Relieve Stress Without Medicines, Alcohol or Narcotics


by G Harold - Date: 2006-12-23 - Word Count: 911 Share This!

In today's world, be it in the work place, at home, or in our inter-personal relationships, we are often placed under pressure to achieve increasing numbers of tasks in shorter periods of time. For many of us these daily pressures induce stress. Stress can have many triggers and many different effects on people. Unless addressed it may contribute to lowered immunity and can be a significant factor in the development of symptoms of both physical and mental illness.

Stomach ulcers, severe anxiety, and depression are often a few of the physical symptoms of stress. Other documented stress related discomforts include problems with digestion, period pain, headaches, backache, sore neck, and even asthma. Are you currently seeking relief from any of these annoyances? Are you aware there is a non-pharmaceutical remedy to these and other associated uncomfortableness?

Is there really an alternative? How do you relieve stress without medicines, alcohol or narcotics?

By treating the physical symptoms of stress with Massage Therapy.

Massage Therapy can help to soothe your stress away. Soothing touch encourages a natural and positive psychological response. Think of a mother comforting a crying child. By gently rubbing the child's head, neck, shoulders, back, and abdomen the series of movements involved, stroking, rubbing, kneading and pressing soothe, relax and comforts the child. Soon afterwards it's cozy, at ease, and quiet.

Massage Therapy has a profound effect on the mind. Acting on the autonomic nervous system, massage stimulates the sensory nerve ending in the skin. This transfers to the brain, via the central nervous system producing the feeling of relaxation and generates the feel good factor. Massage encourages the circulation of "feel good" hormones (aka endorphins) throughout the body, affecting the way you think and feel. This promotes a sense of calm and wellbeing.

By focusing the treatment on the physical symptoms of stress, your Massage Therapist reduces muscle tension and pain. You'll begin to feel physically more comfortable. This will help make things seem easier to cope with.

Producing a natural abdominal breathing pattern is essential to the proper functioning of the abdominal organs. By stimulating and increasing the vascular supply system and encouraging the movement and elimination of the accumulated waste products (carbon dioxide, lactic acid and urea) within the system your massage therapist can also make sure that the systems of the body (ie: digestive/ respiratory/ circulatory), are all working efficiently and effectively to help reduce other symptoms that may be caused or aggravated by stress.

There are 100's of different types of massage therapy techniques available. Acupressure, Swedish massage, Deep tissue massage, and Shiatsu massage are the most popular massage therapy techniques. You may not know how to select the best suited massage treatment for you. Either you can try different techniques or you can consult with an experienced licensed massage therapist.

Acupressure massage uses fingers to apply pressure on key points on the skin. This pressure promotes better blood circulation and relieves the tension built up in the body to let fresh energy course through the body once again. Acupressure massage also assists in restoring the balance of the body and relief of headaches, menstrual cramps, and constipation.

Swedish massage is very popular in America for relaxation after stressful daily routine. Massage therapist recommends this technique because it improves blood circulation in your body which encourages your body to relax. The therapist first massages your body lightly with a good massage oil. Then apply the flowing strokes of Swedish massage that helps to relieve the tension from within the muscles.

Deep Tissue Massage is also a very popular variant of massage. Deep Tissue Massage helps to improve the body's ability to move better and more freely. During this therapy, you may feel some discomfort as the massage therapist kneads deeply into the muscle tissue to loosen muscle tension and stimulate lymph drainage, but eventually it gives you relief from chronic pains and aches that includes pain caused by inflammation such as tendonitis.

Shiatsu massage is the Japanese form of finger pressure. Shiatsu massage therapist use there fingers, palms, elbows, thumb, knees, and may even sometime walk on the receiver's body in order to pressurize the acupuncture healing points. This massage improves blood circulation and also lymphatic flow.

The relationship between you and the massage therapist is also an important ingredient in the use of massage to relieve stress. The individuality your massage therapist and you the client bring to each massage experience can have far reaching effects. An experience that enables both parties to transcend themselves, nourish their spirits, and release creativity, sensitivity, generosity, warmth, and openness. Select your massage therapist with care.

The true beauty and benefits of massage lies in it being a simple direct form of human contact. It satisfies the basic human desire to touch and be touched. Lack of touch restricts normal development and and causes one to be withdrawn. Touch makes us feel wanted. Massage provides the vital and essential sense of touch, of being looked after and cared for. And as described earlier in the example between the child and the mother, the receiver of the massage is soothed, relaxed, comforted, and de-stressed.

If you take regular massage therapy session, it will help you feel better, sleep better, and feel more relaxed. Massage is not a cure-all. It is an EXCELLENT preventative! Massage Therapy can help to soothe your stress and pain away. It encourages the body to relax. It helps the body restore it's natural balance. Massage stimulates and encourages the body to carry out its normal funtions, plus it feels great!


Related Tags: stress, massage, relieve stress, massage threapy

G. Harold is webmaster of The Noun Project, http://www.infogine.com, a compilation of American Nouns defined "internet style" with over 200,000 articles, nouns, and computer term entries.

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