Mindful Self-Massage:
An Active Meditation

Self-Massage as an Active Meditation

Mindful Self-Massage is an active meditation integrating mindfulness and self-compassion principles with the power of touch. Do you remember enjoying a slow and silent walk in nature, fully aware of your breath and the present moment? If so, you have experienced the benefits of an active meditation. Practicing mindfulness - the awareness of the present moment - doesn’t require you to sit still with closed eyes. In fact, slowing down your movements and being aware of your body and breath can turn many activities into mindful meditations (e.g. eating, cooking, walking, massaging and more). Mindful Self-Massage invites you to focus on your moment-to-moment experience, while avoiding the distraction of your thoughts. 

Another key feature of the approach is self-compassion. This means to “give ourselves the same kindness and care we’d give to a good friend” (8). Researcher Kristin Neff pioneered the ever growing body of evidence showing the benefits of self-compassion on mental health (9). Practicing self-massage is an opportunity to stop criticizing our own body and focus on kindness instead. Easier said than done? A helpful exercise is having a thought of gratitude (about anything, large or small) and transferring it into actual feelings during a self-massage session. 

Mindful Self-Massage is also inspired by neuropsychologist Richard Hanson and his method to “Hardwiring Happiness”, as one of his best-selling books is titled (10). He advocates for creating positive experiences, and taking the time to fully absorb them. This builds lasting neural connections beyond short-term memory, and helps counterbalance the negativity bias of our brain, reducing stress and anxiety. 

Finally, it is worth mentioning that Mindful Self-Massage does not involve accessories. Self-massage tools can be great, but they lack an important feature: the quality of touch. In order to release tensions in body regions less available to our hands (like the back), passive stretches and slow movements are a good complement. 

The Benefits of Mindful Self-Massage 

For Helen*, age 76, Mindful Self-Massage means a “good dose of love” at night, improving her quality of sleep and well-being. For Peter, it has been a source of comfort and inner calm during a cancer related stay at the hospital. For Audrey, it is a way to de-stress more efficiently in her short breaks at her loud and busy workplace. 

In my first year of teaching Mindful Self-Massage online, I received hundreds of testimonials informing me about the benefits of this practice. Many weren’t surprising, since they overlapped with regular massage: muscle tension relief, stress reduction and better sleep. Yet, after a while, I started getting very interesting accounts from people who practiced on a regular basis (sometimes daily). 

Suzan was thrilled to share that she felt like a better friend to herself in multiple ways. She reported being more aware of her body’s needs in general and responding more quickly instead of being absorbed in her routine. 

Linda noted after a month that she was more patient and less irritated with her family after work, because she felt less tense in her body and enjoyed better sleep. She fell in love with self-massage and practiced every day, even at red lights while going to work! 

For Sarah, the impact of Mindful Self-Massage also spilled over to other areas of her life. She reported better body awareness and enjoyment for her walks in nature, making them an active meditation.

While self-massage can’t replace a professional therapeutic massage, it has the advantage of being freely available at any time once the basics have been learned. Like with meditation, regular practice seems to have positive effects on a larger scale.

The Future of Mindful Self-Massage 

Mindful Self-Massage first appeared as a response to the context of COVID-19, but it will not be outdated when things return to normal. Loneliness, stress and anxiety were pandemics of the 21st century long before the coronavirus took the world by storm (12). 

Potential uses and research avenues applicable to Mindful Self-Massage seem endless and could include the following ideas: 

• Helping those affected by loneliness, including the elderly, cope with their situation, 
• Reducing anxiety symptoms associated with illnesses or trauma,
• Helping individuals with body image issues,
• Supporting sexual abuse victims strengthen their trust in touch and the feeling of body ownership,
• Teaching domestic violence offenders the value of caring touch as a stress management and prevention tool, 
• Helping teleworking businesses improve their work environments,
• And more… What would you add to this list of potential avenues? 

The story of Mindful Self-Massage is just beginning. It is taking its place next to old traditions like shiatsu-based Do In self-massage, and modern, accessory-based approaches like the successful Roll Model® by Jill Miller. The core idea is basic, yet powerful: reconnecting people with their own caring touch, through simple and intuitive techniques. 

My hope for the future is that the approach will become grounded in medical research, just like mindfulness meditation did with standardized programs like MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). I also hope that it will help as many people as possible to transform the relationship they have with their body. 

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Raphael Lavoie-Brand is a massage therapist, a leading self-massage instructor and a former project manager at the Quebec Federation of Massage Therapists (FQM). He is the founder of the Mindful Self-Massage approach and teaches it online in a variety of settings, including colleges, libraries, businesses, virtual conferences, community organizations and health events. He is passionate about creating meaningful and impactful self-care experiences.

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REFERENCES

(1) Hasan M. (2020) What All That Touch Deprivation Is Doing To Us. New York Times, Oct. 6th, published online. 

(2) Featured in French in URBANIA Magazine : A. Gerald, Laïma (2021) L’automassage ou la découverte du trésor caché entre nos mains. URBANIA, May 1st, published online.  

(3) Montagu A. (1986) Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. 3rd Edition, Columbia University Press. 512 p. 

(4) Fields T. (2014) Touch, 2nd Edition. The MIT Press. 250 p. 

(5) Walker S, Trotter P et al. (2017) C-tactile afferents: Cutaneous mediators of oxytocin release during affiliate tactile interactions? Neuropetides 64:27-38. 

(6) Heinrichs M., Baumgartner T., Kirschbaum C., Ehlert U. (2003). Social support and oxytocin interact to suppress cortisol and subjective responses to psychosocial stress. Biol. Psychiatry 54:1389–1398. 

(7) More exercises can be found on MindfulSelfMassage.org

(8) As stated on Dr. Kristin Neff’s home page : self-compassion.org 

(9) Neff K. (2011) Self-Compassion. The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. HarperCollins Publishers, 305 p. 

(10) Hanson R. (2013) Hardwiring Hapiness. The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence. Harmony Books, 304 p. 

(11) Brown J. and Wong J. (2017) How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain. Greater Good Magazine, June 6. Berkeley University of California, published online. 

(12) Ducharme J. (2020) Covid-19 Is Making America’s Loneliness Epidemic Even Worse. TIME Magazine, Mai 8th, published online.  

* The names used in this article were changed for anonymity purposes.