A body massage has a revitalizing effect on the body. It relaxes you, it invigorates you, it refreshes you. Read on to find out how a massage can do wonders for you in more ways than you thought possible.

When you have a headache you tend to rub your forehead in a massage-like fashion. Why? Because that relieves you of the ache. Spent many hours staring at facts and figures on the monitor? You massage the lower back of your neck to get relief. This is the basic principle of a massage – to create an ebb and flow of pressure in the target area. Qualified professional masseurs know exactly how to and where to massage an area of the body to generate the desired therapeutic effect. They also know the ‘why?’ of what they do. Let’s go see what a professional massage therapist does for you.

Let’s get a walkthrough of a professional massage. Once in the salon of a professional massage therapist, you’ll be shown to a private cubicle. There you’ll have to remove your clothes and lie down on a massage table with a sheet draped over you. You may have a general massage done, for relaxation and general body tone. Or, you may require more intense massage therapy, like deep tissue massage, which is, well, intense!

The masseur may use Massage Oils to perform the massage, but this depends on the variation of the massage you select. As the massage progresses you will find tremendous relief of stresses and tensions and aches and pains that you were not even aware of till they disappear! You’ll be amazed at how you feel – rejuvenated, restored, relaxed, and relieved! Your muscles lose their soreness, that dull ache in your head vanishes, you feel happier and at ease with the world! You begin to smile just like that, it feels so wonderful!

It is not only sportspersons who require massage therapy. We all do! Our life has become so hectic; our lifestyle has become so sedentary or lacking in physical activity that our body suffers for it. We sit in awkward positions, we slouch, we shamble around… all this unconsciously. The result is that our blood vessels get shifted from their normal positions and so also do the nerves. Knotted blood vessels means poor blood circulation, which means poor health. Knotted nerves means your very sensations are disturbed. The brain gets a lot of static from cramped up nerves. Result: tension and stress, which makes you lose concentration, comprehension, and conviction. The body massage, as administered by a qualified professional massage therapist, mind you, works the body in such a way that your blood vessels and nerves regain their normal position. Your blood begins to flow normally and your nerves function normally. The physical pressure of the massage even serves to reduce flab, if any. Your skin benefits as well. The massage itself, and the Massage Oils, rejuvenate the skin. The subcutaneous blood circulation improves and the muscles that lie just below the dermal layer get exercised. This results in a firmer, tauter, radiant skin tone. So you end up looking better.

We generally believe that a massage is a form of physical therapy, and hence benefits us in a physical way only. This is not true. We are benefited mentally as well as physically. Just as the muscles get tired due to the accumulation of wastes, our brain undergoes much the same effect when we exert ourselves mentally. The enhanced blood circulation washes away the accumulated toxins from the brain, and leaves it fresh and tension-free! That’s why you can get a really good, healthy sleep after a body massage.

Massage therapy is a form of touch therapy. A touch or a caress shows empathy. It is probably instinctive in those animals that must seek their mother for support and feeding as soon as they are born. Most animals are born blind, and so they depend on touch to find and detect their mother. Even if not blind, young ones nestle and cuddle up against their mother when they sleep, the touch, the feel being sufficient to reassure them of a support system. Our subconscious translates the masseur’s professional touch to a strong, positive symbol of reassurance and of support. Hence, our spirits are lifted and we emerge from the massage psychologically healthy.

Now that we’ve analyzed the effects of a body massage, why don’t you get yourself an appointment with a good, reputed, licensed, professional massage therapist, and help yourself to a veritable bouquet of benefits, physical, mental, and emotional!