How massage and shiatsu can benefit shoulder, neck and back pain.
Living with pain is a reality for many people. A reality which is becoming more and more common in our world. Shoulder, neck and back pain is one of the most common complaints that bodyworkers and other body-based physicians receive. Most of the time we don’t know where it comes from, or even if we do we are perplexed by how difficult it is to relieve ourselves of the constant discomfort.
We are living in a fast-paced world full of stress and deadlines and a world in which taking time to care for our body sets us back too far in the rat race or is simply unacceptable. Many of us are on our feet a lot, we might be working in a job requiring heavy lifting or maybe we have kids - another thing which requires a lot of heavy lifting, stress and bending over. Perhaps we have a full time desk job and spend our days slumped over a keypad. It seems like whatever it is we do with ourselves there's always ample ways to create pain and not many ways to heal ourselves.
It isn’t only the physical injuries we might encounter, more often the pain arises somewhat ‘out of nowhere’ due to the tension we build up in our bodies with stress, grief or simply living a busy life without time to relax and unwind. Emotions, when going unaccounted and unexpressed will always plant themselves somewhere in the body and manifest as physical symptoms. The lucky ones will catch these early and knead the tension out of their bodies before they become serious pathologies.
This is where the benefits of massage and shiatsu are highly effective. The various massage techniques including shiatsu have multiple levels of benefit to you as a whole person. Massage transcends any notions of individual systems and parts of the person, and rather acts as a full wholesome therapy to the entire being on the physical, mental, and spiritual levels.
Not only does massage help to untangle the knots and tension built up in your muscles and fascia but it is also an opportunity for your mind to rest. Give your brain some time to switch off, an opportunity we don’t allow ourselves often enough. We can recharge our vitality in this time, allowing a full spectrum healing of ourselves as we lie there, enjoying the delicious tingles, warmth, pressure, and all of the other myriad sensations our body encounters for which there are no words to describe.
Not only does massage give you this experience in the moment of receiving, it also has long lasting effects which continue after you leave; the reset in the body, the reliving of tension in the muscles, the physiological relief and vitality will continue to benefit you and help you to build strength and resilience in your body and overall being.
It can be hard to justify putting time aside to book yourself in for a massage, but in a world that is nonstop and in our lives which are constantly striving to keep up, it's the least you can do for yourself, to allow yourself to recharge. Giving yourself the gift of massage and shiatsu on a more frequent basis will amaze you with how different you can feel. Relieve that back and shoulder pain and show yourself and you don’t need to live with the pain you are dealing with now.
TA Team
