The season for self-care starts today!

– by Karrie Osborn

By Angie Parris-Raney, LMT, Chopra Center Certified

Technology has certainly put us in touch with important information on preventive measures for spreading the COVID-19 virus, such as washing our hands and avoiding contact with those who are sick. However, much of the information is ignoring an essential part to staying healthy—boosting our immune system.

 There is a part of our nervous system that hasn’t evolved far from our ancestors called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Its purpose is for primal survival, equipping our mind/body to react to danger. When we are charged to respond to a stressor or danger, we are flooded with stress hormones. Our digestion shuts down, and we increase blood and oxygen to the heart, brain, and lungs to flee. Blood pressure rises and breathing becomes shallow. This is called the sympathetic part of the ANS, commonly known as the fight-or-flight response. Feeding the fear loop stimulates the fight-or-flight response and is known to suppress the immune system. Stress over time can begin shutting down other systems of the body.

Thankfully, there is another part to the ANS called the parasympathetic system, known as the rest-and-digest response. The largest cranial nerve of the body, the vagus nerve, innervates from the brain stem to the chest and abdomen. When we stimulate the vagus nerve, we tap into the rest-and-digest response. The heart rate decreases, blood pressure normalizes, breathing is deeper, stress hormones are reduced, and happy hormone production is initiated (promoting sleep, focus, and happier emotions). There are simple methods and lifestyle choices we can make to support our own immunity. We can consciously pull ourselves out of a state of reaction, take back our own power, and ask ourselves what our mind/body needs in this moment to support rest-and-digest.

If you’d like to read “the rest of the story”, please click here BS Spring 2020

Working too hard is now a recognized as an occupational phenomenon, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The agency, which guides many health providers and organizations, now includes “burnout” in its International Classification of Diseases Handbook.

The agency described “burnout” as a syndrome resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

According to the WHO, doctors can issue a diagnosis of burnout if a patient exhibits three symptoms: feeling depleted of energy or exhausted; feeling mentally distanced from or cynical about one’s job; and problems getting one’s job done successfully. The WHO notes that burnout is to be used specifically “in the occupational context” and that it “should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”

The agency said it plans to develop “evidence-based guidelines on mental well-being in the workplace.”

Burnout as a psychological term was first described in the mid-1970s, BuzzFeed reported, when psychologist Herbert Freudenberger used it to describe cases of “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress.” Freudenberger ascribed the condition to “helping” professions such as nurses and doctors.

But today, many types of people can suffer from burnout, “from stressed-out careerists and celebrities to overworked employees and homemakers,” according to the National Institutes of Health. Last year, a Gallup survey found nearly 1 in 4 employees feels burned out always or often, with another 44 percent saying they feel burned out “sometimes.”

To Watch Video, please click on link or copy and paste link into your browser…https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-to-know-when-youre-suffering-from-workplace-burnout/

Things Clients Worry About and Why They Really Shouldn’t

By Cindy Williams

First things first. The last thing a client should be doing during a massage session is worrying. Worry is a stressor that causes the same physical symptoms that massage therapists are attempting to relieve. Clients often worry about, and even become downright embarrassed by, natural physiological processes that don’t make one iota of difference to the massage therapist. If anything, the physiological occurrences show us that your body is responding well to the work being done. If you have found yourself having embarrassing body responses during a massage and have worried about what your massage therapist is thinking, please read on and allow me to put your mind at ease.

OOPS, I TOOTED

Let’s get right to the point … farting, burping, and drooling, which might normally be embarrassing occurrences, are all acceptable and even sometimes expected during a massage therapy session. Here’s why.

The pace of modern life causes people to regularly be in a state of doing. Running errands, taking kids to and from school and activities, making dinner, cleaning house, doing laundry, going to work, meeting friends, taking care of parents, responding to emails and texts—the list goes on and on. Put very simply, the stress of constant action causes the sympathetic side of the nervous system, the side that drives the body in motion, to dominate over the parasympathetic side, the side that places the body at rest. Massage therapy reverses that.

I REALLY HAVE TO PEE!

Another side effect of the body being in parasympathic mode is (To read the rest of this article and view this entire issue, please click here BS Winter 2019)

Massage Offers Excellent Return on Investment

“Invest for the long term” is great financial advice, but it’s also great healthcare advice. Never is investing for the long term more important than when you are making day-to-day decisions about your health. There are short-term gains from taking care of your health, to be sure, but the long-term benefits are not to be underestimated.

You already know the value of bodywork. For all the short-term stress and pain relief you get from massage today, there are lasting rewards you’ll thank yourself for down the road. Massage therapy as a preventive measure and part of an ongoing care regimen can mean fewer visits to the doctor, as well as fewer co-pays, prescriptions, and over-the-counter medications. Ultimately, it means a healthier and happier you.

An Excellent Value

As you plan the family budget, ponder how massage therapy impacts your ability to make good decisions, cope with extra responsibilities, stay on an even keel emotionally and spiritually, and maintain harmonious relationships with coworkers, family, and friends.

Research supports the value of massage. Massage provides many benefits, including improved concentration, energy, circulation, and self-esteem, as well as reduced stress, fatigue, and pain. It’s helpful with more acute health conditions, also. If you, or a loved one, are already dealing with a health condition, massage is an even more important part of your healthcare planning.

Research shows:

— Alzheimer’s patients exhibit reduced irritability, pacing, and restlessness after neck and shoulder massage.

— Deep-tissue massage is effective in treating arthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis.

— Fibromyalgia patients receiving massage have fewer sleep problems and less anxiety, depression, fatigue, pain, and stiffness. (To read the entire article, please click here Winter 2019 Newsletter)

Are you a weekend warrior, self-proclaimed athlete, or someone who just generally likes to push themselves a little too hard at the gym? If that’s the case, then sports massage might be just what the body ordered.

We all know physical activity generates positive health benefits for your body,
but it can also create negative effects that arise when you push past your physical limit. That’s when you show up on our massage tables with injuries related to this overexertion.

THE ATHLETE IN ALL OF US

Olympic, collegiate, and professional athletes utilize massage therapy to mitigate and recover from sports injuries. Oftentimes, teams employ and even travel with a massage therapist. And research continues to show what athletes already know—massage has a positive effect on athletes and their performance.1

The benefits of sports massage extend beyond professional athletes to anyone who participates in regular exercise. Whether it be golf, tennis, or ballroom dancing, if you engage in physical exercise, sports massage is a good option for you. And, if you suffer from a nagging injury or orthopedic condition that keeps you from performing at your best, sports massage is especially helpful.

KINDS OF SPORTS MASSAGE

Did you know that about 65 percent of injuries—both athletic and lifestyle- related—come from overuse of the muscles? The other 35 percent are caused by true trauma.2

Sports massage is (to read “the rest of the story”, please click here BS autumn2018

What Research Says About the Bodywork You Receive

By Cindy Williams, LMT


Facing the Frost
The biggest wintertime concern is dehydration. In colder climates, you definitely need to increase the protection quotient. “You must over-treat skin to keep it hydrated,” says Barbara Schumann-Ortega, vice president of Wilma Schumann Skin Care in Coral Gables, Florida. That means a shift from lighter skin care products used during warmer months to winter-weight products, such as thicker, cream-based cleansers and moisturizers. These will provide stronger barriers against the harsh environment of winter months. And this is especially important for the face. And if much time is spent outdoors skiing, snowboarding, or walking, for example, your complexion needs heavy-duty protection from brisk wind and winter sun as well.