Originally posted by Massage Heights 4/20/15

Are you ready to rejuvenate your health and wellness for spring? Start by incorporating massage therapy into your wellness routine and expect a springtime renewal! Massage offers a host of health benefits that can give you increased energy, better circulation and overall wellness. Here are just a few of the reasons you should schedule a therapeutic massage today.

Lower Your Stress and Tension Levels

Therapeutic massage has been proven to help reduce stress and tension in your body by increasing circulation through manual pressure enacting your blood vessels to dilate”, helping you achieve lower blood pressure and heart rate. If you are trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle to improve your cardiovascular health, massage is a wonderful addition to your routine, especially when combined with healthy eating and regular exercise.

Flexibility and Range of Motion

If you are an active person, you want the best care for your body. Adding massage therapy is a great way to enhance your physical performance, giving your muscles the care they need for added flexibility and range of motion. Top athletes use massage to help improve muscle repair and reduce pain after strenuous use; techniques such as passive and active stretching, cross fiber tissue manipulation, and fascia release are used to achieve this. The same benefits can be gained by anyone with an active lifestyle, regardless of their level of activity.

Improved Mental State

Massage therapy helps your body and mind to relax. People who receive regular massage therapy notice an improved sense of well-being and feel less daily anxiety and stress. Many mental health professionals recommend massage to their patients to combat depression and anxiety disorders. Clinical studies have proven that massage increases your feel good hormones serotonin and dopamine, while reducing the stress hormone cortisol. Your mental state is as important to your overall health as being physically fit. Give both your mind and body the relief they need by adding therapeutic massage to your wellness routine.

Immunity Boost

This spring, don’t fall victim to illness. Massage therapy has been used to promote health, including helping improve many medical conditions. The increased circulation and reduction of tension in the body can aid in helping bolster the body’s immune system and allow it to heal fasterby increasing the number of lymphocytes, these are white blood cells who’s primary goal is to defend the body from disease. People with asthma, heart disease and many other medical conditions have noticed improvements in their health with regular massage.

Pain Management

If you suffer from pain from an injury or ongoing health issue, massage therapy can be a way to reduce or manage your pain. Massage can release endorphins from your brain, the natural pain-killers that most drugs only try to mimic. People with arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and many other health issues that cause pain have used massage as part of their health program. For many, massage offers a relief from their pain both during and for a prolonged period after their massage.

Spring is the perfect time to find new ways to improve your health and well-being. At Massage Heights, we offer a wide variety of massage therapy options to help you achieve better health to spur your springtime renewal into action. Request a Reservation today at one of our many Retreats to experience the benefits of adding massage therapy to your wellness routine.

by Suzanne Scurlock-Durana, C.M.T., C.S.T.-D.

As you catch glimpses of spring, those warmer days of thawing iciness and more sunshine, you may feel an inner stirring, an urge to get up and get moving. In this season, our natural impulse is to follow all of nature as it comes alive again.

In traditional Chinese medicine, spring is represented by the element of wood. Think about the rising of sap in the trees, new buds pushing through cold ground to find the sunlight, and new life emerging everywhere. Spring is the season of new beginnings.

Here’s what you can do to ride the energy of spring, and catalyze an emergence of the new within yourself.

Move your body

Springtime is when life is waking up from its long winter sleep. This is an excellent time to start moving.

Perhaps you want to explore a new exercise program you have read about during the winter but could not quite get the energy to start. As the weather becomes warmer, allow yourself time to bike, walk or run outdoors rather than retreating to the gym for exercise. Join friends or family for activities that take place in nature. Remember, if you have been hibernating all winter on your couch, let your movement activities start slowly and build up at a healthy pace.

If you are questioning how to begin this process in a way that works for your system, take a moment now and allow yourself to slow down and tune in to your inner wisdom by closing your eyes and following your breath. If it is comfortable, inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth, allowing your jaw to relax and drop open slightly. Sometimes a gentle sigh will come with your exhale. If it does, allow this to happen, as this enhances the natural relaxation effect. Practice this breathing method until you feel comfortable and centered.

Next, imagine yourself in the near future as the air warms and spring arrives. Ask yourself:

• What kind of movement or exercise does my body want?
• When I drop my awareness down into my legs, how do they feel?
• If my legs could have a voice, what kind of movement would they ask for in the coming months?
• How about my torso? How does it want to get moving?

Listen for any other parts of yourself that need to let you know something important about how they want to move. Allow yourself to imagine your schedule and what times you can make available for movement.

Move toward new things

Another element of spring is the internal quickening that occurs in all living beings. Winter gives the body the signal that we should hibernate and rest; spring, on the other hand, tells us to get up and start something new.

Spring is an incredible time to create, whether it’s a new business venture, new relationship or new chapter in your current relationship. It could mean revising your outlook on life or setting fresh goals. It is a time to dream and dare to expand who you are and how you see yourself.

As you did when you considered physical movement, take the time to slow down, breathe, drop inside yourself and listen. What does your heart say about your deepest inspirations? At certain points in my life, this time of year was when some big changes cracked open for me, and I had the energy to follow through and make them a reality. Allow yourself to dream, plan and ground your plans in your current reality, taking the steps to make them happen.

Just get moving

When you’re ready to harness the elements of nature and go with the natural flow of this time of year, think of initiating new movement in your life, creative thought, growth on all levels and the necessary steps you need to take.

Spring is a wonderful time to start—anything. Nature is with you. Notice the crocuses pushing through the cold, hard ground. These tender but sturdy shoots are like our dreams of growth and change. Nature reaches for the future in the spring—and you can, too.