Discover the Healing Power of Massage: Top 5 Reasons to Include It in Your Self Care Protocol

In his best selling book “The 5am Club”, author and leadership guru Robin Sharma advocates scheduling 2 x 90 minute remedial massages every week for optimal wellbeing and success in pursuit of your life goals.

A quick not on self care protocols. This is your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual routine to optimise self care. It can be as detailed, simple or involved as you want or need it to be and it can change to suit the seasons or your personal circumstances.

Having a self care protocol prioritises the activities that put you in the best position to do well in life.

Typically, a protocol might include:

• A dedicated wake up time (ie 5am or before the sun comes up)
• Exercise
• Meditation, breathing, prayer or silent time
• Journalling
• Reading
• Supplements
• A weekly date night or “time with the girls”

You get the picture… now, back to the massage table:

Whilst I haven’t managed to get close to adopting this into my weekly protocol, I am an advocate for regular massage.

I experienced regular (fortnightly) massages when I was training for my first half marathon.

I am a “non-runner”, running is not in my DNA, I have no form despite all the training I did for my first (and second) half marathon.

So I committed the time and money to massage predominantly out of fear my body would not otherwise hold up.

I found an exceptional masseuse, who was intuitive to where the work was needed and really believed in the healing effects of this therapy. This really made a difference to the experience for me, but hey massage is a personal thing, so finding what works for you is the key objective.

Long story short, I did the half marathon, I sustained no injuries during training or the main event and my belief in the healing power of massage has not since wavered.

Whether you have the resource to do massage weekly, fortnightly, monthly or only “as needed”, here are my top 5 reasons it should be a strong contender in your self care protocol.

1. It puts you in touch with your body. Thought your lower back was sore? Why are your glutes so tight? Oh, I didn’t know that part of me was so tense… Massage is an opportunity to connect brain to body and listen to where tension, knots and injuries are lurking.
2. It moves things around like no detox can. Once when I was heavily pregnant I had a massage. It made my baby dance around inside me like a maniac! Massage moves blood around the body, including to places where healing needs to happen. Afterwards, with plenty of water and rest, you’ll wake up the next day feeling like you’ve been on a weekend cleanse and retreat!
3. It’s an opportunity to get present. Breathing when areas are tender. Realising you’re making another to do list and coming back to the present, feeling the massage and the breath. This is a great time to practice being in the moment and fully connected to the world around you. Getting present during massage gives the thinking mind a rest, soothing the nervous system and promoting healing and creativity (gently sideline those great ideas that bubble up for coming back to later!).
4. It counters lifestyle pressures, stress and the effects of sitting. Sitting is the new smoking and our sedentary lifestyles are creating a generation at great risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, diabetes and dementia, let alone the linked diseases of anxiety, depression and chronic stress. Getting blood flowing and mobility to areas that don’t get moved regularly is not only beneficial, it can be a gentle reminder that the body just isn’t moving enough.
5. It heals. Human touch has healing properties that go way beyond our understanding. It’s a salve for anxiety, depression and sadness. The connection of human hand on human skin is literally life giving. Massage also heals exercise stress, if like me, you’ve committed to a training program or perhaps if you’ve just got back into a workout routine and feel like your body is punishing you for it! Whether you’re injured or have trauma, it’s all held in the body and massage is a therapy designed to help work those pains out.

How to make massage work for you

Whether I’ve convinced you or not, there are a few key things that, in my experience, are vital for ensuring massage works for you:

• Find the right place or person – whether its a day spa, a home masseuse, or an outlet at your nearby shopping centre, matching the venue and the therapist to your personal preference makes a difference. You need to feel comfortable, safe and trusting.
• Communicate what you need – if you can’t articulate where you’re hurting, or aren’t confident telling the therapist “that hurts”, you’re likely not going to get the benefits. This is another reason why finding the right therapist is the #1 thing to get right, even if it takes some time.
• Committ to being fully in it – choose a time and day when you know you’ll be able to set the rest of the world aside for 60 or 90 minutes. If you’ve got an important event or meeting straight after, or are squeezing the massage in between other committments, your head will be elsewhere. I try to schedule massage for a night when I know I can come home, eat a light meal and have an early night, or an afternoon on a weekend when I can head home an nap or read a book for a few hours afterwards.
• See massage as an investment in your wellbeing – Most of us easily spend money on other people before our self care, or struggle to justify the cost of massage. I sometimes find myself begrudging the spend and then realise I just spent the same amount of money taking my kids out for dinner! Considering the time and therapy as an investment in your wellbeing can help bring your priorities for spending time and money into clear focus.
• Aim for regularity – if you have a disciplined protocol, this is easy. But even if you don’t, if you want to try a fortnightly or monthly massage for say 6 months, try to book all your appointments in advance. That way, your life will get scheduled around those standing appointments, rather than the other way around. This is particularly important if your massage therapist books out weeks in advance!

Finally, if massage isn’t for you, I hope this helps clarify what your self care priorities might be and how you can help make them part of your routine self care protocol.

Love, Bel x