The Relevance of Massage as Preventative Health Care and Maintenance
written by Luannah Livermore
Having lived in Europe for ten and a half years, I was exposed to a culture that puts personal health and well being as the highest priority. Even big corporations offer six weeks a year of rest and repair time, fully paid, at a “kurspa” for their employees. A kurspa translates as a ‘place of cure’. Unlike spas of North America, these spas are governed over by medical professionals. You check in like at a hotel and then, for the time you are their, you experience a multitude of healing applications from nutrition enhancement, counselling, massage, hydro therapy, to name a few.I worked at one of these kurspas in the Black Forest, it was an incredible experience.
In Germany and Switzerland people receive almost double the vacation time as in North America, and all health plans include holistic healing and massage, they even cover energy healing sessions. Generally speaking, as I experienced, people there are healthier , more content in their daily lives. There’s less depression, they aren't just work machines , they have a great balance between work and living life.
Even the difference of walking into a pharmacy is incredible. Over there when you walk in, all you see are pictures of flowers, mountains and nature. Only natural medicines , herbs and teas are on display. The Pharmaceutical products are in generic boxes stored in the back room, you only know about a drug if your doctor prescribes it. Very different indeed to North America.
So you can imagine my surprise when moving back to Canada and seeing the vast extremes. Over here there is still the belief that massage and other healing work is either a just a luxury, indulgence, something to do maybe once a year as a treat, or as an emergency application; the thing is, you avoid emergencies by getting regular massage.
Tension accumulates in the same way disease incubates, it builds up gradually, long before it makes its presence obvious through pain or discomfort. Most people are convinced they don’t have tension because they don’t have sharp pains, but sharp pain is the indication that the bodies ability to adapt to the tension its holding has reached its limit. Massage is far more essential to your health and well being than you may believe. Here’s a few reasons why:
One of the greatest causes of many diseases is insufficient circulation, of either blood, lymph or nerve flow. Alone simply releasing the tension around the spine flushes and nourishes all our vital organs with blood, oxygen and improves nerve flow. It also flushes toxins and metabolic debris into the blood stream to be cleaned and processed and released from the body. This metabolic debris causes all kinds of interference in the body, weakening our immune system when not regularly flushed.
Reflexology is also an amazing way to detoxify the body and relieve stress.. In the bottom of each foot there are approximately 7400 nerve endings, all of which are interconnected with all other nerves in the body. Stimulating these nerve endings has the effect of ‘turning the light switch on’ in the body, opening nerve pathways which also increases blood and lymph flow., and releases happy endorphin's. Its like getting a massage from the inside out. Incredibly relaxing.
Reflexology is particularly beneficial to people with high stress levels, who sit or stand all day and to the elderly where they generally are not active enough to stimulate this kind of circulation through their body on their own. I did my Reflexology practicum in a seniors home in Ontario, they had never received massage or reflexology before, but boy did they love it and wished they had discovered it earlier in their life.
Two years ago The Fifth Estate had a program talking about a ten year study on the benefits of massage. It was quoted that they found massage to be superior in its benefits for pain relief, depression and anxiety, than pharmaceuticals in numerous cases. That’s what Europeans have always known.
There are also studies, that reveal a large percentage of emotional, physical and mental disorders can be linked to a lack of healthy touch, which is one of our most basic and primal needs, along with food and shelter. North America has become a 'touch-o phobic' country. In Europe you hug and kiss someone the first time you meet, here you might get a hand shake, and even then its more of a boundary communication than an embrace of the other person. North America is touch starved,even I have felt touch starved since moving here. Its been quite an adjustment. Massage therefore also provides that very basic innate need and nourishment of touch in a safe environment.
There are a multitude of other benefits you can explore and research yourself if you are interested. In this article I am providing the bare basics of the benefits of massage, which alone, already explains and validates the real necessity of massage, as a preventative care and maintenance application.
If you have never had a massage before, I encourage you to give it a try, where ever and with whom ever you feel comfortable. And if you have, then I encourage you to explore the benefits of regular treatments, bi-weekly or monthly, rather than randomly. I have given over 7000 massages, many first timers, and every one of them was astounded at the amount of tension they had, but hadn't noticed, and how incredible they feel afterwards. Let yourself be awed and amazed at the healing power of massage! You won’t regret it. J Here’s to your health and happiness in 2015
written by Luannah Livermore
Having lived in Europe for ten and a half years, I was exposed to a culture that puts personal health and well being as the highest priority. Even big corporations offer six weeks a year of rest and repair time, fully paid, at a “kurspa” for their employees. A kurspa translates as a ‘place of cure’. Unlike spas of North America, these spas are governed over by medical professionals. You check in like at a hotel and then, for the time you are their, you experience a multitude of healing applications from nutrition enhancement, counselling, massage, hydro therapy, to name a few.I worked at one of these kurspas in the Black Forest, it was an incredible experience.
In Germany and Switzerland people receive almost double the vacation time as in North America, and all health plans include holistic healing and massage, they even cover energy healing sessions. Generally speaking, as I experienced, people there are healthier , more content in their daily lives. There’s less depression, they aren't just work machines , they have a great balance between work and living life.
Even the difference of walking into a pharmacy is incredible. Over there when you walk in, all you see are pictures of flowers, mountains and nature. Only natural medicines , herbs and teas are on display. The Pharmaceutical products are in generic boxes stored in the back room, you only know about a drug if your doctor prescribes it. Very different indeed to North America.
So you can imagine my surprise when moving back to Canada and seeing the vast extremes. Over here there is still the belief that massage and other healing work is either a just a luxury, indulgence, something to do maybe once a year as a treat, or as an emergency application; the thing is, you avoid emergencies by getting regular massage.
Tension accumulates in the same way disease incubates, it builds up gradually, long before it makes its presence obvious through pain or discomfort. Most people are convinced they don’t have tension because they don’t have sharp pains, but sharp pain is the indication that the bodies ability to adapt to the tension its holding has reached its limit. Massage is far more essential to your health and well being than you may believe. Here’s a few reasons why:
One of the greatest causes of many diseases is insufficient circulation, of either blood, lymph or nerve flow. Alone simply releasing the tension around the spine flushes and nourishes all our vital organs with blood, oxygen and improves nerve flow. It also flushes toxins and metabolic debris into the blood stream to be cleaned and processed and released from the body. This metabolic debris causes all kinds of interference in the body, weakening our immune system when not regularly flushed.
Reflexology is also an amazing way to detoxify the body and relieve stress.. In the bottom of each foot there are approximately 7400 nerve endings, all of which are interconnected with all other nerves in the body. Stimulating these nerve endings has the effect of ‘turning the light switch on’ in the body, opening nerve pathways which also increases blood and lymph flow., and releases happy endorphin's. Its like getting a massage from the inside out. Incredibly relaxing.
Reflexology is particularly beneficial to people with high stress levels, who sit or stand all day and to the elderly where they generally are not active enough to stimulate this kind of circulation through their body on their own. I did my Reflexology practicum in a seniors home in Ontario, they had never received massage or reflexology before, but boy did they love it and wished they had discovered it earlier in their life.
Two years ago The Fifth Estate had a program talking about a ten year study on the benefits of massage. It was quoted that they found massage to be superior in its benefits for pain relief, depression and anxiety, than pharmaceuticals in numerous cases. That’s what Europeans have always known.
There are also studies, that reveal a large percentage of emotional, physical and mental disorders can be linked to a lack of healthy touch, which is one of our most basic and primal needs, along with food and shelter. North America has become a 'touch-o phobic' country. In Europe you hug and kiss someone the first time you meet, here you might get a hand shake, and even then its more of a boundary communication than an embrace of the other person. North America is touch starved,even I have felt touch starved since moving here. Its been quite an adjustment. Massage therefore also provides that very basic innate need and nourishment of touch in a safe environment.
There are a multitude of other benefits you can explore and research yourself if you are interested. In this article I am providing the bare basics of the benefits of massage, which alone, already explains and validates the real necessity of massage, as a preventative care and maintenance application.
If you have never had a massage before, I encourage you to give it a try, where ever and with whom ever you feel comfortable. And if you have, then I encourage you to explore the benefits of regular treatments, bi-weekly or monthly, rather than randomly. I have given over 7000 massages, many first timers, and every one of them was astounded at the amount of tension they had, but hadn't noticed, and how incredible they feel afterwards. Let yourself be awed and amazed at the healing power of massage! You won’t regret it. J Here’s to your health and happiness in 2015
