It’s been a long time since I promised the introduction to abdominal massage – I will blame the pandemic on this one… To be fair, I have been using it regularly when I felt it needed, and client feedback have been overwhelmingly positive, which helped me understand just how incredibly healing it can be.
So why abdominal massage?
The consensus so far is that it is surprisingly nice and relaxing. People can be a bit worried about me poking at their soft bellies (I know I would be too), but once tried, most people ask for it again. It is gentle and soft so not invasive at all.
Abdominal massage has direct effects both on a physical and emotional level. Physically it is mainly used to help digestion. It can give relief from constipation, bloating, and generally a lot of other digestive issues. It brings in a lot of fresh blood flow into the belly muscles and the organs, and encourages bowel movement. It works on all the inner organs besides the digestive system, helping them being more mobile against each other, functioning better for the very same reason: fresh blood flow means fresh nutrients and faster toxin removal – it could make all the difference in living a healthier pain-free life.
Some studies have confirmed that it may also help to alleviate menstrual pain and cramping when applied the week before period. Considering that it helps all the tummy muscles relaxed, it actually makes a lot of sense and can be a very useful tool to avoid the worst of it.
The emotional effects of the tummy massage also cannot be understated. Our guts and viscera hold an awful lot of emotions. When emotions don’t get recognised and released, they settle in the body as a blocked energy (emotion = energy in motion when translated from Latin). Our digestive system is one such “dumping ground” for these blockages due to the gut-brain axis that connects the brain and the viscera (more about it in my next article). To prove this, I had clients who have experienced feeling emotional after a tummy massage, sometimes a specific emotion rising up which surprised them. It is a wonderful way to release that which no longer serves you.
As part of the abdominal massage, I also work with the diaphragm: that’s the large concave muscle that helps your lungs to breathe. When it’s tense, it can constrict breathing, pressing on the bottom of the lungs reducing their capacity and therefore creating shallow breathing and a feeling of anxiety.
At the moment abdominal massages are offered when needed as part of massage treatments. Feel free to ask anytime to add it to your session, especially if you struggle with digestion or mental health issues (stress, anger, anxiety, depression etc). But, excited to soon announce an innovating new treatment that I am crazy excited about, that is based around the tummy and mental health. If you are at all familiar with polyvagal theory, you can start to imagine the level of what I’m planning to involve! Won’t be long, I promise, and it will be fairly different from my usual work. Soon to start trial treatments to test it before launching. Yay 🙂