As a massage therapist who works with people who have pain, I have noticed that many of us have a tendency to push what we call negative feelings (anger, sadness, jealousy, fear, etc.) into our bodies and resist dealing with them outright. The body does us a great favor in storing these feelings for future processing when we are unable to deal with them in the current moment. These unexpressed, unacknowledged emotions create tension and stress in the body and then can manifest as chronic pain, illness, immune disorders, and so forth. We then curse our bodies: “my stupid back is acting up,” “that’s my bad shoulder,” “damn foot,” and yet, our bodies are simply speaking up to remind us that we still need to work through these unrecognized emotions. Pain acts as the voice of the body and can get louder and louder the longer we ignore it.

To change our suffering….

What is it about a hug that feels so good? Why is a warm touch on the hand or arm so comforting? Why is receiving a massage one of the most calming and beneficial things we can do?

Touch, especially skin-to-skin contact, releases a beautiful hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin has been dubbed “the hormone of love and bonding”. While it is often thought of as a female hormone, known for its role in labor and lactation in women, oxytocin offers a whole host of other beneficial effects for both women and men alike. Oxytocin reduces anxiety, blood pressure, cortisol levels, fear, and even decreases pain sensitivity.