Archive for the ‘Why have massage and Bodywork?’ Category

Belly grumbling during massage

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Vagus nerveThere are 2 main sys­tems in the body that we are con­cerned with when it comes to mas­sage; the sym­pa­thetic and parasym­pa­thetic ner­vous systems.

The sym­pa­thetic ner­vous sys­tem (fight or flight response/stress response) is the sys­tem that helps us ‘keep going’ when we are under stress and the parasym­pa­thetic ner­vous sys­tem (relax­ation response) is the one that helps us chill out. The Vagus nerve is respon­si­ble for the func­tions of the relax­ation response.

The pic­ture above shows the Vagus (mean­ing ‘wan­der­ing’) nerve starts in the brain and extends to all the main organs in the chest and abdomen. It is the only nerve that does this. By breath­ing deeply, we stim­u­late the many Vagus nerve end­ings which results in the switch­ing on of our relax­ation response.

Amongst other won­der­ful things, mas­sage slows down our breath­ing result­ing in the afore­men­tioned: relax­ation on, stress off.

So, we’re on the mas­sage table, we’ve got a nice and relaxed stom­ach, colon and small intes­tine. Diges­tion is increased and our bel­lies start rum­bling. It is there­for not uncom­mon to have escap­ing gas, from either end, dur­ing a mas­sage. In fact, it’s a sure sign that we are nice and relaxed. Your mas­sage prac­ti­tioner won’t even expect you to stir from dream­land to excuse your­self.

As and aside, this is why mas­sage is great of any­one with diges­tion chal­lenges.

So next time you have a mas­sage and you expe­ri­ence this, don’t be shy, it’s all part and par­cel of our bod­ies amaz­ing response to the good you are doing it by get­ting on the mas­sage table.

All hail the Vagus nerve!

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Might our ability to handle stress be better if we know we’ve got that massage appointment booked?

Monday, August 10th, 2009

I’ve been mus­ing on some­thing inter­est­ing which has pre­vi­ously not occurred to me.

We know the effects of stress reduc­tion, dur­ing and post mas­sage, are mas­sive. But I never con­sid­ered what the psy­cho­log­i­cal effects of hav­ing an appoint­ment booked in the future might be i.e. pre mas­sage. Might the knowl­edge that our next mas­sage, being just around the cor­ner, help us to ‘cope’ bet­ter when stress lev­els are high for a period of time?

It’s like hav­ing that hol­i­day is in sight; it’s a lit­tle eas­ier to deal with every­thing that might be get­ting too much. I pro­pose the same to be true about hav­ing a mas­sage to look for­ward to.

If we are going through a stress­ful time, surely sub­con­sciously, or maybe even con­sciously, we are able too remain sane in the knowl­edge that, in a few days, we can just let it all drift away and feel the post mas­sage effects for the days to come?

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Surrender. And change will ensue.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

“No mat­ter how much I move myself around, my strongest ten­dency is to move in the same ways that I have always moved, guided by the same deeply seated pos­tural habits, sen­sory cues, and men­tal images of my body; but if I can suc­ceed in sur­ren­der­ing to the move­ments that another per­son imposes on my body, with­out my own sys­tem of cues and responses inter­fer­ing, it is pos­si­ble to treat my mind to a flood of sen­sa­tions that are novel in impor­tant ways, sen­sa­tion that may well be able to indi­cate things I have been doing that have pro­duced aches and pains at the same times as they have rein­forced my nor­mal sense of self.

And even more impor­tant, this move­ment of sur­ren­der and new sen­sa­tion can demon­strate to me that I am not per­ma­nently obliged to con­tinue act­ing out a habit­ual com­pul­sion. I can see that habit is habit, that I am some­thing else, and for that moment at any rate, I can choose to repeat it or not.  And if I can drop a com­pul­sive behav­iour or atti­tude for a moment with­out caus­ing a cri­sis, then per­haps I can dis­pense with it all together.  As any physi­cian knows, this kind of insight can often be worth more than any num­ber of drugs or pro­ce­dures for the rever­sal of a chronic condition.

In other words, just as the mind organ­ises the rest of the body’s tis­sues into a life process, sen­sa­tions to a large degree organ­ise the mind. They do not sim­ply give the mind the mate­r­ial to organ­ise; they are them­selves a major organ­is­ing principle.”

Deane Juhan – Job’s Body (Intro­duc­tion xxvii)

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Movement

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

“No only is it true that the ner­vous sys­tem stim­u­lates the body to move in spe­cific ways as a result of spe­cific sen­sa­tions; it is also the case that all move­ments flood the ner­vous sys­tem with sen­sa­tions regard­ing the struc­tures and func­tions of the body. Move­ment is the uni­fy­ing bond between the mind and the body, and sen­sa­tions are the sub­stance of that bond.”

Deane Juhan – Job’s Body (Intro­duc­tion xxvi)

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