Ancient Beginnings

The practice of massage therapy has traveled throughout time and across the globe, over the past 5,000 years. The beginnings of ancient massage practice can be traced back to around 3000 BCE in India. Historical records demonstrate the arrival of Ayurveda, known as “life health” in Hindu culture. Ayurveda is a practice based on the belief that illnesses or pain can occur when the body is out of alignment with its environment, and it still exists today in more modern forms.

Unlike physical therapy, in which movement focuses on the body’s muscular and skeletal alignment, the practice of Ayurveda takes a holistic approach. With ayurvedic treatments, an individual’s entire body is taken into account during treatment, assessing mental and social factors, in addition to the physical symptoms a person may be facing. Original treatments in Ayurveda included enhanced diets and herbalistic practices, as well as aromatherapy, color therapy, sound therapy, and of course, touch therapy to ensure that the body, mind, and soul  worked in harmony. The touch therapy used centuries ago in India, is one of the earliest findings of a practice similar to the massage therapy we know today.

Eastern Influences

The holistic approach, Ayurveda, used in India, traveled through centuries and eventually found its way to ancient Egypt. Researchers discovered tomb paintings depicting Egyptians practicing massage therapy, proving the practice had been adopted into their culture by 2500 BCE. Although similar to the touch therapy used in Ayurveda, the Egyptians had adapted their massage practices to invent the first-known use of reflexology, a technique still popular today.

As time progressed, massage therapy also traveled to other influential Eastern areas such as China and Japan. Although the practice of massage therapy changed within each culture, depending on the religious beliefs of each individual group, the act of using physical touch to relieve the body of pain still remained. Dating back to 2700 BCE, written records of massage therapy by Chinese practitioners were discovered, illustrating the use of massage in the early stages of their medical practices. Similar to the Hindu belief, the Chinese believed that massage therapy would heal a body that was suffering from energetic blockages, where emotions and spiritual awareness had difficulty passing throughout the body. Through the use of touch, acupuncture, and yoga, the body would be able to heal itself and restore energetic harmony throughout physiological pathways. The eastern influence on massage therapy, in particular, has contributed largely to the wellness trends we use in our modern practices today.

European & Swedish Massage