Massage therapy has had a long and distinguished history.
Perhaps it s earliest actual documentation is found in The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine written in
2598 BC. Massage has been known to the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and virtually every civilization before or since.
One of the debates that have accompanied bodywork throughout its history has been about what specific things soft
tissue manipulation can actually accomplish. Physicians and practitioners have agreed on two fundamental points.
One is that most of the body’s processed rely upon the appropriate movement of fluids through our systems, and that
bodywork can be an effective means of promoting these circulations. Whether it is blood in the arteries, capillaries
and veins, the contents of the digestive tract, lymph in its vessels, secretions in their glands or the fluids that fill all
of the spaces in between our cells, manipulation can move them around much like pushing water back and forth in a rubber tube.
These flows, or the lack of them, can have far-reaching consequences upon many tissues and functions. Nutrients,
oxygen, hormones, antibodies and of course water, must be delivered to every single cell continually if it is to survive and
respond the way it should, and all kinds of toxic wastes must be borne away. There is no tissue in the body that cannot
be weakened and ultimately destroyed by chronic interruptions of these various circulations.
Another argument frequently
made for the efficiency of bodywork is that both our musculature and the connective tissues which hold us together often become
stiffened, shortened or thickened, distorting our posture and limiting our movements. These tissues can be especially
troubling after surgery or any other trauma, when the muscles are either tightening up in order to brace an injured area or
are contracting in a general withdrawal reflex, and when the connective tissues are scarring over a wound. The bracing
and healing mechanisms often overdo their functions and it is very common that individuals never recover their full range
of motion or their normal levels of comfort after an operation or serious injury. And these stiffenings, shortenings
and thickenings can also happen as a result of a wide array of overuse, disuse, spasm, injury illness, fatigue, aging, poor
habits or the innumerable physical strains that various occupations demand of us. Bodywork has been used for thousands
of years to relax muscles, eliminate spasms, diminish fatigue, and soften connective tissue to make it more supple and so
free up the joints. These kinds of effects upon our fluids and upon our solids have been rightfully cited as benefits
of bodywork throughout its history.
Bodywork helps relieve stress. We’ve all heard of the “flight
or fight” response, our body’s response that quickly prepares us for either physical conflict or rapid escape.
This response causes an immediate arousal of the nervous system, stimulation it to a state of increased alertness. This
hyper-arousal sets the stage for other responses—one of its immediate results is an increase in muscle tone and muscular
contractions. The respiration deepens and accelerates, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, the circulatory
system adjusts to direct blood flow away from the stomach and intestines, chemicals are added to the blood which increase
its coagulation, hormones are released to cause water retention by the kidneys. One can see that if the body operates
in this state continually, nearly every tissue in the body is probably affected. Massage and the relaxation id evokes,
cause a release of endorphins, which help counteract the effects of stress.
Bodywork has an even greater impact
on the mind. Bodywork seeks to shift the focus of the body as a source of pain to the body as a source of pleasure and
comfort. The physical relaxation diminishes emotional anxiety and restores the possibility of control over situations.
With self-awareness of the body comes learning to control self-perpetuating cycles of pain. Pain is real and the reflex
it cannot help but trigger is real. What is needed is another real sensation, as overwhelming pleasant a sensation as
possible, to divert the attention of the brain away from the anxiety-provoking discomfort and towards a pleasant relaxed state.
Touch has been called “The Mother of the Senses.” In a developing embryo, the skin and the brain
develop from exactly the same primitive cells. Depending upon how you look at it, the skin is the outer surface of the
brain, or the brain is the deepest layer of the skin. The skin is no more separated from the brain than the surface
of a lake is separated from its depths; the two are different locations in a continuous medium. So the skin offers an
excellent means of influencing internal processes. Touch is food for the body. Touch is valuable, even necessary,
in maintaining good health.
Bodywork will not replace the resources of modern medicine, but it certainly should
be a part of these resources. Try massage therapy. If you are hesitant, remember this: if you try it once
and you don’t like it, you don’t ever have to do it again. But if you respond well, you’ve discovered
a new resource for the rest of your life.
