Body Image through Touch: The Unsung Hero of Massage Therapy
This article was orginally featured back in 2017. Some edits have been made.
The statistics are alarming. The majority of U.S. women–some surveys estimate more than 80 percent–are unhappy with their appearance. At least 10 million young women and 1 million young men have an eating disorder. Girls as young as 6 and 7 are expressing disapproval of their looks. Over 50% of 13-year-old girls express being unhappy with their body, and that number only increases as they get older. In our culture of highly edited Instagram feeds and airbrushed advertisements, comparison has become the thief of joy and has created an epidemic of negative body image.
How do you see yourself?
Are you content with the person looking back at you from the mirror each morning or do you frown in frustration? Unfortunately, many of us are unhappy with the person looking back. Whether it’s lamenting about having a few extra pounds or exhibiting more serious, self-hating body dysmorphic disorders, body image is under siege in our celebrity-fixated society. While the media continues to airbrush photos of svelte supermodels for magazine covers, others are trying to teach young girls to love their bodies, beautiful imperfections and all. One way to combat the Hollywood hype and to create an appreciation for the bodies we have is through hands-on massage and bodywork.
Body Positivity vs. Body Neutrality
The discourse surrounding body image in the past several years has shifted from a movement of body positivity to one of neutrality. While that may seem like a step backwards, it actually is a healthier approach to cultivating a relationship with your body. Having a positive body image focuses on loving all the superficial flaws and recognizing that bodies are beautiful at any size and shape, not just the ones we see in magazine ads. But the focus is still on feeling beautiful, which is a difficult thing for many people to do after years of negative self-perception. The concept of body neutrality, however, removes the pressure of physical appearance altogether. It focuses on gratitude for your body’s ability to do the things a body does, not it’s ability to fuel your ego or be acceptable to other people.
Why Massage Affects Body Perception
Being obsessed with your body’s appearance can have serious, long-lasting ramifications. A sense of unworthiness and self-loathing can set up a lifetime of self-deprecating behaviors. Regularly-scheduled massage allows us to reconnect with our bodies and ourselves. Massage can help you release physical and mental patterns of tension, enhancing our ability to experience our bodies (regardless of their shape and size) as they feel in the given moment. Just as it facilitates the ability to relax, massage also encourages an awareness of your body. With greater self-awareness, you can more clearly see and identify destructive thought patterns and behaviors. Identifying thoughts and behavior patterns is the first step to reversing the effects they have had on you.
The Value of Massage
Massage creates a sense of nurturing that is especially powerful when it comes to cultivating a neutral or positive body image. Accepting the nonjudgmental touch of a trained therapist goes a long way toward rebuilding an appreciation and respect for your own body. If we find acceptance for who we are and what our bodies do, we are giving ourselves permission to live comfortably in the skin we have. No matter what a client weighs, massage and bodywork therapists are trained to appreciate all bodies, without judgment, and to deliver the best care possible. As in any session, a therapist’s goal is to create an environment that feels safe and nurturing for clients, all while delivering much-needed therapeutic touch.
Research shows that touch is a powerful ally in the quest for physical and mental health. Not only does it help us be more in tune with our bodies, it can also help restore a sense of “wholeness” that is often lost in the segmented, overly-scheduled lives we navigate on auto-pilot. When we regain that connection, it’s much easier to remember that our bodies are something to be cherished, nurtured, and loved, not belittled, betrayed, and forgotten. Valuable for every age and every body type, massage and bodywork have innumerable benefits. Here are a few:
Alleviates low-back pain and improves range of motion.
Decreases medication dependence.
Eases anxiety and depression.
Enhances immunity by stimulating lymph flow.
Exercises and stretches weak, tight, or atrophied muscles.
Increases joint flexibility.
Improves circulation by pumping oxygen and nutrients into tissues and vital organs.
Releases endorphins- the body’s natural painkillers.
Through the Scars
Cultivating a neutral or positive relationship with your body is not just about a few extra pounds on the hips. Instead of being unhappy with your weight, it might instead be tied to the scars of past injuries, surgeries, and trauma. Massage can be helpful here, too. For burn victims, research has shown massage can help in the healing process, while for post-surgery breast cancer patients, massage and bodywork can reintegrate a battered body and spirit. In addition to softening scar tissue and speeding post-surgery recovery, massage and bodywork for these clients is about respect, reverence, and learning to look at, and beyond, the scars.
When the tissues start to let go and relax under a massage therapist’s hands, profound shifts occur emotionally and physically. A softening happens, and the brain and body begin to integrate again. The chasm between body and mind that created the eating disorder, or fueled the negative body image, begins to narrow. In her book, “Molecules of Emotion,” Georgetown University Medical School professor Candace Pert explains that the body is the “actual outward manifestation, in physical space, of the mind.” She says that if we generate negative energy in response to our appearance, it can eventually find its way into reality. Self-acceptance, then, is paramount for living well, and massage/bodywork is a healthy path to get you there. Finding the stillness in a massage session allows you to just “be,” without judgment. Partner that with the comfort that comes from allowing your body to be nurtured by someone else, and we begin to remember our value, regardless of our outward appearance, or what we perceive it to be.
