Giving your kids a massage is more than just a way of expressing affection. Rubbing your child's skin and manipulating his or her muscles has many benefits.
With massage, you can include all of the following positives:
Massage is deeply relaxing for the recipient;
• It is a holistic form of treatment that treats every part of the being, including the physical body, the mind and the soul;
• It relieves tension, stress and anxiety, as well as encouraging relaxed muscles;
• It increases your awareness of and respect for your own body, which in itself has significant health benefits;
• It helps to improve blood flow and assists your body in its efforts to detoxify itself
• It helps promote speedier repair of damaged tissues and of course alleviates the pain that these damaged parts can cause;
• It aids digestion and strengthens your immune system;
• It imparts a general sense of heightened well being and above all else, there is very little that I know of that makes you or your child feel better than a good massage!
As you have just read, there are many physical benefits that you can enjoy as a result of a good massage but there are some additional, less obvious benefits that are specifically appropriate to those in a relationship too.
The fact is, massage can play a vital role in pulling two partners ever closer together primarily because massage (from the point of view of the partner providing the massage) is all about giving love and approval.
Massage is a superbly effective method of non-verbal communication that allows each person to get to know, understand and appreciate their partner far more intimately on a physical level, way beyond anything that they might ever know about one another without massage. I have found it useful for when my teenage daughter has decided to be all non-verbal and difficult. Sometimes the literal pat on the shoulder means so much to her I can see the tears in her eyes.
Therapists often report that people get more in a confessional mode when they are being massaged. This to me means that my child is more inclined to tell me the truth about what is going on her life because she is all relaxed and loosened up.
Furthermore, you do not have to be a world class massage practitioner for you and your child to gain huge benefits from the use of massage in your relationship either. Almost by definition, if you practice massage with your kid on a daily basis, you will become the best massage therapist they have ever had without ever really trying simply because you know better than anyone else ever could do.
