Why A Massage Can Help You Be Happier - The Physiological, Psychological And Social Reasons
We all love to feel good, and there seems to be this eternal quest in the modern world for “happiness.”
As massage therapists, we often experience clients who show a remarkable change in their demeanor after one of our massages. Just externally we can see them smiling, more relaxed, more positive.
But how exactly does a massage change your mood? Can a massage make you happier?
There have been quite a number of university studies done on exactly how massage affects your body and your brain and your emotions.
Here are some ways that massage has been shown to increase positive mood, backed by evidence based scientific research.
1. Massage Reduces The Stress Hormone, Cortisol
One little known physiological effect of massage is that it is one of the most effective ways to reduce cortisol in your body.
Cortisol is the hormone that is produced when you are stressed, and this hormone has been linked to lower levels of positive mood. It is produced in the adrenal glands, and is designed by the body to increase alertness and help a person react to immediate stressors. It also increases the blood glucose levels in the body. Whilst this can be helpful in the short term, long term higher levels of cortisol in the body can impact how your body functions and your psychological well being.
Another interesting study also showed that heightened cortisol levels also affected the hippocampus, an area of the brain that affects your emotions and also your memory. As a result, this can lead to higher emotional reactivity, which can then lead to a Catch 22 situations where high cortisol levels increase a persons reactivity, which can then affect a persons relationships, which can then lead to higher levels of stress and then higher cortisol levels. And so it goes on.
This cycle can lead to lower levels of happiness and more social isolation. High cortisol levels have been linked to higher levels of depression.
There can be a number of elements to this. The ones outlined above, but also high cortisol levels can lead to sleep disturbances. A reduction in the quality of sleep can lead again to irritability, mood swings and fatigue.
Massage has been shown to reduce cortisol in a number of studies including this one.
It is common for us when we massage people who are stressed, to have a much more relaxed, chilled client at the end of the massage. Our clients also regularly fall asleep on our massage tables, and they often comment on how much more relaxed they feel. They also often have the "just been massaged look", and look happier. The reduction in cortisol in their bodies can be part of the physiological reasons why they feel this way.
2. Massage Can Also Increase Endorphins Which Can Lead To Higher Levels Of Happiness
Your body releases endorphins when your body is stressed or feels pain. They are relased to help you deal with whatever you are experiencing and help improve your mood. By reducing yoru pain, it helps you manage the stressful situation or they physical or psychological pain you are experiencing.
They are created in your pituatary gland and hypothalamus. They help carry messages across your nervous system and attach to your opiod receptors. Consequently, they are often referred to as "feel good" hormones because, well that is what they do, help make you feel happier. They have been shown to reduce depression as well. Endorphins are a different chemical to dopamine. Endorphins attach to your opiod receptors, which are the reward centres of yoru brain, and then dopamine is released, which increases your desire to recreate activities that bring you pleasure and happiness. In part, this is why massage can be a little bit addictive, as your brain craves to recreate that feeling of happiness and relaxation you feel after a masssage.
Massage has been shown to be effective in significantly increase endorphins in the body. Along with exercise, sex and other activities, massage can be a great way to increase physiological ways of becoming happier.
3. A Massage May Increase Serotonin And Reduce Anxiety And Depression
Another strong physiological response your body will have to a massage is to increase serotonin. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that increases optimism, happiness, hope and general sense of well being. It helps signals between nerve cells, it also links in with melatonin to regulate sleepand it helps control your muscles and movement. As a result, increased levels of serotonin can help reduce depression and also anxiwty.
There have a few studies that have looked at how complementary treatments like massage, may help reduce anxiety. One of these focused on Swedish massage, which is a relaxation style of massage, and how it helped offset the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. This came about as a result of a series of massages over a six week period.
Massage may also help reduce depression as well. There have been a few studies on this area, a 2018 review showed promising results, even though quite a few studies only have small sample sizes. The massage therapy industry, as well as the psychological and psychiatric professions, would benefit from larger, more comprehensive studies on the effects of massage on negative affect and the effectiveness of different styles of massage as an alternate treatment to CBT or pharmaceuticals. It woudl help us understand further just how effective massage is in making you happier.
4. Massage Increases The Quality And Length Of Sleep
Sleep is a significant factor in over all well being and psychological happiness. This happens in quite a few ways. Sleep helps regulate your mood (we all know we get a bit more irritable if we have had a bad nights sleep), it helps our brains work better, it makes us more emottionally resilient and helps with negative experiences. All of this increases our ability to be happy on a more consistent basis.
Massage has been shown to increase not only the amount that you sleep, but its quality as well.
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology by the University of Miami showed that sleep was longer and deeper after a massage in clients that had fibromyalgia. It also showed that those who were in the group that received massages (as opposed to a relaxation group) also reported less pain.
Another study also showed that massage may be positive in sleep latency which is the period it takes to get to sleep. That tossing and turning before falling asleep might be able to be alleviated by massage. On top of this, there have been various university studies such as this one that suggests massage may help with those people that have a particularly restless or diturbed sleep.
5. Better Ability For Your Brain To Function
It's surprising to think that massage may help your cognitive ability. There have a been a couple of studies on this and it would certainly benefit from more research.
One study was done with seated chair massage in an office, that showed participants in the massage group performed better on maths tests than those in the control group. The thinking behind this is that when there is pressure on the body and the skin, the vagal nerve is stimulated and your heart rate is then slowed. This then leads to greater attention spans and better ability to concentrate.
Another study also seemed to indicate that children with ADHD that received massages twice a week were better able to regulate their mood and consequently had better behaviour in class.
Another interesting study also found that massage in both a massage chair, and also a brain massage done with binaural beats, were both effective in reducing mental fatigue and increasing cognitive functioning.
The suggestion from all of these is that a massage may in fact help you think better, be clearer in your thinking and help with your mood, all of which may lead to a higher sense of well being and happiness.
6. Increased Social Connection
This is one we see all the time at Ripple. We often do bookings for couples, girlfriends getting together for the weekend, mother daughter days and corporate functions.
The social aspect of these cannot be under estimated, and it is important that we come out to these bookings, that we not only use all our skills as massage therapists to give a good massage, but also all of our people skills to make the day go smoothly and help give a positive, uplifting and happy experience to everyone there.
One explanation for this increase of bonding following a massage is that massage can increase the levels of Oxytocin in the body. Oxytocin is the bonding hormone. For example, it is released in the mothers body when breast feeding a child. It helps with social bonding and is also released into the body when we hug or touch another person for a period of time.
Having strong social connections can be a key element of the happiness and well being of a person.
So whilst our clients at Ripple book massages because of the positive experience, there are so many ways that having a massage can help you feel happier. If you would like more information on who we are and what we do, or the types of treatments that may suit you and your group, please drop us a line or give us a call. We will be happy to help.