Being touched has a tendency to elicit a multitude of responses. Often during a massage, when muscle tension is being released, you may not understand your own tendency to giggle, breathe deeply or even cry. The latter can cause quite a bit of embarrassment and confusion of you don’t understand the psychosomatic effects of touch. When any of those responses occur what’s happening is emotional release.

Having an emotional release during a massage is actually a common occurance. Many people don’t realize that our cells and muscles have memories that can date back to infancy. If any trauma has be experienced, no matter what age, though we may have healed on a physical level, our emotions may still be attached to the area effected. During a massage, your therapist may re-awaken the emotional pain you experienced just by treating the shoulder you dislocated when you lost the fight with the neighborhood bully at age 12 (for example).

Shirley Vanderbilt of Body Sense magazine put it well in an article republished in MassageTherapy.com. When you receive a massage, the muscles and tissues release on an emotional level in much the same way they release physical tension. This letting go manifests in many forms — an audible sigh, laughter, muscle twitching or even tears. the In the safe, nurturing space of a therapy room, people are able to let down their defenses, making these kinds of emotional releases a common occurrence.

“Crying is a pretty normal response,” says C.G. Funk, branch director at the Utah College of Massage Therapy, Arizona campus. It can be about something in particular, or about nothing at all. “It can come from a variety of things, including having work done on a part of the body where the person holds the memory of emotional or physical trauma. Of course, physical trauma has an emotional component, too.”

Massage also allows the body to let go of stress. “It may be that the client has had a stressed-out year, or month, or several months and all the stress is built up,” says Funk. In some cases, the body may be holding the memory of a trauma long forgotten. When your body finally relaxes, that memory can surface as you become more connected to being in your body. There may be tears or some other expression as your body releases and lets go of these emotions.

Click the link above to read the article in it’s entirety. The most important thing to remember is that having an emotional release is natural and nothing to be ashamed of. Make sure the massage therapist you choose nurtures your response to pain and creates a safe environment to express yourself in. Otherwise, go elsewhere.


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