We chatted with professional lymph
massage therapist and massage educator,
Carli Wheatley, who tells us all about the benefits of lymph massage, how to do it yourself and its sensual benefits.
First things first: what actually happens in a lymph massage?
Your lymphatic system is essentially your sewage systems, it’s part of your circulatory system and immune system. Lymph nodes are placed all around the body as body guards of disease, infections, viruses, cancers etc. Lymph moves via breath and movement but sometimes it needs a helping hand. – enter self massage. What makes lymph massage different is the order of how we work and where.
How long is a lymph massage usually?
You can move Your lymph in 10 mins or take your time over an hour. My treatment and Sessions are 35mins to 75mins.
What are the benefits?
- Clarity of mind.
- Connecting to your body and feeling peaceful.
- Better health: with regular practice your confidence, digestive system, sleep, skin, and energy will improve.
- How you taste and smell. Our bodily fluids, breath and other odours, improve with regular lymph work.
What issues might be caused by lack of regular lymph work?
Not working on our lymphs can cause tightness and tension in muscles around the neck, shoulders and lower back. This tightness/lack of movement, locks us down and we feel pain. Inflammation can form and lymph and vein flow can’t do their job (veins & lymph are responsible for getting the nasties away from the body and out of the body via excretion, through our skin and breath).
Often people are stuck on treating their symptoms instead of understanding where that issue came from. Most likely it is a lymphatic system obstruction!
How is lymph massage helpful in a sensual sense?
Self massage/self drainage is a practise of gently caressing your neck, face and body. This can have a huge effect on soothing pain, aches & emotions. In the way someone who loves us would touch us, we can do that for ourselves. We can massage in a way that moves our skin so we can start to melt into self touch which will allow us to get to know our bodies better.
We will start to know where is tender to touch, where feels nice, where maybe is a place you stop breathing or feel some discomfort. You can also touch your neck, breast, belly, groin, and behind your knees as these areas have the largest amount of lymph nodes and are also where huge clusters of nerves are, with your arteries and veins. Touching yourself in different ways also helps you to touch other people better too.
Stress is something that can be detrimental to our health and sex drive. After a long and stressful day, you can gently rub behind your ear (vagus nerve- your vagus nerve starts at your ear and travels all the way down to your gut!) So if you’re stressed, likely you’ll have a tight neck and digestive issues, which no amount of healthy diet or gut supplements are going to help with).
But rubbing your ear and belly you can completely shift your mentality and bring you into a parasympathetic state which means you are ready to rest, play and relax. This will help with erections and getting in the mood too! Doing this massage on your partner and vice versa is a really fun activity that keeps you hormonally healthy and will be a great party starter by increasing blood flow, helping you relax and feel calm effortlessly.
How does the experience of receiving a lymph massage differ from self massage?
The journey of “know thy self” is the most important thing we can do, understanding and exploring and being playful with ourself. Understanding where in our body feels nice, the areas we tend to want to hide, maybe areas we are ashamed of, like boobs, belly or legs when we start to give self touch, self love to these areas and we send blood flow, the skin will improve, the relationship will improve, the disconnect breaks down, this in turn increases our self confidence and kindness towards how we talk and treat ourself.
Having a treatment done for you- can help you get comfortable with initially touching and exploring these areas, some people aren’t comfortable digging and exploring around with their hands and fingers, just like in sex- especially in the gut, navel, diaphragm, we likely haven’t touched ourself very much at all. I have clients come 5+ times for treatments then I get everyone on the self drainage. Then once you have felt the impact you want to do it yourself motivated to do it because it feels so good.
How often should we do lymph massage?
I suggest people do a deep self or treatment x1 per month and do a regular little top up 2/3 times per week. Any time of the day that works. Try out in the morning try out in the evening see what works best.
I have a busy schedule. When can I fit in lymph massage?
It’s easy to incorporate lymph massage into times when you have not much else to do, as you can do it pretty much anywhere without making too much of a spectacle. You can blend it into your skincare routine, you can do it at the sauna, you do it waiting for a train or as a way to fall asleep. The possibilities are endless!