Rub your skin with oil everyday” is taught in Ayurveda as part of daily practice. After you get up and brush your teeth and shower, self massage with oil then move into the rest of the 
day. Is this a beneficial practice to bring into your Lyme Self Care? I do it and I say yes.
Self massage, works the same way, as other forms of therapeutic massage feeding skin, relaxing muscles and moving lymph. It is a consistent and economical way to get more lymph moving. You can do self massage on a regular basis to help ease the aches and pains of life & lyme. Rub your skin with oil from top to bottom or anything in between and soothe tired muscles and feel great.
Self massage helps clear away dead skin cells and promotes healthy youthful appearance. It helps you get in touch with your body and check your skin for Lyme or coinfection breakouts in a habitual way. Massage is grounding, shifting you into parasympathetic nervous system state. (Happy relaxed and healing).
The skin is our largest organ. It protects self from non self. It moves toxins out of the body through expiration and perspiration. (Expiration is the skin breathing out.) All your detoxification pathways need to be working their best to help with the extra load from Lyme disease and assorted coinfections
Oil massage keeps the body’s first line of defense, the skin, lubricated and healthy. Our skin and biome face a very challenging environment filled with the effects of Lyme, pollution, harsh soaps, and chemicals, all in combination. Use a plant based oil for self massage.
Why oil and not lotion for self massage?
Oils are foods, healthy fats that the body can use directly. It is clean, unlike lotion (which can often contain preservatives and other ingredients that are foreign to the body and contribute to waste build up).
Many of us expose ourselves to well over a hundred chemicals before we walk out the door each morning. This taxes our bodies liver and ability to detoxify. With Lyme disease you want to keep improving detox so you can keep up with the toxins from dying organisms and herx less. So lower is the key in chemical exposure to unload your liver.
The body recognizes natural oils as food to be used rather than a chemical to be broken down and disposed of. The skin absorbs the fatty acids in the oil you use and puts them to work in your body as fuel and raw materials.
Great Oil Options for Self Massage ideally GMO free and Organic
- Coconut
- Sesame
- Corn
- Herb Infused
Buy the best oil you can afford. You want organic and a grade designed for oil massage. Cooking grade is designed for heating and is too heavy for the skin. Ugh! In whole body massage you want to massage to support good lymph flow. Help the lymph move towards nodes that remove toxins. The body map and directions will help.
My Self Massage Practice
Equipment:
- a warm space,
- warm oil
- a couple of old towels,
- a stool, oil and some old sweats.
Guidelines:
- Start Clean after a shower is great.
- Put your oil in a dispensing bottle and warm it in hot water. Not too hot!
- Stand on an old towel to catch any oil drips or put the stool on the towel and cover the seat with a second one and sit.
- Put a small amount of oil in your hands and rub to spread them. Less is more with oil, you want it all to work in.
- Massage the periphery hands and feet of your body and work towards the core/trunk. This supports moving lymph to nodes that clean and detoxify it.
- Use long strokes for arms and legs and circular ones for your joins and core.
- Don’t skip any parts even do the bottom of your feet.
- Let the oil sink in 20 minutes or so.
- Cover up and stay warm in some old sweats. They might get stained so don’t wear anything good or expensive
- Sometimes people have breakouts with Lyme Disease. Never massage on rashes or active sores. Follow your doctors advice on massage if you are pregnant or dealing with a specific illness.
Build simple actions into your daily routine to help you feel good and build wellness. Self massage is a wonderful caring daily healthy habit. Give it a try.