Massage Therapy for Mental Wellness

Knead Out Stress

We know that massage therapy is of great benefit to sport injuries and muscle soreness. But it is also an effective way to improve your mental health.

Massage therapy is a popular treatment for the relief of sports injuries, strains, and muscle soreness. But its benefits are more than just physical: it is also an effective way to alleviate depression and anxiety—and improve sleep quality.

Although life stresses are unavoidable, we can counter negative feelings and insomnia with the positive benefits that massage therapy offers.

Why massage therapy?

Massage has been practised for centuries. In ancient India massage therapists kneaded patients with herbs and oils to relieve tiredness, increase energy, and improve overall health. In fifth-century Greece Hippocrates was quoted as saying, “The physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing.” And it’s no secret why massage is still popular today—it feels wonderful.

For overall mental wellness

According to Heidi Ezzat, a registered massage therapist (RMT) practising in Pitt Meadows, BC, “Massage therapy is an excellent tool in treating anxiety, depression, and insomnia because it helps your body to relax, which in turn helps you to de-stress.”

She explains that massage therapy is effective in treating these disorders because “the state of calm [achieved] allows one to have a better chance of using coping skills that have been acquired in other therapies such as counselling.”

Depression
According to Health Canada, 11 percent of men and 16 percent of women will experience severe depression over the course of their lives. Studies show, however, that massage therapy can be an effective tool for dealing with depression.

In a study published in Support Care Cancer (2010), breast cancer patients who received two 30-minute massages weekly for five weeks reported significant reductions in depression and anxious depression compared to those who received no massage therapy.

In addition, a meta-analysis of 17 studies conducted by Taiwanese researchers found massage therapy was strongly associated with relieving depressive symptoms.

Anxiety
Health Canada reports that of all mental disorders, anxiety conditions top the list. They estimate that 10 percent of Canadians suffer anxiety in some form. But anxiety can be reduced by the positive effects of massage.

Turkish researchers measured burn patients’ anxiety levels before and after massage therapy sessions. Over the course of a five-week period participants showed a significant reduction of symptoms, including itching, pain, and anxiety from the first treatment to the last.

Poor quality sleep
Statistics Canada reports that 3.3 million Canadians (13.4 percent of Canadians over the age of 15) suffer from insomnia. Fortunately, massage has also been shown to improve sleep quality.

Researchers reported the positive effects therapeutic massage had on breast cancer patients’ sleep quality (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2009). Participants reported better sleep quality post-massage in addition to reduced anxiety and chemotherapy side effects, and increased quality of life.

Mental wellness versus muscle soreness

Massage therapy can effectively treat a variety of conditions and disorders; however, the therapist will tailor your treatment course of action based on your particular symptoms and concerns.

According to Ezzat, most massage therapy appointments begin the same way: the client fills out a case history form and an assessment is conducted by the therapist. Based on the information collected, the therapist and patient work out a plan to address the patient’s treatment goals.

However, when treating a patient with a mental health issue, Ezzat says “the environment in the treatment room is especially important, such as temperature, music, and lighting.” She also encourages patients to be still and quiet for part of the treatment so that patients can “tune in to their bodies, breathe deeply, and begin to let go and relax.”

Treatment team

Although massage therapy has been shown to help effectively treat depression and other mental health issues, Ezzat suggests that those with severe problems “should be managed and treated primarily [in conjunction with] the patient’s family doctor and/or naturopathic doctor’s recommendations.”

She explains that there are many tools that a patient suffering from a mental health problem can make use of, and massage therapy is one of those tools. However, sometimes several tools are needed. Ezzat says, “I treat many patients who report benefits from receiving counselling and massage therapy at the same time.”

How often should you go?

The frequency depends on the patient’s specific treatment goals. However, Ezzat recommends, “When someone is starting massage therapy, it is best if they come for several sessions, and according to their condition and schedules that could be once a week or twice a week.”

She reports that most people experience improvements within the first three massage therapy sessions, but long-standing, chronic conditions may take longer. Once patients feel a significant improvement, Ezzat recommends they continue treatment once a month, or more frequently, if they desire.”

Finding a massage therapist

Although RMTs receive similar training across the country, therapists have their own styles and preferred areas of practice. Below are some tips to help you find the right massage therapist for you.

Word of mouth
Speak with someone who’s had appointments with a specific therapist to find out how difficult it is to get in, what approach they favour (light pressure versus deep tissue massage), and much more.

Massage therapy associations
Most provinces have their own massage therapy associations, which can often be found online. Check the websites for RMT listings in your province.

Try a few out
The first therapist you go to may not be the right fit—that’s okay. You may have to try out a few before you find someone who suits your needs. Alternatively, you may prefer to make appointments according to who is available.

This article originally appeared on alive.com and was written by Amy Wood

Why "Stand Up Straight" isn't the Answer to Improving Posture

Stand up straight! Stop slouching! Most of us have had that yelled at us since we were kids by well meaning (and some not so well meaning) adults.

And though certainly a more annoying admonition as we get older, it seems difficult to disagree that “standing up tall” is good for us. There’s a strong market out there devoted to various devices, straps, and apps purporting to help you improve your posture.

Because frankly, it just looks better! Whether from thousands of years of social norms or other deep seated genetic factors, tall and straight forms are perceived to be better than a bent and slouched structure.

But is it really necessary? Will it help us feel better, be more successful, healthier, and make us more attractive?

The answer, like for most complicated issues, is both yes and no.

Let’s start by going over the fundamental benefits that we know are associated with what’s considered to be “good posture,” along with the myths and misinformation out there, and then give some tips on how to figure out what you need for yourself.

Primary Benefits of Good Posture

Aside from the fact that upright and plumb posture is more aesthetically appealing, there is a lot of evidence for the physiological and mental benefits of a good posture.

Physiological and Mental Benefits

This was touted several years ago in the popular press as the “Power Posture,” where the various research indicated such benefitsas:

• Inducing feelings of being more powerful
• Improved self-ratings of confidence and ability
• Being perceived as more competent and attractive by observers
• Increased hormone levels (specifically, testosterone)

And though there has been controversy about some of the research, standing taller does seem to effect mental and physiological benefits in general.

Sport-Specific Benefits

Better aligned posture is also beneficial for active movements.

An obvious example is lifting overhead. When you are slumped forward, it’s simply harder to lift your arms up, let alone a heavy weight. An elevated chest and pulled back shoulders puts you in a better position to transfer your strength and power more directly to the load.

This is why there is so much time and energy placed on proper technique in sports training.

Through years of experience and research, there’s been a quest towards the ideal form for throwing a baseball, hitting a golf ball, and lifting weights. Postural alignment is a key component for all of these movements.

Posture Mythbusting

So yes, there are a number of good proven reasons to work on your posture, that could have an immediate impact on feeling and moving better. However there are also some myths out there that we should discuss to make sure that you won’t be disappointed by the outcomes of your time and effort.

Myth #1: Everyone should aim for “ideal” posture

The first myth is that there is an ideal and optimal posture that everyone should conform to.

You can see this in a variety of sources which attempt to force a rigid positioning. A classic example is military posture, with the chest puffed out and chin tucked into the extreme, at-attention position.

And there are others (usually trademarked and with their own zealots) that purport to have justifications for their brand of posture and advocate very specific details to conform. They may stress precise angles of your spine and shoulder positioning and have their own reasoning for such, but there is no evidence that there is a set position that everyone should be in for optimal health and performance.

Our bodies are dynamic systems that can adapt well to a variety of environments, and in spite of the very many individual anatomical differences that abound, you’ll see very healthy and high performing people of distinct body types and postures.

Myth #2: Slouching = Pain

Another myth (related to the first myth) is that, if you are not in the “correct” posture, you will inevitably have pain.

But particular postures do not directly equate to pain. If it did, everyone that regularly slouches would have pain, and everyone that tends to stand straight would not. And this, of course, is not true at all.

The existence of pain (particularly chronic) is very complex and involves interrelated factors (anatomy, personal history, emotional makeup, environment), and with regards to postural factors, it’s more of a matter of abrupt change and our capacity for resilience than a particular posture itself.

Any posture that we cannot sustain because of a lack of muscular endurance and/or flexibility can result in pain, whereas another person may be able to because they have a more robust capacity for it. If you aren’t used to standing for more than a couple of hours at a time, you’ll likely experience soreness when you first have to do 8 hours of it, even if in the most perfectly aligned posture possible.

Let’s not force ourselves into holding specific positions because it’s “good for us.” That’s a recipe for burnout and really confers no significant benefit.

Instead, it’s much better to take the lessons we learn from analyzing our particular deficiencies. What do we need to work on to improve our ability to get into and maintain good alignments for our daily lives and in our recreational activities? This matters much more than working toward an arbitrary “ideal” posture that may or may not be appropriate for our individual needs.

Posture is a Habit

Clearly, posture isn’t as cut-and-dried as simply “standing up straight.”

Posture is important and necessary, but there’s no universal ideal that works for everyone. It’s a matter of working to attain the posture that’s most advantageous for you.

We can design the best exercise program, targeting your personal strength, flexibility, and control deficits, but if you default to problematic postures for the rest of your day, then the benefits won’t be fully realized.

But changing postural habits is a difficult thing, and can take a long time. It requires a lot of patience and a understanding of personal motivations and dispositions, and it can never be as simple as yelling at yourself to stand up taller and quit slumping!

As you can see, we feel the topic of posture and changing it is much more nuanced than it can appear to be on the surface.

There are physical, mental, and habitual shifts that need to occur to make sustainable changes in your life. But it is well worth it because postural change can be a vehicle for insight into your personal strength, mobility, and habit detriments, and this can affect the entirety of your being.

So What Can You Do to Improve Your Posture?

Posture is a pretty complex subject, and one we can’t cover in near enough detail within an article like this. But if you want to work on improving your posture for your own needs, you’re in luck.

Steven Low, author of the bestselling and most comprehensive bodyweight exercise training tome, Overcoming Gravity, reached out to us to collaborate on his new posture book. We, of course, accepted with great excitement.

This article originally appeared on gmb.io and was written by Jarlo

The Busier You Are, The More You Need Quiet Time

In a recent interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates argued that serious thinkers and writers should get off Twitter.

It wasn’t a critique of the 140-character medium or even the quality of the social media discourse in the age of fake news.

It was a call to get beyond the noise.

For Coates, generating good ideas and quality work products requires something all too rare in modern life: quiet.

He’s in good company. Author JK Rowling, biographer Walter Isaacson, and psychiatrist Carl Jung have all had disciplined practices for managing the information flow and cultivating periods of deep silence. Ray Dalio, Bill George, California Governor Jerry Brown, and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan have also described structured periods of silence as important factors in their success.

Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex environments in which so many of us now live, work, and lead. Duke Medical School’s Imke Kirste recently found that silence is associated with the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory. Physician Luciano Bernardi found that two-minutes of silence inserted between musical pieces proved more stabilizing to cardiovascular and respiratory systems than even the music categorized as “relaxing.” And a 2013 study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, based on a survey of 43,000 workers, concluded that the disadvantages of noise and distraction associated with open office plans outweighed anticipated, but still unproven, benefits like increasing morale and productivity boosts from unplanned interactions.

But cultivating silence isn’t just about getting respite from the distractions of office chatter or tweets. Real sustained silence, the kind that facilitates clear and creative thinking, quiets inner chatter as well as outer.

This kind of silence is about resting the mental reflexes that habitually protect a reputation or promote a point of view. It’s about taking a temporary break from one of life’s most basic responsibilities: Having to think of what to say.

Cultivating silence, as Hal Gregersen writes in a recent HBR article, “increase[s] your chances of encountering novel ideas and information and discerning weak signals.” When we’re constantly fixated on the verbal agenda—what to say next, what to write next, what to tweet next—it’s tough to make room for truly different perspectives or radically new ideas. It’s hard to drop into deeper modes of listening and attention. And it’s in those deeper modes of attention that truly novel ideas are found.

Even incredibly busy people can cultivate periods of sustained quiet time. Here are four practical ideas:

1) Punctuate meetings with five minutes of quiet time. If you’re able to close the office door, retreat to a park bench, or find another quiet hideaway, it’s possible to hit reset by engaging in a silent practice of meditation or reflection.

2) Take a silent afternoon in nature. You need not be a rugged outdoors type to ditch the phone and go for a simple two-or-three-hour jaunt in nature. In our own experience and those of many of our clients, immersion in nature can be the clearest option for improving creative thinking capacities. Henry David Thoreau went to the woods for a reason.

3) Go on a media fast. Turn off your email for several hours or even a full day, or try “fasting” from news and entertainment. While there may still be plenty of noise around—family, conversation, city sounds—you can enjoy real benefits by resting the parts of your mind associated with unending work obligations and tracking social media or current events.

4) Take the plunge and try a meditation retreat: Even a short retreat is arguably the most straightforward way to turn toward deeper listening and awaken intuition. The journalist Andrew Sullivan recently described his experience at a silent retreat as “the ultimate detox.” As he put it: “My breathing slowed. My brain settled…It was if my brain were moving away from the abstract and the distant toward the tangible and the near.”

The world is getting louder. But silence is still accessible—it just takes commitment and creativity to cultivate it.

This article originally appeared on Harvard Business Review & was written by Justin Talbot-Zorn.

6 Benefits of Massage Therapy

Sure, it can help you relax. But massage therapy can do much more than that. Here are six healthy reasons to book an appointment.
 

1) It counteracts all that sitting you do

“Most individuals are dealing with some kind of postural stress,” says Aaron Tanason, registered massage therapist, kinesiologist and owner at Paleolife Massage Therapy in Toronto. “More often than not [that stress] tends to manifest in the shoulders and neck.”

Desk workers, beware. More advanced forms of postural stress “show up as pain or weakness in the low back and gluteals caused by prolonged periods of sitting.”

Luckily, massage can counteract the imbalance caused from sitting, which means you can keep your desk job-as long as you schedule a regular massage.

2) It eases muscle pain

Got sore muscles? Massage therapy can help. “Massage increases and improves circulation. Just like rubbing your elbow when you knock it on a table helps to relieve the pain,” says Tanason.

A 2011 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that massage therapy is as effective as other methods of treatment for chronic back pain.

3) It soothes anxiety and depression

“Human touch, in a context that is safe, friendly and professional, can be incredibly therapeutic and relaxing,” says Tanason.

Women diagnosed with breast cancer who received massage therapy three times a week reported being less depressed and less angry, according to a 2005 study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience.

And, a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, found that patients who were depressed and anxious were much more relaxed and happy, and had reduced stress levels after massage.

4) It improves sleep

Not only can massage encourage a restful sleep-it also helps those who can’t otherwise comfortably rest.

“Massage promotes relaxation and sleep in those undergoing chemo or radiation therapy,” says Lisa Marie de Miranda, registered massage therapist and kinesiologist at Paleolife Massage Therapy.

Also, massages help infants sleep more, cry less and be less stressed, according to research from the University of Warwick.

“Most RMTs can do infant massage,” says de Miranda. And if parents want to do it themselves, it comes naturally. “There’s not really a particular technique. Whatever parents normally do to soothe their baby will be effective.”

5) It boosts immunity

A 2010 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that massage boosts patients’ white blood cell count (which plays a large role in defending the body from disease). Additionally, it also “improves immune function for individuals with HIV,” says de Miranda.

6) It relieves headaches

Next time a headache hits, try booking a last-minute massage. “Massage decreases frequency and severity of tension headaches,” says de Miranda.

Research from Granada University in Spain found that a single session of massage therapy immediately effects perceived pain in patients with chronic tension headaches.

This article originally appeared on Best Health & was written by Katharine Watts.