Stress Management

As the previous blog post stated, stress can and will have some serious side-effects to your life. Nobody ever wants to be sick, so you need to find ways to avoid these stress-related illnesses. Of course, there will be times that a sickness such as maybe a cold will happen, the more you do to prevent it, the more time you'll have for your life.

There is not one single solution to reducing stress, yet a multitude of ways. Of course, you know I'm a huge proponent of massage and I will do whatever I can to promote it. Massage will decrease stress and increase your immune system and the more often you have a massage the better it will be for your health. Even if you can just do once a month, that is better then none! Think about it this way, you take your car to get it's oil changed every 3,000 miles or so, you need to do the same with your body... get your monthly tune-up.

There are other stress management things you can do. As another previous post stated, Take a Cigarette Break. Taking breaks during your workday can decrease stress and increase productivity. Another thing is to find something that you enjoy and do it! Find the time for you. More de-stressing tips are:

• Walk
• Laugh
• Yoga
• Have more fun
• Increase physical activity
• Talk things out with family, friends or even a therapist
• Get plenty of rest, relaxation and sleep
• Make time for hobbies
• Take a bath and relax
• Read a book 

I hope you take the time for you and find out what you can do on a daily basis to help reduce your stress.  Part of it really is making yourself a priority and not everyone else.

For more information on Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage, please visit my website . Learn something new daily, connect with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Complimentary Therapies Are on the Rise

Back pain is common in the U.S., affecting 8 out of 10 people at some point in their lives, according to Medline Plus, a publication of the National Institutes of Health, with research proving that massage therapy has been shown to improve back pain. In new research, investigators from the Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, Harvard Medical School Osher Research Center set out to examine the associations between the perceived helpfulness of various complementary and alternative therapies (CAM), of which massage is one, for back pain. Other CAM therapies include chiropractic, herbs, tai chi, yoga and meditation. The investigators used data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, according to a press release published on www.pubmed.gov. Among the results:

• Approximately 6 percent of the U.S. population used CAM to treat their back pain in 2002. Sixty percent of respondents who used CAM for back pain perceived a "great deal" of benefit.

• The factor associated with perceived benefit from CAM modalities was reporting that a reason for using CAM was that "conventional medical treatment would not help."

• The two factors associated with less perceived benefit from CAM modalities were fair-to-poor self-reported health status and referral by a conventional medical practitioner for CAM. "The majority of respondents who used CAM for back pain perceived benefit," the investigators noted. "Specific factors and therapies associated with perceived benefit warrant further investigation." The article ran in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

For more information on Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage, please visit my website . Learn something new daily, connect with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

Relax, It's Just Another Day

Finding it hard to find a moment to relax in your daily life?  Our very fast paced lives seem to put us to where we go, go, go.  We get up, get the kids, drop them off at school, go to a meeting or two or three, return phone calls, emails, do reports, deadlines, deal with employees, more meetings, paperwork and the list goes on and on.  And every day you end up exhausted at the end of the evening.  Have you ever thought of taking a daily break during your day?  Most people would say no way to that question.  There's always too much to do.

Just like anything that you have scheduled through your day, you need to schedule a break.  Taking a break during your busy day can actually make you more productive. When we get overwhelmed and stressed with too much to do, we can actually become very counterproductive and do even less when trying to do more.  We can get unfocused and unproductive which puts us even further behind, which stresses us out more and the cycle continues.  So stop the cycle and take a break.  Even a five-minute break can decompress your mind and help you refocus.  Here's five easy break ideas:

1)  Talk a walk outside.  Step away from the desk/computer and enjoy the sunlight.

2)  Watch a meditation video.  Soothing Meditation by Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage
3)  Close your door and dance to your most favorite song and release that pent up energy.

4)  Do a few Yoga poses  OfficeBreakYoga.com
5)  Laugh!  Find something that makes you laugh outloud.  Evolution of Dance

For more information on Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage, please visit my website or follow me on Twitter.