our bodies. Studies have shown it can provide benefits for mental health by uplifting emotions and increasing happy feelings, thus helping reduce or eliminate depression. The physical experience of massage, which provides proprioception and kinesthetic input to the nervous system allowing it to reset to a more balanced state. That therapeutic touch from another human is often such a welcome feeling, because of the release of endorphins, it reduces or removes the negative feelings that cause and contribute to the depressive thoughts.
In the end, massage can help relieve both our physical and mental issues, which contributes to our overall happiness. That’s why the benefits of massage should not be underestimated.