Katy* took a seat in our waiting room, bounced her leg up and down, hunched over her phone, and waited for her massage to start. Once we got back to the treatment room I noticed her wide eyes darting around, taking in all the details of the space. Even the essential oil diffuser, soft lighting, and calming music wasn’t having much of effect on her (at least not yet).

I didn’t really need to ask why she’d decided to come in for a massage, but I wanted to give her a chance to explain in her own words, and include any details she felt comfortable sharing. At first, she had a hard time expressing herself, but soon enough she was on a roll, quickly and anxiously spitting the words out.

“I’ve always had a little anxiety” Katy explained, “it’s just something I’ve always dealt with, and I’m pretty used to it by now. But this…this is different”.

She went on to tell me she’d recently had a health scare. A doctor had found something suspicious on her mammogram and called her in to look more closely. Her anxiety quickly spiraled out of control, and she started having daily anxiety attacks that left her heart racing and unable to catch a deep breath. After and 2ndmammogram and a biopsy she was released with a clean bill of health. But she still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. The anxiety attacks were no longer daily, but she was still having them a few times a week. She was also only able to sleep 4-5 hours a night, which had started affecting her energy levels.

Katy is not the only person I’ve had on my table with anxiety, in fact, it’s a common reason clients come to see me.  The style of bodywork that I do, Esalen massage, effects the nervous system in profound ways.

Anxiety and the Nervous System

Your nervous system is divided into 2 basic parts, the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight or flight response, and the parasympathetic system, or rest and digest. Both modes are important for life and for health, and we should be able to effortlessly switch between them as needed in the moment.

When your fight or flight system gets stimulated it causes your heart rate to increase, guiding more blood to your extremities. Your muscles activate, sweat glands open, and blood sugar rises to give you a quick burst of energy. All these actions are preparing your body to fight for your life, or to run away from danger. And when you’re in the types of situation where you need to run or fight or lift a car, you get a chance to use up glucose, sweat to cool off your body, and move your muscles. Then, when the threat is over, you have expended the energy that was created and your body returns to normal.

But what happens when this response is triggered by things that aren’t life or death situations? How does it feel when all these changes are happening in your body and you don’t, or can’t, run or fight? It feels like anxiety. Your heart races, you get sweaty and fidget-y, your muscles become tense and you get lightheaded and dizzy from the rapid shift in blood sugar.

If this fight or flight response keeps getting triggered, it becomes harder to switch out of it, and you end up in chronic and anxiety and burnout mode. Your muscles stay tense, develop knots, and become painful. Your blood pressure rises and you gain weight. You end up feeling tired and wired where you’re exhausted, but when it’s time for bed or to relax, you can’t shut off.

The long, slow strokes in Esalen massage calm this overactive sympathetic nervous system. The mindful touch creates a sense of safety in your body that allows it to deeply rest. From this relaxed state it doesn’t take much effort to work out muscle knots, just some deep pressure and holding in the right spots.

Katy slowly glided out of her massage with heavy eyelids. Her demeanor had completely changed in 90 minutes, and instead of anxious, twitchy energy there was a calm and still presence. And when she came back a few weeks later, she wasn’t nearly as on edge as she had been before that first treatment. Each massage allows her system to reset, to rest more deeply, and to be more resilient to the stressors in her life.

(*not her real name)