How can massage help with the blues, winter or otherwise?
Perhaps, on the most simplistic level, doing something nice for yourself and taking a break from the humdrum pattern is going to boost your mood and re energize you. After all, when you have a treatment, you have at your disposal someone who gives you undivided attention and takes a vested interest in your well being.
But there are many physical benefits to massage, that you are probably already aware of:
- It eases aches and pains, stimulates your blood flow, improving circulation to those cold extremities.
- It gets those joints moving better and flushes your lymphatic system, pushing out the remnants of those cold and flu bacteria of winter ...
- Maybe you've been hunched over your computer in a cold office or slumped on the sofa in front of the fire – muscles get tight and locked and the cold outside makes them tense up even more. As massage releases the tension in these muscles, endorphines are released (to cope with the temporary discomfort) and flush through your body. Your mood shifts.
But after the sluggish, dark times of the winter months, perhaps the stimulation that massage brings to the human senses may take the forefront in our shift of mood to a lighter level.
Let's take a little journey into a possible treatment:
- What seems to hit us hard is the cold and darkness of winter, so how about lying on a heated blanket and soft couch and receiving another dose of heat from smooth basalt stones? They are warmed in water and used to massage the body. The heat penetrates deeply into the muscles and has a profoundly relaxing and therapeutic effect.
- Steam rises into the room as the water warms the stones, sizzling in the background. The scent of aromatherapy oils drift around you: Ah, we are not even conscious of some aromas and their effects – how they trigger memories, perhaps of warmer times: the scent of sweet orange or jasmine fills your nose and penetrates through into your subconscious and conscious mind.
- As the hot stones are slowly and deeply moved over your body, you may be reminded of the heat of the sun on your back and warming your limbs.
- The near silence of the treatment room is interspersed with the sounds of birds singing outside in the surrounding grounds and the gentle lilt of faraway sounds, ... the church clock chimes, a dog barks ... is it ... is it summer out there? Perhaps your mind drifts to barbeques and sun loungers, laughter and long bright warm evenings.
- As the body is massaged, memories are triggered that shift inside our bodies and subconscious, locked into our cellular memory.. some may recall the feeling and sensation, say, of being a child on a warm summer's day - just as the ankle is massaged – as the memory of falling and their mother rubbing the area better is triggered off. Others may recall sensations that they cannot put a time or place to.
Sometimes we just potter along and we forget how much our bodies do for us. Massage stimulates the physicality of your being and can have a very grounding and enlightening affect. When these basic senses are awakened, we become more in touch with our body – "back inside" it and we can feel more like ourselves again.
And it doesn't all feel so bad. After all, everything has an end and everything has a beginning ... and Summer will begin again soon ...
About the author
Susky Hashemi has worked with massage and exercise for the past 15 years. It is a great passion and she continues to learn, research and develop new strategies to treat clients – and herself! Massages are tailored to the individual. Susky is a member of the Institute for Sport and Remedial Massage, the Sport Massage
To learn more, please visit the website www.susky.co.uk
Article copyright YourDoc Medical Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.
