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Stress Information

A relaxation massage is the best way to relieve stress and allow you to work and play at your optimal level of health.

Stress causes many adverse symptoms, sapping your health and vitality. Read the symptons below and you may say yes, yes I have those issues.

  • Unsatisfactory work performance
  • Over or under weight
  • Deprived sleep
  • Poor digestion leading to constipation or diarrhoea
  • Breathing problems
  • Tension and migraine headaches
  • Abnormal blood pressure
  • Depression
  • Anxiety

Simple things you can do to relax now!

  • Tackle one task at a time. Make a list and cross off tasks as you accomplish them, then reward yourself with a massage.
  • Stand up when you answer your telephone. This gives you an opportunity to stretch and move.
  • Think, when was the last time you took a really deep controlled breath? Breathe deeply and slowly. Deep breathing triggers the relaxation response.
  • Be optimistic and think positively. You will be a lot more fun to be around.
  • Encourage your friends and family. Surprise them with a massage voucher.
  • Greet your family with a happy smile and welcoming hug, and a massage gift voucher.
  • Drink water instead of coffee and tea. Water cleans up toxins from your blood.
  • Eat fruit instead of sugar food. Sugar suppresses the immune system.
  • Think happy thoughts then smile. Smiling releases endorphins called your 'happy drug'.
  • Have a regular massage to relieve stress and tension.

Click to take a stress test

While researching stress I came across this interesting research article.

The Heavy Cost Of Chronic Stress - New York Times

By ERICA GOODE
Published: December 17, 2002

“When stress persists for too long or becomes too severe, Dr. McEwen said, the normally protective mechanisms become overburdened, a condition that he refers to as allostatic load. The finely tuned feedback system is disrupted, and over time it runs amok, causing damage.

Work that Dr. McEwen and his colleagues have conducted with rats nicely illustrates this wear-and-tear effect. In the studies, the rats were placed in a small compartment, their movement restricted for six hours a day during their normal resting time. The first time the rats were restrained, Dr. McEwen said, their cortisol levels rose as their stress response moved into full gear. But after that, their cortisol production switched off earlier each day as they became accustomed to the restraint.

That might have been the end of the story. But the researchers also found that at 21 days, the rats began to show the effects of chronic stress. They grew anxious and aggressive. Their immune systems became slower to fight off invaders. Nerve cells in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory, atrophied. The production of new hippocampal neurons stopped.
Dr. Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, has found that people respond much the same way. Among volunteers inoculated with a cold virus, those who reported life stresses that continued for more than one month like unemployment or family problems were more likely to develop colds than those who reported stress lasting less than a month. The longer the stress persisted, the greater the risk of illness.”

Click to go to the full article

Contact me for a relaxation massage. Guaranteed to relax you.

Click to read more info on relaxation massage.

Click to go to the Mayo Clinic for more on relaxation techniques