Why is it that massages are so addicting? Have you gotten hooked on a massage addiction? Getting a massage feels amazing. Reality is, you begin feeling better before the therapist even enters the room. You’re in a dark, quiet space surrounded by calming music and soothing scents. The warm sheets feel soft on your bare skin, and once your massage starts, all tied up tension and stress begins to get released through the power of touch.
As you settle onto the massage table, remaining still you can focus on the rhythm of your own breathing, quieting your mind and letting your thoughts pass by. The therapist’s touch causes an immediate reaction in your brain as soon as your skin’s nerve cell feels pressure. They signal the brain to release feel-good chemicals called endorphins, which boost your mood and give you a natural high. As your mind floats away, you’re able to detach your feelings and just observe your thought process as you remain engaged in the current experience. If you have real aches or pains the morphine like effect from the endorphins will help diminish them by blocking pain signals from the brain. So if your muscles are sore after a rigorous workout, a good rubdown will actually help them heal faster.
We often think we can feel the tension literally being worked out of our muscles, and that’s pretty much what’s happening when we get a massage. The pressure from the therapists hand movements comes into play again. Improving you circulation by moving blood more efficiently and releasing cell waste-like worn out proteins faster than your body does naturally. Researchers have found that just a 15 minute rubdown can help you to think more clearly and improve your alertness. So maybe that’s the reason why we are so addictive to massages. So is too much of a good thing bad for you. In the case of massage, probably not.