Nowadays, massage is not delivered only in health facilities and beauty centres – you can also enjoy a short massage session and unwind in your favourite shopping mall, in airports, or even at work. Why has massage become so popular? It’s simple – The Benefits of Massage makes you feel great and it comes with a wide range of benefits.

If you’ve never tried massage before, you’ll probably rush to call the services of a massage therapist as soon as you find out all its amazingadvantages!

Physical benefits

Massage involves applying pressure, rubbing or manipulating your skin, muscles, ligaments and tendons by using mostly hands or fingers. It’s no wonder massage produces biological changes and the first benefits you’ll notice are physical:

• Reducing postural stress – many people work in a sitting position which leads to pain or muscle weakness, and massage helps counteracting the stress caused by sitting at your desk job.
• Easing pain – massage is one of the most efficient treatments for pain, many times just as strong as medicines.
• Relieving headaches – you will feel less tension during a headache or migraine episode if you get a massage.
• Improving sleep – if you can’t rest otherwise, try massage therapy. Apparently, massage has an influence on brain waves connected to deep sleep. Many people even fall asleep on the massage table.
• Boosting immunity – several studies have shown that patients receiving massage therapy had a better white blood cell count and their bodies were more prepared to fight disease.
• Reducing the severity of symptoms in people diagnosed with serious illnesses – it has been discovered that massage can help cancer patients tackle fatigue, pain, depression and anxiety.
• Preventing or treating sports injuries – all professional athletes undertake massage as part of their care routine. Moreover, massage is an efficient treatment against inflammatory conditions and promotes flexibility.
• Improving skin appearance – massage also has beauty benefits, as it makes your skin look more toned, it helps eliminating toxins through lymphatic drainage, and it stimulated blood circulation, adding vitality to a dull complexion.

Mental benefits

Our culture doesn’t promote physical contact, and massage services are so successful because they provide that much-needed human touch in a professional and safe context that makes us feel comfortable. Massage is a great way of compensating for touch deprivation andrestores a sense of connection.

So, aside from easing muscle pain or sleeping better, people who get a massage regularly have also noticed a series of mental benefits:

• Soothing depression and anxiety – massage reduces stress levels and helps you feel more relaxed and happy. Physical contact makes your body release serotonin, a hormone with antidepressant effects.
• Increasing productivity levels– several small studies have shown that people who were given a massage were more alert and managed to complete attention or math tests faster and more accurately.
• Easing mental health conditions – fitting massage into the overall treatment plan has positive effects on patients diagnosed with mental conditions. The stress hormone cortisol levels are reduced by half after getting a massage, as physical contact has a powerful effect on the body’s biochemistry.

Massage has been found to support both physical and mental well-being; after all, the best argument is the relaxing and soothing sensation you experience even after a short massage session.

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A certain amount of stress is actually necessary because it helps us stay alert and feel stimulated, but what happens when stress levels skyrocket?

The first step towards finding a solution is understanding stress response mechanisms.

The fight or flight response

The fight or flight response, also known as the “acute stress response” is a theory first described in the 1920s and stating that animals and humans react to threats with specific physiological actions determined by changes in the sympathetic nervous system. The release of the adrenaline and norepinephrine hormones lead to immediate physical reactions such as an increase in the heart rate, blood vessel constriction or dilation (for muscles), supplying more energy to the body, loss of hearing, pupil dilation and tunnel vision.

Consequently, our bodies are ready to run faster, our muscles become more efficient, and blood is diverted from our extremities in order to reduce blood loss in case of damage. We are fully prepared to either fight or run.

While this type of response used to be very useful for our ancestors whenever they had to face a threat such as the attack of a wild animal, having your senses running haywire when you check your email and see you have more work to do than you can handle seems more of an unnecessary, disturbing reaction.

Long term side effects

The biggest problem about the fight or flight response is that in today’s working environment we need to control our reactions. Many of us don’t burn off the effects of the stress response through physical exercise and in time all the stress builds up, leading to health problems.

Psychological consequences include anxiety, irritability, aggressiveness, lack of concentration, and the impossibility to make balanced decisions. These symptoms appear even when the threat is small, like coming across an unexpected situation or not being able to achieve our daily goals. Having these survival mechanisms activated without actual needing is what makes the modern human feel so stressed every day.

How to manage stress in the workplace

So, what can you do when your body seems to offer you just two options – running out the door or yelling at your nagging boss? We’ve already seen that controlling these reactions does help you fit well in society and look mannered, but on the long term your health will suffer negative consequences, such as a higher risk for heart attacks, increased blood pressure, and blood vessel damage.

One of the most efficient solutions is exercising – by consuming the energy released by your body you will feel more relaxed. This is why in some corporation headquarters you’ll find a gym for employees, or you may be offered a free gym subscription from work. Even a short walk after feeling stressed helps.

Relaxation techniques combining abdominal breathing with the visualization of a peaceful scene also help – studies have shown that people with high blood pressure applying such techniques have managed to improve their condition and reduce medication. Getting away from the source of stress and taking a break leads to even better results.

People getting emotional support from friends and family manage to get more easily over times of stress. We all are familiar with that sensation of relief experienced when we share our worries with other people, and rallying with co-workers against a bullying management is a common practice.

Massage therapy is a highly-effective solution for coping with stress at the workplace, too. Receiving human touch increases the release of serotonin and decreases cortisol levels (one of the hormones associated with the fight or flight response), bringing people from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state. Massage also helps releasing the muscle tension caused by stress reactions and helps the body reach homeostasis – the ability to keep the internal equilibrium constant when subjected to stress factors.

Employees receiving short massage sessions at work experienced benefits like increased productivity, better problem solving abilities, a boost to creativity levels, and feeling less tired.

What about you – would you like to get a massage at work as a way to reduce stress?

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