Do you feel as though you’d like to get a handle on your stress in 2023? Are you working your way toward living your life more relaxed, more balanced, and more present in the moment than you ever have been in the recent past? I have some good news for you.
But, first, let me quote from a report from the American Psychological Association that was posted on the site of the American Institute of Stress in March 2022:
"Stress diseases are maladies caused principally by errors in the body’s general adaptation process. They will not occur when all the body’s regulatory processes are properly checked and balanced. They will not develop when adaptation is facilitated by improved perception and interpretation. The biggest problems with derailing the General Stress Syndrome and causing disease is an absolute excess, deficiency, or disequilibrium in the amount of adaptive hormones."
The highlighting in that quote is mine. Notice the words “balanced” and “disequilibrium” in those bolded sections. Let’s take a look at how we as a society talk about balance (equilibrium) and lack of balance (disequilibrium).
We will say that we want more balance in our lives, using the term “work-life balance” to refer to how we want to keep the teeter-totter of our professional and personal lives on an even keel. In the United States, we invest a lot of time and effort in products and services to help us gain equilibrium. So, why is it that stress and anxiety are even more prevalent than ever before?
Let’s face it: The last three years have contributed to much of the increase in our collective stress and anxiety, not simply because of the effects of the actual pandemic on our physical health but also because of its secondary effects on our economy, the job market, and our mental health. When you add all of this to the “normal” life stressors (our juggling of work, family, and social obligations), you can see the reason for this sense of being overwhelmed.
Okay. So, I know you’ve been waiting for the “good news” part of this article. You ready? Here it is: We have not lost our ability to achieve balance in our individual lives, no matter what life has thrown at us. How can I say this? Because of what I know about the body-mind connection.
You’ve heard the expression “mind over matter”. Your mind is a powerful tool in maintaining balance in your life. The sentence I did not bold in that quote at the beginning of this article has the key: It says that illness resulting from stress will not occur when we use our adapting skills to perceive and interpret life’s external stressors in a way that is beneficial to us. Perception is reality. To quote the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus, “People are disturbed not by a thing, but by their perception of a thing.”
What does all this talk of balance have to do with massage therapy? The word has spread in the last few years about the benefits of massage. Mary Beth Braun, President of AMTA, tells us in an article on the site of WebMD, “Massage therapy can be effective for a variety of conditions, including arthritis, lower back pain, insomnia, headaches, anxiety, circulatory problems and recovery from a sports injury.”
When your body is overwhelmed, your cortisone levels (which are stress related) increase. Prolonged stress, when not addressed, can create a snowball effect in which you are stressed, get overwhelmed, don’t perform well at home and / or work, and end up with some stress-related illness or injury…and so the cycle goes. The purpose of massage therapy is to help you care for your Self by bringing your mind and body back into harmony with each other so that you can continue to be your best you.
At Nature’s Whisper Healing Arts, we believe in the power of touch therapy. Our clients come back to use our services regularly. Some of them have even earned a free massage and are on their way to their second. Still others have already earned two free massages. This is possible because they are prioritizing self-care in the form of massage therapy by scheduling it the way they schedule other things that are important to them.
So, there you have it: Why not use that mind of yours to help you get a handle on this whole stress management thing? Plan your massage therapy sessions at Nature’s Whisper the same way you plan a project at work…or a vacation…or your time easing back into work after vacation.
It's time you take care of you the way you take care of others in your life. So, I offer a toast to you:
Cheers to a new, balanced you in this, your New Year!
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