How Breathing During Massage Can Enhance Relaxation and Recovery
Have you ever wondered if how you are breathing during a massage has anything to do with your overall experience and results? It does.
The body and mind are always transmitting information to one another. If the body is in pain, it will tell the brain it hurts. If the mind is focused on the fear of pain it will add negative emotions to the experience and increase temporary undesirable sensations and The fight, freeze or flight response.
These patterns reflect heightened alertness, agitation, and readiness for immediate response. Which can make it challenging to breathe, relax and release the reasons for getting a massage in the first place.
High-frequency beta waves, especially high beta (around 20–30 Hz). In perceived stress or danger, the brain can also show brief bursts of gamma activity (30-100 Hz)
This is why I teach my patients how to breathe in ways that get them out of the triple F-Zone as we are warming up the body and cooling down the mind in the beginning of each massage.
One of the goals for the massage recipient should be to commit to the BodyBraille ALPHA STATE BREATING METHODS. Which allows the mind and body to relax, release and recover as quickly and comfortably as possible.
The alpha state is a relaxed mental state where your brain produces alpha waves, typically at 8–12 Hz. It’s associated with calm focus, light meditation, daydreaming, and reduced stress, often experienced just before sleep or during deep relaxation.
The most beneficial state during a corrective massage is deep relaxation, where your body shifts into a parasympathetic, or "rest, release and digest," mode. This promotes tissue repair, reduces stress hormones, enhances circulation, the experience and overall results.
When people commit to the BodyBraille brain wave breathing and healing techniques, Brain-wave activity typically slows into the alpha (calm, wakeful relaxation) or theta (deep relaxation, near-meditative) range. These states support physical healing and emotional release, allowing the massage process to have its maximum restorative effect.
Breathing is the one common denominator in every human experience. INFACT: The first thing we do when we enter this world is take our first breath and the last thing we do before we fly is give our last breath.
Every breath and brainwave deserves and desires the opportunity to serve you best. Especially when you need to change the way you deal and feel with every form of stress.
To encourage alpha brainwave activity (8–12 Hz), slow, deep, and rhythmic breathing is most effective. A common approach is diaphragmatic breathing:
Inhale slowly through your nose for about 4–6 seconds, letting your belly expand.
Pause briefly for 1–2 seconds.
Exhale gently through your mouth for 6–8 seconds, allowing your mind and body to relax.
Maintain a smooth, even rhythm, focusing on the sensation of breathing and how they are allowing you to alter your state of mind and body.
Pairing this with relaxed posture, infrared light and heat, closed eyes, a combination of specific eye movement patterns, calmly counting backwards from 5-1 in your mind as you inhale and exhale and mindful attention to your breath helps shift the brain toward alpha activity.
This also allows you to think less and lower the risk of your thoughts, labels, judgments and emotions to get in the way of you facing, embracing and erasing anything that no longer serves you.
Everything is energy. And every energy has a frequency measured by its herts. Each herts has a sensation that can be shifted with the BodyBraille methods and when all the methods are combined. In time you can observe your higher self-consciousness leading you through your healing journey and transformation.
When you are open minded and willing to put the BodyBraille methods to the test. I can guarantee you will feel and become better While you are in the process of reaching the version of you that serves you best.
Grant Gatlin LMT, CPT, COPBF
CERTIFIED OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE BODYWORK & FLEXIBILITY