Red Mountain Spa (Utah)
Massage is the most naturally healing thing you can do for yourself. The nurturing touch is simple, instinctive, and more powerful than we can imagine and without touch we close down. Studies show conclusively that touch reduces stress, alleviates depression, reduces pain, boosts the immune system, and helps pre-mature babies catch up in their development. We touch to communicate, show love and to nurture.
The therapeutic benefits of massage dates back as far as the Ancient Greek, Roman, and Oriental times and medical treatises describe in detail how and when massage should be used. In the Middle Ages the church declared it to be sinful and it fell out of favor. By the 1800's, a new interest in massage was started in Sweden, and today we enjoy many different modalities of massage and bodywork.
Massage therapy is designed to stretch and loosen muscles, improve blood flow and the movement of lymph throughout the body, facilitate the removal of metabolic wastes resulting from exercise or inactivity, and increase the flow of oxygen and nutrients to cells and tissue. In addition, massage stimulates the release of endorphins into the brain and nervous system Many times people don't know how much stress they're carrying until they have a massage; then they're able to feel it and let go of it. As the massage therapist stretches and loosens muscles and connective tissues, stress and muscular tension are released.
When we feel emotions such as anger, sadness, fear and exhilaration, our muscles tense up. Even though we may be unaware of the amount of tension we are storing inside our bodies, it creates extra wear and tear on both mind and body.
The antidote to stress is known as the relaxation response, which is triggered by the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system. We can promote this response, through exercise, meditation, listening to calming music, guided visualization, biofeedback, and therapeutic massage. The safe environment, in which a massage takes place, immediately starts to relax us. As massage stimulates the relaxation response, muscular tension is released, circulation is increased and our sensory receptors are activated. Areas that have been "cut off" by accumulated stress can begin to feel once again. Massage teaches us to tune in to body signals and soothes us at the same time.
Massage creates in us a greater awareness of our body and helps us to monitor our body's responses to negative stimuli. We can learn to release tension before it becomes chronic and damaging. Living in a more relaxed and balanced body will enable you to better handle the stresses in you life, and nothing can take you back to that state of well-being more quickly than massage.
www.redmountainspa.com
(800)407-3002 (435)673-4905
