The Missing Piece: Therapeutic Self Massage | Ep. 75 (Audio Only)

Welcome to the Holistic Inner Balance podcast with Dr. Nicole Cain and happy healthy Hadley.

Your go to resource for natural mental health and wellness strategies so that you can become the expert of your own emotional and physical well being.

Merging modern science with ancient wisdom.

Hi Everybody, this is Dr. Nicole and I'm here with Hadley and we're going to be talking today about a very interesting topic which actually generally gives me a slight amount of heebie jeebies mixed with just like some discomfort and something that I typically lean away from. And so it's really good when those kind of topics come to light and then we have an opportunity to just explore why do I feel the way that I feel about this? And I'm curious what you think. I'm curious if this conversation is something that is a no brainer to you if you use this exercise all of the time or if you're with me and it just feels a little bit awkward and then if so, why is that? And use it as an opportunity as I am today as we hang out with Hadley and learn about this topic and try to understand where that feeling came from. And I know that what I'm going to be doing is an audit of why I feel the way I feel and try to identify where that came from and then decide by the end of the conversation do I still feel the way that I felt at the beginning of the conversation as I feel at the end and if I feel differently, how do I want to reintegrate it? So I hope this is a really interesting conversation for you. I hope that you benefit a lot. And as always, I would love to hear your feedback and Hadley would love to hear your feedback about how you feel about it, what your thoughts are, if you would do something different or if you have a completely different approach like let us know, send us a comment in our social media or send us a message. And then as always, if you haven't like and subscribe, we would love to keep going and keep this podcast alive. And your support means everything for that. So Hadley, can you tell us about today's topic?

Yes, absolutely. I'm really excited because I think that this is a topic that is very, it's underrated. We in the wellness space, we are becoming a lot more sensitive to mental health, which is incredible. And we're also becoming a lot more sensitive to nervous system regulation and trauma and really, you know, kind of bringing to the forefront a lot of these underlying subconscious things. A lot of, you know, different, different ways to regulate the nervous system. And this is one topic that I'm not seeing, I'm still not seeing that many people talking about unless they are in the Ayurveda realm. And so that is. Have we teased it long enough?

Do you think we've used it for a minute? For a minute is. Guess you probably read the title of the podcast.

Yeah, right, right. But so this topic is self massage. And specifically the, the type of self massage in Ayurveda is called abhyanga, a funky kind of word. It's a B H Y A N G A abhyanga and it essentially means self massage most. So abhyanga is actually self massage with oil and we don't always have to use oil. And we'll talk a little bit about the different types of self massage that we can use. But this is, I think it's like a missing piece for the nervous system regulation conversation. I think it's a missing piece for a lot of different detoxification, like different, different physical symptoms, different things like that as well. And so I think it's really, really important and I'm really excited to talk a little bit more about it. I do see a lot of times people are talking about dry brushing that seems to be a little bit more popular right now because it detoxifies the lymphatic. People are obsessed with detoxification right now, which is amazing. And it can be like, it can be, it can strip us of things. Whereas the younger, the oil massage is more nourishing. It's like adding on, it's, it's making it so that we soften and we are able to kind of become more malleable essentially. Right. Whereas like dry brushing is like a hard selling stiff brush that we rub all over our bodies, which is great in a lot of circumstances. Abhyanga is, we're rubbing oil all over our bodies and it's just a very lovely, lovely, lovely experience. So yeah, that's, that's the topic today. Let's get into it.

So self massage, what is the first thing y' all think of when you think about self massage? And so when I think of self massage, for me it always goes to romance movies. I'm thinking rom com. And self massage or massaging others tends to be a very intimate, maybe even sensual activity. And so when I'm thinking from my clinical mind and clinical self, I need to identify a way to integrate this activity with another type of mindset that's not sexual, that's not sensual, or it doesn't have to be exclusively so. And so I think that's part of where it feels uncomfortable for me is because that's my priming exposure. You know, growing up in a family where we don't touch or hug or do really much of anything like that, unless it's like a Dutch hug, which is more like I'm going to pat you really hard in the back as though you're getting the Heimlich maneuver, and then back away awkwardly and don't make eye contact like that. Kind of like the way that my, my Dutch ancestors would hug. And so, like, this whole idea of self massage is, is a great opportunity for growth. And so when, when you say self massage, can you tell us what exactly that means? Are you, like, taking oil and like, rubbing it on your forearm and like, squeezing and twisting? Like, what are you doing exactly?

Yeah, so it's, it's a lot of times people think it's a euphemism for, like, self pleasure. Yeah. And so sometime writing, like, self massage on, like, social media and stuff, I'm like, people are. Some people are going to think that I'm talking about something that's different than what I'm talking about, which is equally important and valid, but not exactly what I'm talking about. And so I, I haven't found a better word for it other than abhyanga, but I haven't found like a, like an English phrase for it that's better. But yeah, self massage is essentially, it's just rubbing your whole entire body with oil. Abhyanga is at least rubbing your whole entire body with oil. You can do this without oil. And sometimes if I'm in a pinch, I will just use my hands and just rub, you know, rub on my forearm. Like you said, like, rub on my arm. There's not. So if you Google it, if you look online and you go like, okay, Ayurveda, Abhyanga, how to do will tell. Like, okay, you're supposed to rub your body. Like you're supposed to use oil on your hands and then rub your body on, on the long parts of your body. So, like, your arms and your legs, you're supposed to go up and down. You're always supposed to go toward your heart. And then you're supposed to go in like a circular motion on your stomach, like a clockwise motion. And I think those things are helpful. But I would just say use your intuition with it, because I don't. Unless you're, like, doing it in a way that doesn't feel good. I. I don't think it's. There's any wrong way to do it. So it's basic, it's just rubbing oil on your body. And there are some different ways that, you know, some different things that you want to keep in mind. First, let's, let's maybe go into some of the benefits of self massage. Just, just so we can sell you on it, on why you want to do it and then we can go into like more the logistics. How does that sound?

I think that sounds great. And I have a proposal for a name. Maybe like rebrand and so.

Oh yes, please.

Maybe we could just add the word therapeutic to the front. Like a therapeutic self massage. Like a sensual self massage.

Yeah, I like that. Yeah.

Sports self massage. A Dutch massage. Like whatever you want to call it.

Dutch. I love it.

Aggressive padding, if you catch that a minute ago. Yeah, I love that. And I do have data for some buy in. And so one of the things that we see, like you touched on the neurological piece, is that there's a ton of research. And when you and I were talking about doing this topic, I was like, all right, what's the actual science say? And there's this study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience and they were talking about the neurological changes that occur as a result of massage. And they measured it with objective use urine assay testing. And so what they looked at in the testing were levels of serotonin, which is your feel good neurotransmitter. Serotonin is how we affect depression and anxiety with antidepressants, primarily like Lexapro or Zoloft. And they saw that serotonin rose by 28% after a massage. And then dopamine levels, that's your feel good neurotransmitter. It's like that thing that gives you purpose and drive. That rose by 31%. And then they saw a reduction in the stress hormone called cortisol by 23%. And so neurochemically, one single massage caused these measurable changes in neurochemicals that was associated with increased mood and decreased perceived stress. That's pretty convincing for me. And that's just getting a simple.