Massage: Your Stress Escape
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June 5, 2025
Stress and anxiety wreak havoc on our bodies. Physically, we may experience headaches, muscle aches, nausea, upset stomach, changes in eating habits and sleep patterns. Emotionally, we can feel overwhelmed, more irritable, and have a hard time focusing. These all can lead to behavioral issues such as withdrawal, isolation, procrastination, and unhealthy coping mechanisms. When we experience stress, our bodies go into “fight or flight” mode. Our cortisol spikes, our heart rate increases, muscles tense up, and if left untreated, stress can lead to more serious issues down the road. So how can we escape the stress of everyday life? Let me introduce you to Massage Therapy.
From Chaos to Calm
Massage Therapy helps lower cortisol levels and shifts your body out of “fight or flight” mode. For those of you who don’t know what cortisol is, it’s often called the body’s “stress hormone”. Its job is to prepare the body for stressful situations to keep us safe, hence why we are in “fight or flight” mode. Massage Therapy is known to reduce cortisol levels by up to 30% by activating our parasympathetic nervous system, often referred to as “rest and digest”. This counteracts the “fight or flight” response triggered by stress by lowering heart rate and blood pressure.
Oxytocin is raised as well during a massage therapy session, which helps us build trust and bond with one another. It can also increase the release of serotonin and dopamine, which are neurotransmitters that help lower stress levels and promote positive feelings.
Basically, Massage Therapy means decreased stress hormones, increased happy hormones, and improved mood and well-being.
Hands On Healing
Stress doesn’t just affect your mind. It affects your body and settles deep into your muscles, especially those in your neck, shoulders, and back. Getting a massage is a highly effective way to relieve these tensions, relaxing both your body and your mind. As blood flow returns to your muscles they will begin to relax, your nervous system will calm, resulting in physical relief, greater clarity, focus, and emotional stability. Clients feel a difference even after one massage session! Regular massage therapy sessions can help relieve tension and allow your body to move more freely and comfortably, making it easier to handle daily stressors without feeling as weighed down.
Improved Sleep Quality
Something not many realize, is that the more we stress, the more our quality of sleep goes down. Poor sleep contributes to worsened mental health, mood swings, and increased stress levels. This creates a vicious cycle that starts to negatively impact your physical health as well. Massage Therapy helps to break that cycle by promoting deep relaxation and stress reduction. Gone are the nights of lying awake thinking of the stress, or not being able to get deep, restful sleep because your body and mind can’t relax.
In order to sleep, our body needs serotonin, which then can help increase melatonin production. Massage Therapy helps regulate the production of both, which means your body can start to recognize when you’re tired, and help you regulate better sleep-wake cycles. Having normal sleep-wake cycles can improve and support your overall mental, emotional, and physical health!
Tailored to You
Where most people do the basic, cookie-cutter massages, we go the extra mile to give you a massage tailored to you and your specific needs. Our Licensed Massage Therapists go through weekly training to ensure we have the tools and knowledge necessary to make each session a success. It’s things like this that make your experience here at the beUtofullness Way by Tami’s Salon and Spa different.
