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The Complete Guide to Massage: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving the Health and Relaxation Benefits of Massageby Mary Biancalana Discover the healing power of massage therapy!With The Complete Guide to Massage, you can use the power of touch to soothe aches and wash away worries. Each page guides you through the time-honored practice with step-by-step instructions and photographs for massaging yourself and others. You’ll learn the different strokes and movements within a massage as well as techniques for popular methods, including prenatal massage, Swedish massage, and trigger point therapy.Whether you’re looking to relieve muscle tension, alleviate pain, or simply de-stress, The Complete Guide to Massage will help you uncover a whole new world of healing and relaxation.From the dawn of humankind, humans have recognized the importance and comfort of touch. Massage is the natural inclination to touch, to soothe, to rub, or to take away or ease whatever ails you. Massage is also a form of communication; you can use it to actually talk to someone without words.When you are gently rubbing the tired arms and hands of a beloved partner, you are expressing your feelings through the compassion of your touch. This book will show you how to use massage on yourself and to share its gifts with others.Touch through massage is a way to share yourself with others. A relationship of honor and trust is established through the give-and-take of caring touch. To receive massage is to trust the giver, and to give massage is to honor the receiver.The knowledge you gain from this book will contribute to improving your relationship with yourself as well as with others.You are opening a door to whole wellness as you study educated touch, visualizing your hands as tools of healing. Massage takes away aches and pains while providing comfort in the most basic of our instincts, touch.Massage is used today in a variety of settings. Everyone from athletes to infants to business people can benefit from massage. Massage is used in physical therapy and in specific treatment of certain medical conditions. Massage has become popular in many areas of healing, including nursing care and spa treatments. It is used by doctors to alleviate problems in the least invasive way, and without drugs. We discuss in this book the different strokes and movements within a massage, and explore the variety of massages available, giving you an array of choices. As youdevelop an informed touch, your fingers will know what to do on the body you are massaging.Massage can be as fancy or as simple as you make it.Giving a massage is pleasurable and can be done anywhere; it takes only two people—a giver and a receiver. Whether you are outside or indoors, at home or at work, have a free afternoon or a quick lunch break, performing and receiving massage is nearly always a possibility.Through the study and examination of massage, you find that the physical and emotional relaxation you experience as a receiver and a giver frees your spirit. Welcome to the world of joyous giving.