Mindful Massage Therapy
Mindfulness is being aware of the present moment and what is going on around you without reacting to the situation in an overwhelmed state.
It has been researched that while training yourself to be mindful your brain structure begins to remodel itself. This shapes our brain pathways into more positive thoughts and feeling positive emotions. We can connect mindfulness with therapy through the shared experience of activating your proprioception. According to WEBMD, proprioception is your body’s awareness of where it is, and what it is doing in the environment. If we become more aware of where we are in space our movement can become more fluid and assist in preventing injury.
Fascia diagrams.
In clinical massage therapy we want to release the tension in the body by rehydrating the fascia lines in the body. In doing this we create space in the body for the muscles to achieve their full range of movement. We store our emotions and experiences in the body. By combining mindfulness and fascia release we help the body release old tension that the body is holding onto and start the resetting of the brain pathways and assisting in your body’s movement.
Areas of the brain which light up with pain and mindfulness.
One of the mindfulness techniques called body scanning comes in handy in your clinical massage session.
A body scan can be done while sitting or lying down. You will close your eyes and start to breathe and then slowly start scanning the body, starting from the nose and mouth down to the toes and then back up to the head. Throughout the scan you will breathe a breath or two to feel the sensations of the area and if there is any discomfort.
Your therapist may start your session guiding you through a short body scan. This increase in awareness of your body will assist in the many benefits of massage therapy. By releasing the tension in the fascia/ muscles we may release any emotions like stress being held in the muscle. By releasing a triggerpoint we turnoff the pain signal being sent from the muscle to the brain and allow for the brain to carve a new neural pathway of movement. If we combine these two methods of creating new neural pathways we can see longer lasting results of therapy.
Find out more about mindfulness in this blog.
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