It is well known that a balanced life
is essential to optimal health.
Balance in diet, exercise, work and
play, and social relationships plays an
important role in physical and mental
well-being. In today's fast-paced
world, one of our greatest health
challenges is to balance the effects of
stress in our lives.
Too much stress, and especially
stress unrelieved over a long period of
time, can have a negative impact on the
quality of our lives and our health.
Stress can accumulate over time and
lead to chronic tension and anxiety,
feelings of being "stress-out," and a
modern problem called "hurry sickness."
It is not surprising that many of the
illnesses plaguing modern humanity are
either directly related to or greatly
aggravated by too much stress.
Most experts agree that long term use
of medication to relieve stress is
counterproductive. Some healthy
and time-honored methods recommended for
balancing stress include recreation and
hobbies, holidays and vacations, fresh
air and exercise, time at the spa or
health club and relaxing therapeutic
massage.
The Stress Response
The body responds to stressors with
what is called the "fight or flight" or
"stress response." It is primitive
adaptation designed to help use either
confront or flee from a real physical
danger. Anyone narrowly escaping a
traffic collision has experienced the
"flight or flight" response - the
pounding hear, wide-eyes, holding your
breath.
Commonly referred to today as the
"stress response," this physiological
mechanism is triggered when a person is
presented with a real or imagined threat
to their well-being. During the
stress response, the endocrine and
autonomic nervous systems activate a
series of bodily changes including
faster hear rate, faster and shallower
breathing, increased perspiration,
greater muscular tension, elevated body
temperature, more coagulants in the
blood, dilated pupils, constriction of
pilomotor muscles (goose bumps),
rerouting of blood away from internal
organs, slow digestion, dry mouth, and
overall increase in body metabolism.
This same stress response occurs if
we only imagine a physical danger, as in
reading an adventure novel or watching a
scary movie. It may also be
induced by psychological threats such as
the fear of speaking in front of a group
of people, interviewing for a job,
meeting deadlines- anything which a
person perceives as a threat to his/her
well-being.
The strength of the response is
related to the degree of immediate
danger perceived. The greater and
more immediate the danger, the greater
the response. A chronic but low
grade response may not be noticeable,
especially if a person becomes
accustomed to being under stress.
Many people don't realize how much
stress they are under, or have forgotten
what it feels like to relax.
The stress response is a natural
survival mechanism designed to be a
temporary response to an immediate
threat. The body is meant to
return to normal functioning once the
threat is gone. A prolonged stress
response with no relief is what causes
the physical and mental ills associated
with stress.
Signs of Too Much Stress
Signs that your optimal level of
stress has been exceeded include chronic
muscle tension (especially in the neck
and back), short temper, anxiety,
excessive worry, insomnia, chronic,
fatigue, general nervousness, feeling
"burnt-out" or "stressed-out".
People experiencing too much stress are
frequently more clumsy and forgetful
than usual, and may be involved in more
accidents. These are the signs of
"stress gone bad" or "distress."
The physical component of distress is
revealed in figures of speech like
"carrying the weight of the world on my
shoulders," and "pain in the neck."
Chronic health problems associated with
a prolonged stress response include
tension headache, backache, ulcers,
colitis, blood sugar irregularities,
high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Chronic stress has been proven to
impair the immune system-our first
defense against many disease ranging
from the common cold to cancer.
Thus too much stress has a general
negative effect, leaving us vulnerable
to many disease, and inhibiting recovery
as well.
How Therapeutic Massage Helps
Therapeutic massage helps restore
balance, and brings the body back to
normal by triggering the relaxation
response. Massage also relieves
many of the mental and physical problems
caused by prolonged stress.
Relaxation Response: The relaxation
response is literally the flip-side of
the stress response, bringing the body
back to normal function. The
endocrine and autonomic nervous systems
activate bodily changes resulting in a
"sigh of relief" - slower heart rate,
deeper breathing, more relaxed muscles,
and better internal circulation and
digestion. Certain massage
techniques, especially long smooth
stroking movements, are known to trigger
the relaxation response.
Physical Relief: Chronic stress
often leaves chronic muscular tension,
trigger points, and poor circulation.
These problems respond well to
traditional massage techniques, deep
tissue massage, and other forms of
therapeutic bodywork.
Stress may also block or distort
energy flow within the body.
Examples of therapeutic massage and
bodywork systems which work directly to
restore the free flow of energy include
acupressure, polarity therapy, and
therapeutic touch.
Mental Relief: Massage can be
thought of as a 1 hour vacation from
stress -- a get-away from life and its
challenges. During a massage you
create peaceful space and give yourself
permission to relax. Recent
research has confirmed that massage for
relaxation reduces anxiety and increases
feelings of well-being.
Healthy Pleasure: Because it is
a sensory pleasurable experience,
therapeutic massage contributes to
healthy immune system functioning, and
general well-being.
