A client said to me a few weeks ago “Sorry I am late, I had to drop my car in to be serviced this morning and I was held up” and we joked about how funny it was that people are so careful about making sure they look after their vehicles properly, but aren’t so concerned about looking after their bodies as regularly.
It seems crazy doesn’t it; while its obviously frustrating when our cars aren’t in tip-top shape and may inconvenience us by breaking down, if the same thing were to happen to our bodies it would be a much greater cause for concern, and yet we often do much less to prevent this from happening. Surely our bodies are more important than cars – I mean, if something isn’t working properly in our bodies we suffer all sorts of symptoms like dis-ease, fatigue, stress, pain…the list goes on.
I started thinking then about all the ways we can keep our bodies in good shape and as well as eating properly, getting out and exercising, and making time for ourselves to relax once in a while, I couldn’t help but think about all the benefits regular massage can have for both the body and mind.
Massage can:
* Calm and sedate the nervous system when its overloaded and stressed
* Relax skeletal muscles, thus decreasing pain levels and increasing range of motion
* Stimulate blood flow throughout the entire body
* Alleviate pain associated with muscle tension such as headaches, spasm and contracture
* Increase lymph flow which gets rid of nasty toxins and also boosts your immune system
* Promote a sense of relaxation and relieve tension * Decrease muscular pain and hyper-tonicity associated with various chronic conditions such as arthritis, MS, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue
* Ease feelings of anxiety and stress, and by releasing endorphins, give you a real natural high and increase general feelings of well-being
* Speed up injury healing times and also recovery from surgery And that’s just for starters! So when’s your car due for its next service? Maybe its time to book in for a massage as well? Penny