It starts with a massage and from there could include a mani-pedi, a facial and hair cut or you could opt for a sauna and body wrap. If you have the funds, traipsing off to be wrapped in soft white terry cloth while sipping champagne is the way to go, but don’t think that a spa day is only for the rich and famous or only for women. You can even have a spa day right at home. Hire a masseuse who will bring his table right to your living room, or watch some YouTube videos on technique and try your own home massages with your partner. From fancy to DIY, science verifies that a spa day provides valuable mental and physical benefits for everyone.
Boost Your Mood
You probably can’t do a spa day everyday, so it’s important to practice mindfulness and add supplements like mood boosting probiotics to keep yourself in a positive frame of mind, but when you need an extra lift, a spa day is there for you. Massage is a perfectly natural way to adjust the chemicals that influence your mood. Massage decreases your levels of cortisol by a third. Cortisol is the body’s stress hormone. It increases inflammation and prevents weight loss.
At the same time, a massage decreases your body’s stress reaction, it increases the happiness hormones, serotonin and dopamine, bringing them up in tandem by nearly a third again. These hormones in combination can improve your mood, increase your concentration and ability to learn, and help you sleep better.
Beyond the value of a massage, every part of a spa day is the type of self-care that reminds you you are worth taking care of. You may not always get acknowledgment from others about your value, but you can remind yourself of your own worth and show yourself the love you know you deserve.
Remove Toxins
Beyond improving your mood, a spa day removes toxins from your system. Saunas, wraps and mud baths all claim to remove toxins through sweat. While there isn’t a lot of data to back this up, the data shows that saunas increase heart health. They didn’t change toxin levels in patients experiencing problems with chemical buildup, but they did have better quality of life while using a sauna regularly.
Massage increases blood flow throughout your body and you can request a lymphatic drainage massage which will help your body’s natural healing system. If you’ve had lymph nodes removed or damaged because of cancer or its treatment, if you don’t get enough exercise to keep your lymph system moving, or if you have an autoimmune disease, a massage will help your lymph system do its job. Lymph helps carry white blood cells where they are needed and rid your body of wastes and toxins.
Physical Benefits For Mental Benefits
The physical benefits go well beyond potential toxins. The relaxation your muscles experience, combined with the increase in serotonin and dopamine means you’ll get better and longer sleep. Lack of sleep is tied to irritability and the inability to handle stressful situations. A good night’s sleep is all it takes to get your mood elevated and enhance your stress reactions, keeping you cheerful and flexible to whatever life throws at you.
Massage also causes better circulation. Increased circulation leads to a stronger heart and lungs. Heart disease has increasingly been linked to mental health. Mental health disorders like anxiety and PTSD can affect the hormones that directly affect your heart. On the flip side, being diagnosed with heart disease can increase the likelihood of developing depression or anxiety. A massage helps diminish those mental and physical symptoms on both sides of the equation.
Conclusion
A good spa day may seem like a small luxury you can live without, but science has proven you’ll have a much better life with this luxury than without it. In fact, it’s less of a luxury than a necessity. So take the time to take care of yourself.
