We know #massage will make us move better and feel happier, but many of us still don't have a regular massage on our calendar (not me, I know when I'm having my next massage!). Luckily massage is great preventive care and it can have some instantly-gratifying results. Check out these 3 things massage can help you with right now.
Relieving Headaches with Massage
Headaches can be really debilitating, cause you to feel like you need to check out of practically all activity or send you running for the panadol. Massage is a great stress reliever and can have you feeling more like participating in the world again once those tense muscles are ironed out. Tension headache symptoms include
dull pain, tightness, or pressure around your forehead or the back of your head and neck. Some people say it feels like a clamp squeezing the skull. Often called stress headaches, they’re the most common type for adults.
Curated from Tension Headaches
Pain or pressure in your forehead or on the top or sides of your head?
Could be a tension headache. It's especially likely if you've been hunching over a desk or a project that requires detailed attention, driven for hours in traffic, or if your posture is hunched up for other reasons such as working in cold conditions.
Massage can help get rid of that headache and regular massage may indeed keep it from coming back. First aid for a headache can include some basic self-massage, a tennis ball gently used as a tool to apply pressure to the back of the head or an obliging friend who is good with their hands.
Under the back of the skull must be the single most pleasing and popular target for massage in the human body. No other patch of muscle gets such rave reviews. It has everything: deeply relaxing and satisfying sensations, and a dramatic therapeutic relevance to one of the most common of all human pains, the common tension headache.
Easing Low Back Pain
Back pain can have a big impact on your life. Chronic pain fatigue gnaws away at your patience and resilience and keeps you from being active in many ways you would most like to be, whether that's stopping you from playing with your kids, walking the dog, taking a dance class or even doing the vacuuming. I also recently heard someone describe their experience of pain as something that fogs the brain, making it harder to make even small decisions, a stress none of us needs in our days. A major research study published in 2011 showed that weekly massage therapy was better than drugs and usual care for general lower back pain.
After 10 weeks, participants in both massage groups reported greater average improvements in pain and functioning compared to those in the usual care group.
People assigned to the usual care group were tracked by researchers, but they dealt with their back problems on their own. The approach could include, for instance, taking pain medications or muscle relaxants, seeing doctors or chiropractors, physical therapy, or simply not doing anything.
Curated from Study: Massage Helps Treat Low Back Pain
Just about everyone will experience low back pain at some point in their life. If it happens to you, don't suffer book in a massage and make the most of your life.
Improving Mood
Have you ever been so cranky and irritable you got on your own nerves? Emotional sensitivity can be the result of many things but being wound extra tight puts a lot of stress on you. When you feel yourself biting everyone’s head off, you might have given as much as you can for now, and it's time to book yourself in for some self-care.
Massage is great for stress relief. There is an associated release of euphoric endorphins from bodywork, which includes massage and acupressure. The deep relaxation achieved reduces #anxiety, allows you to centre, and suddenly all the things that aggravate you to the point of eye twitches become much smaller, more insignificant. Relaxing music, a warm room, therapeutic touch. A fabulous prescription for feeling more like yourself.
Some proponents claim acupressure treats the mind, emotions, and spirit. Some attribute these results to factors such as reduced muscle tension, improved circulation, or stimulation of endorphins, which are natural pain relievers.
Wherever the benefits come from, this has a dual purpose. You'll feel better and all those nearest and dearest to you will agree that massage, perhaps in a similar way to the Maharishi effect from meditation, causes their quality of life indicators to suddenly all improve too.
So, if you know anyone who would appreciate a life with fewer headaches, more time for dancing and an increase in peace, send them over for a massage today.