Massage and the Power of Human Touch

I am very excited to explore the topic of massage therapy after declaring it as my career choice in the WAM program. I loved that this presentation was hands on, and that Andrea Altman discussed various techniques for massage. I first became interested in massage therapy and the Wellness program here at Johnson after my dad began getting ill years ago with fibromyalgia, chronic back pain, and many other things. Alternative medicine has always been intriguing to me after many of my father’s surgeries and medications did not seem to help him come back to a balanced state within his body.

            Altman went over Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, reflexology, and lymphatic drainage. It’s exciting to know how many different techniques there are within massage, giving a lot of versatility.

“Massage can relieve tension in your muscles, and most people use it for relaxation, relief of stress and anxiety, or to reduce muscle soreness. Massage can also cause your body to release natural painkillers, and it may boost your immune system.” (page 131, Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine)

I think that it is really neat how powerful the touch of healing is in massage therapy. The fact that our bodies have the ability to “release natural painkillers” is amazing. More people should rely on the nature of our bodies in receiving pain relief than to seek quick results from an allopathic doctor that can produce terrible side effects. Alternative medicine, such as massage therapy, is the key to taking down the pharmaceutical companies that are not actually healing- and are rather destroying our beautiful bodies.

            The power of touch between two humans can be incredibly healing, intense, and comforting all at the same time. Many times in North American culture, touch is looked upon as a shameful act and everything is over sensualized. Humans were created with hands, so we might as well put them to use in a positive way. Through modalities such as massage therapy and Reiki humans are able to heal each other using the power of touch. If we know that healing can be achieved this way, we should be more patient in our healing processes rather than suppressing our pain with pharmaceuticals. Pills can only suppress pain and illness for so long, and it will only return at some point in our lifetime. Massage therapy and Reiki may take longer to show healing affects but the pain and suffering is much less likely to reoccur. So why don’t we get away from the pill-popping culture and heal each other in the most natural way we can? With our hands.