Massage for Combating Stress

Being Healthy in Stressful Times

When you are under a great deal of stress, it’s important to take care of your health. This is a time to pay attention to what your body is telling you. Stress can come in many shapes and sizes, and isn’t always caused by negative events. Stress is caused by any change in your life, positive or negative. Changing routines, schools, jobs, sleeping habits, living arrangements, diets, relationships, family structure, and health conditions can all create stress in your life.

When you experience a stressful event, your sympathetic nervous system takes over to initiate a series of survival processes. This response increases your blood pressure and breathing rate to prepare you to fight or run, and turns off all immediately unnecessary bodily functions like digestion, reproduction, and immunity.

A survival mechanism inherited from our primitive ancestors, our stress response can not differentiate between emotional and physical stress. Quite simply, the driver who cut you off on the freeway may trigger a similar nervous system response as if you were being chased by a dangerous wild animal. However, while primitive man would have run from his stressor (the wild animal at his heals) and burned up the energy created by tons of raging hormones, modern day man doesn’t do much running. Hence, we have lots of free-flowing hormones creating lots of energy that doesn’t get used to assure survival. Over time, our bodies simply get worn out from constantly changing gears.

Stress takes a serious toll on our health. It contributes to cardiovascular disease, nervous conditions, weakened immunity, sexual dysfunction and infertility, digestive disorders, and endocrine problems. Some diseases and conditions that can be caused or aggravated by stress include high blood pressure, any heart condition, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, Chrone’s disease, fibromyalgia, headaches, as well as chronic aches and pains.

So how can you combat stress?

The best way to reduce stress is to stimulate your nervous system’s parasympathetic response. This stimulates your digestive, immune, and reproductive systems, and lowers your blood pressure and breathing rate.

Well, now that you understand the bio-mechanics of stress, how do you manage it in your daily life? While it’s nearly impossible to eliminate stress from your life, it is possible to manage your stress to reduce the chance of suffering from stress-related illness.

Effective stress management is a very individual process. We each respond to stress differently, thus we manifest stress-related illness in different ways and to varying degrees. The key to managing stress is to find a way to release the energy that builds up in our bodies during stressful times.

Firstly, find and use a physical outlet to release your body’s energy. Running, biking, brisk walking, hitting a heavy bag, dancing, and swimming are all excellent activities that expend a great deal of energy and often help to express emotions. Next, identify and do an activity that brings you pleasure. Taking a hot bath, talking to a good friend, cooking, reading, writing, getting manicures and pedicures, receiving a massage, and playing with a pet are all great ways to relax and restore your body’s natural balance.

Massage therapy is an extremely effective stress management tool. Massage directly stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in lower blood pressure, regulated breathing, and optimal organ function. Massage strokes help to drain lymph which carries toxins and waste out of your body. The element of touch can soothe the soul, and warm a heart.

Lastly, try not to overextend yourself. Americans work hard and are often proud of how much they strive to accomplish in a single day. Try to allow yourself to have downtime. Don’t set yourself up for stress, and when you can’t avoid stress, make time to recover. Don’t rush through life only to shorten it. Take care of yourself and you will have plenty of time to take care of the ones you love.

8 Tips for Staying Healthy

1. Don’t overextend yourself. Know your limits and be realistic about what you can accomplish in a given time frame.

2. Don’t rush. Always allow yourself enough time to get around and finish projects.

3. Be honest. Try to avoid making excuses and telling untruths because dishonesty creates a great deal of stress and complicates your life.

4. Get physical. Do a physical activity that you enjoy and that releases pent-up energy.

5. Treat yourself. Make time every day to do something that you enjoy and that helps you recharge your batteries.

6. Eat well. Avoid foods that are high in sodium and fat, and eat lots of whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

7. Drink well. Try to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and carbonated beverages.

8. Receive massage. Getting a massage at least once a month helps to maintain healthy muscle tone, improve metabolic function, and IT FEELS GREAT!

About the Author
Karma L. Huber, MPA, LMP is a licensed massage therapist residing in Kirkland, Washington. In addition to practicing massage, she has spent 10 years working as an analyst and executive manager throughout the healthcare industry. She has a Masters degree in Public Administration from New York University, and studied massage therapy at the BodyMind Academy in Bellevue, Washington.

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