Imagine your life where stress melts away, pain becomes a thing of the past, and your energy levels soar. What if the key to unlocking this life has been in your hands all along?
We can go back thousands of years and find evidence of massage being used to alleviate pain and stress. Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician in 400 BC noted that massage was an important part of overall health maintenance.
If we look at today’s world, then we will see sports players, whether football, tennis, the Olympics or any other sport, having massage before and after events and as an integral part of their lifestyle. It reduces the chances of injury and speeds recovery.
In Germany, Doctors often prescribe a course of strong massage as their first line of treatment. In fact, their view is that waiting lists would be significantly reduced if the public had regular massage.I personally attended an intensive 2 week course on deep tissue massage, during which I benefited from several hours of massage every day. At the beginning, I was like many other people, doing some exercise, but suffering from a largely static and stressful lifestyle. When I started the deep tissue course, I very soon became aware of every bit of tension and stress in my body and I won’t lie, treatment was initially painful. But here’s the thing, that changed quite quickly and I have to say that by the end of the two week course I had never felt so good in my whole life, so much so that I craved daily massage. Sadly, I could not find an accessible location where I could get the quality and intensity of massage I was used to. The result today is that while I continue to exercise, I have never, ever felt as good since finishing that course.
Stress is on the increase and quite simply can be a killer. The body cannot heal itself if it is continuously stressed. Blood pressure will rise. Scientific studies have shown that excessive and prolonged variation in heart rate, caused by stress, is linked to higher risks of cardiovascular disease, anxiety and a weakened immune system. Furthermore, just relaxing at the end of the day, perhaps with your favourite tipple, cannot undo the damage caused by a full day of stress.
We can measure heart rate variance at our clinic and many clients are shocked by their results. Seeing the impact of their lifestyle on their heart can have a profound effect.
Modern technology, such as heart rate variance merely amplifies how accurate our ancient forefathers were about health and emphasises how seriously we should treat their wisdom.
Time and again we see clients at our clinic, who for either physical or emotional reasons, would greatly benefit from regular massage, but will not as they cannot get over the stigma of it being a luxury, not helped by their lack of understanding of its therapeutic value. Without doubt, many clients would live a more pain free and energetic existence, and be less stressed, if they could overcome their own perceptions of the true benefits of massage.
Perhaps it is time for you to look again at massage with a new perspective and all the benefits it can offer you.
