Many of our Oakville Massage Therapy patients first come to see one of our Massage Therapists for pain. When they are finished their RMT appointment they comment on how related they feel and sometimes are a little sleepy!
There are many reasons having regular Massage Therapy can help with stress.
First we need to acknowledge our nervous system. Our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is our fight or flight system. It is the system that responds with physical or mental stressors. It is helpful for us, but stops being helpful if we stay in the system longer then we really need. Our sleep may be affected as well as our general health when stress hormones stay circulating in the body.
Our parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is our rest and digest system. This is the system we (should) revert to when at rest. One of our Oakville Physiotherapists does an excellent job exploring how these systems affect our pain experience in this blog post.
Massage Therapy can help with stress as it allows us to switch from our sympathetic nervous system to more of our parasympathetic nervous system. The whole experience can do this in many ways:
- Unplugging – setting aside specific time for ourselves where we unplug from work, home and other distractions allows us to focus on ourselves.
- Room Setting – having the lights lowered and non-stimulating music playing also calms the nervous system down.
- Touch – non-invasive human touch helps tap into the parasympathetic nervous system.
Many of our patients identify this positive side effect of massage therapy. They then choose to book more consistent and regular massages with our registered massage therapists as well.
Contact us to book your next massage therapy session, whether it be for pain, injury recovery, or stress / relaxation. We are able to provide direct billing to most insurance companies.