I’ve heard people described as bilious, but that doesn’t mean the gallbladder is the storage organ for human emotions.
I take the claim about changing your body via changing your emotions with more than a few shakers of salt. One of the most pernicious aspects of this claim is when people with cancer are told they need to be “positive” to beat their disease. Evidence is far from compelling that this is the case. The end result is that patients are made to feel responsible for not getting better if they can’t put on a perky outlook.
By the way, one can point to “studies” that “prove” almost anything. It’s very important to analyze the reproducibility and quality of scientific studies before accepting that they offer proof of any given proposition.
I’m not talking about curing cancer. Why do people always jump to that conclusion. I’m talking about when you’re happy, your lips form into a smile. You might stand up a little straighter. You might walk with a little more spring in your step. When you’re sad, your body might droop a bit. It has nothing to do with curing cancer.
FWIW, tdn, here’s my knowledge/experience on this topic: “Emotional release” is what we call it when someone has an unexpected emotional response while they’re on the table. It usually shows up as uncontrollable crying or laughter, and if you ask the client why they’re doing it they will usually tell you they have no idea and they’re often surprised or embarrassed about it. It’s such a common thing that they made a point to mention it to us at the beginning of the massage school program: “This happens frequently and when it does we will have an instructor or staff member go tend to the individual but we will not stop class.”
Why does it happen? We’re not sure. It’s often related to emotional or physical trauma (e.g., performing massage on the neck of an assault victim whose attacker choked them would be a pretty obvious one) but a) You’d be surprised by what is traumatic for some people and b) sometimes it can’t be explained that simply. They just burst into tears when you massaged their hips and no one knows why. It’s often described as emotions being “stored” in the tissues simply because “When I pushed point X my client showed strong emotion” but is it literally in that spot? Who knows? My thoughts? Probably not. It’s probably some sort of subconscious association.
BUT ANYWAY: I’m super leery of a massage therapist who tells you they can MAKE this happen. Not only does it sound like bullshit to me, but it also sounds super unethical.
Please don’t tell people to take an NSAID daily without the advice of their doctors. There are a myriad of reasons people wouldn’t need to be on a daily NSAID. In fact, one of my sister’s best friends just died partially from complications of taking a Motrin tablet every day (she was sick in other ways but that was the final straw).
Thank you for the further explanation. FTR she never claimed that she can make it happen, she just told me to be prepared for it. I have no idea what’s going to happen, or why. I’m just really curious about what my experience is going to be.
Glad to hear she didn’t put it that way. I wasn’t there, so I missed the gist of the conversation, but it’s also a little worrisome to me that she told you to be prepared for it. Again, maybe I’m receiving the story incorrectly, but I usually don’t bring it up unless it’s really obvious that it’s likely to happen. We call that “rubbing pathology into the client.” The problem is people kind of receive it as a sort of subconscious suggestion and use it as a measuring stick for their experience. “I cried so I did it right” or “I didn’t cry so I did it wrong.”
Anyway, I wasn’t there so perhaps that’s not the case. I hope you have an awesome massage and emotional release is definitely an interesting phenomenon.
I was kind of wondering about that, so thanks for the helpful post. I’ll be prepared for whatever. Anyway, about 2 minutes after I read your post, she called. We’re set up for 3:00.
I loved it. It wasn’t a massage in the traditional sense. It’s kind of hard to describe, but it was very relaxing. I didn’t have an emotional release, but after we were done something weird happened. She stood me in front of a mirror and was lightly touching various parts of me, when suddenly I felt something in my chest. I don’t know how to describe it. Fullness? Openness? Love? Myocardial infarction? I don’t know, but it was strong and it was awesome, and she felt it the moment that I did. We were both grinning like mad fools for a few minutes.
133 posts before we got to the prostitution implications. We’ve graduated from prostitutes to quacks. I’m going to call that progress. Pathetic, but progress.
I think it is more movement based. She did do some deep tissue work on my back and feet (and apparently my feet are a mess), but most of it really gentle and very slow. One of the stranger things she did was put her left hand on my right shoulder and her right hand on my left hip and very softly push in a rhythmic way. And then she switched sides. I could really feel a stretch througn my chest!
