Water
Your Body's Best Friend
By Shirley Vanderbilt
Water is much more than just a thirst quencher -- it's your body's best friend. Water gives vital fluid to the systems and organs that process nutrients, and then it helps take away all the unwanted refuse, such as bacteria and toxins.
When you go for a massage, the intake of water is doubly important. Massage puts the body into a trash-pickup mode by stimulating your cleansing system into action. After a massage, all that garbage has been collected and is just waiting to be tossed out. This is why your massage therapist encourages you to drink plenty of water after each session.
The cleansing process relies heavily on the lymphatic system, which processes various collection sites for waste. Lymph is a clear, colorless fluid which flows through your body much like the blood circulation system, but at a slower rate and in a one-way direction through capillaries and lymph nodes. Tension in muscles can produce constriction in the lymph and blood systems, causing the body to become unbalanced and toxins to build. Releasing these toxins and flushing them out of the body is of vital importance to maintaining good health. When the lymph system is unobstructed, you experience more physical and mental energy and a greater sense of well-being. If the lymph system is sluggish, your body retains all those waste products and extra fluid, leaving you tired, stressed and susceptible to disease.
The lymphatic system is a comrade in arms for the circulatory system, assisting in feeding and cleansing body tissues. When nutrients are deposited into the tissues, excess fluid carrying unwanted waste products leaks back into lymph capillaries. During its journey through the body, the fluid passes through lymph nodes where noxious products are filtered, destroyed and absorbed by the lymph. The waste is eventually deposited into the blood system which carries it into the kidneys, spleen and intestines to be processed for elimination.
The more water you take in, the faster the system works. If your body doesn't have enough fluid for elimination, you're going to be carrying around a lot of garbage.
"If these toxins do stay in the body, they can cause conditions such as back pain and arthritis," massage instructor Mark Braukman says. "You have to be well-hydrated in order for proper elimination to take place." Braukman recommends drinking one or two glasses of water after a massage. But he notes it's even more important to monitor how much water you take in consistently throughout the day.
"The minimal rule of thumb, he says "is half to two-thirds of you body weight in ounces. If you are 100 pounds, you should drink at least 50 ounces a day." If you exercise or have a massage, you should drink even more. Also, as you age, your kidneys may function less efficiently, requiring an increase in water consumption to aid proper elimination.
What am I Feeling?
The Healing Benefits of Massage
By Shirley Vanderbilt
Touch. We come into this world being touched, and we hopefully can leave being touched. Whatever our experiences in this life, touch is usually involved in some form.
Each time we are touched, the emotions related to that touch are stored in our mind and in our body's tissues. We not only store the emotions of pleasure and happiness, but also stress and fear. These stored experiences show up in bad posture, aches and pains or, when we're fortunate, healthy, functioning muscles and joints. Just as it takes the use of more muscles to frown than to smile, the effort it takes to tuck away experiences or feelings we'd rather forget can cause fatigue and painful tension.
When you receive a massage, the muscles and tissues release on an emotional level in much the same way they release physical tension. This letting go manifests in many forms -- an audible sigh, laughter, muscle twitching or even tears. In the safe, nurturing space of a therapy room, people are able to let down their defenses, making these kinds of emotional releases a common occurrence.
"Crying is a pretty normal response," says C.G. Funk, branch director at the Utah College of Massage Therapy, Arizona campus. It can be about something in particular, or about nothing at all. "It can come from a variety of things, including having work done on a part of the body where the person holds the memory of emotional or physical trauma. Of course, physical trauma has an emotional component, too."
Massage also allows the body to let go of stress. "It may be that the client has had a stressed-out year, or month, or several months and all the stress is built up," says Funk. In some cases, the body may be holding the memory of a trauma long forgotten. When your body finally relaxes, that memory can surface as you become more connected to being in your body. There may be tears or some other expression as your body releases and lets go of these emotions.
Flashbacks that occur during massage are a part of this same memory mechanism, according to psychotherapist P.K. Hawk, formerly of the East-West Health Center in Denver, Colorado. "If a certain area of the body is being touched in a similar way to what the trauma was, it can actually feel as if they're repeating the trauma," said Hawk.
Massage therapists are accustomed to these emotional expressions from their clients and have been trained to help you feel safe and supported when overwhelmed by these events. If this happens to you during a massage session, and you feel too uncomfortable to continue, just let the therapist know. The two of you can decide how to proceed next.
Remember that emotional release during bodywork is not unusual and is actually a natural and beneficial part of the cleansing, rejuvenating process of massage. After a few moments, you may choose to continue the massage, or request the therapist work more slowly or only on certain areas. But if you decide not to go on, that's okay, too.
"It's important for clients to know they can stop the session at any time," says Hawk. "A lot of people aren't sure they have the ability to say 'no' or stop. If the emotion continues, if they continue to struggle with it or it turns into depression or anxiety, they should seek help." The guidance of a counselor or psychologist can be helpful in working through the emotions.
Hawk recommends that in cases where a client knows touch is discomforting to them, or is currently working through an emotional crisis, it is best to talk with your therapist beforehand.
Massage is a healing touch that relaxes and releases. Welcome that release, accept it as your body's way of finding balance and leading you to a higher state of health, both emotionally and physically. If you find yourself on the massage table laughing or crying, you are in a true state of body-mind connection. Go with the experience. Relax, breathe deeply and allow your body and mind to free itself of the past.
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