Massage Therapy Benefits
- Siobhan Raymond
- Jan 5, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 13, 2020
Why is massage therapy so important?
Can you lose your sanity and sense of self from a lack of touch? - I believe so. Why is massage so important? Even more so than in ancient times, where they felt the need for massage naturally and persistently. We have been moving away from our natural states since technology has taken over. This has drastically reduced how much we are close and intimate with each other. Making the fight-or-flight response overactive and dominant more often than not. This is a major problem and has a major effect on our physical health. Our fascia holds on to these mental stressors and creates a lot of debilitation and ailments in our over-worked minds and bodies.
There have been many studies done on newborns and touch. One specific example of this type of case study I found - The Life of the Skin-Hungry: Can You Go Crazy From a Lack of Touch? "Scientists began investigating skin hunger shortly after the Second World War. In controversial experiments run by American psychologist Harry Harlow, infant rhesus macaques were separated from their birth mothers and given the option of two inanimate surrogates: one made out of wire and wood, and another covered in cloth. The baby monkeys overwhelmingly favored the embrace of the cloth surrogate, even when the wire mother was the only surrogate that held a bottle of milk.
From this, Harlow deduced infant macaques needed more than nourishment from their mothers to stay alive. He termed it "contact comfort." As a result of Harlow's research, we now know that human beings need touch, particularly in childhood, almost as powerfully as they need basic necessities like food and water."
You can also use massage to expedite the relaxation process and help deactivate the constant fight-or-flight mode we are constantly in, more so with all of this technology taking over. Massage Therapy practice will help prepare your mind & body to apply and accept new forms of relaxation, like meditation and yoga.
Massage Therapy Benefits and Infographic:
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