I was thinking on something interesting the other day. I listen to what clients tell me when they come in for a massage and the most troubling statement I have heard in 5 plus years of being in business is – “Oh, I don’t have any stress…”
What?! When I hear a client say this I usually hear crickets chirping somewhere… Why? Because I know that the world we live in is extremely stressful. Heck, just sitting in traffic is stressful.
What is troubling is that some clients are not only NOT realizing their true stress level but they fail to understand just how devastating unresolved, chronic stress can be.
Back up to over 20 years ago – I was working in Atlanta, Georgia in a downtown law office. I was juggling a lot, raising children, working in the legal field (a super stressful field), trying to keep a my afloat, and dealing with constant marital problems. I kept getting “sick” all the time and I ignored what was going on. Then one day, while at work, I ended up with severe weird symptoms and my co-workers called an ambulance and I got taken to Crawford Long Hospital near our office. The doctor who treated me ran all kinds of tests and eventually walked back in and started asking me what was going on in my life. I told him and he then suggested that my symptoms could be stress related.
Turns out he was right. That was a wake-up call for me. I started making some changes in my life and I put exercise and massage at the top of my weekly and monthly TO DO lists to manage my ridiculous stress level. I made decisions about my relationships and cut some people out of my life who were toxic. I learned to say NO. I stopped taking on too much. In other words, I made some real life changes.
I said all that to say this: It is important that you understand what some of the most stressful things are in a person’s life so when you go through them you will KNOW you need to give yourself some extra special care. You will be more aware and can be proactive about avoiding a situation where your body starts reacting to too much stress.
Some of the situations that are super stressful are:
- Death of a family member or spouse
- Getting married
- Going through a divorce (no matter how amicable)
- Starting a new job (no matter how happy you are about it)
- Having a new baby in the home
- Suddenly dealing with and raising step children
- Personal injury
- Dealing with a serious illness of yourself or a loved one
- A family member in the hospital for an extended time
- Being a caregiver
- Loss of a job or income
- A close family member going to jail
- Unplanned pregnancy
- Your parents divorce
- Marital discord
- Random layoffs on a job
- Working more than 40 hours per week
- Selling your home
- Moving and/or moving to a new city
- Starting a business
- Constant travel
- Job demands and workload
- Juggling more than one child’s activities while working full-time
All these things are stressful. Some much more than others. Under normal conditions, our bodies are equipped to deal with life stresses so long as they are for short periods of time. Our bodies will help us return to normal once the stress is over. The problem arises when stress continues over and over and becomes chronic.
If you are experiencing more than one at a time then you are at a much higher risk of experiencing illness as a result of that stress. It has been proven that 60 to 90 % of doctor visits have their roots in unresolved and continued stress.
Fortunately, there are lots of things you can do to help to keep stress from getting the best of you. Here are a few of the most effective ways:
- Number one is ACKNOWLEDGING that you have a lot of stress in your life
- Exercising, especially aerobic exercise is one of the top ways to alleviate stress in your life
- Massage – effective massage therapy and particularly when combined with hot stone therapy can be super effective in lowering one’s stress level
- Meditation – taking up meditation on a regular basis can help a lot in preventing and dealing with stress
I have a gift when it comes to being able to relax clients. I am not bragging – it just IS. I think the fact that I have experienced ridiculous levels of stress in my own life helps me relate to what my clients may be experiencing. I also get a lot of massage and so I know what things are super relaxing and I am constantly looking for more things to add to our sessions to make them even more soothing, therapeutic, and stress-relieving.
To book your SUPER RELAXING SESSION call or text Donna at (216) 640-6851.
Donna Agrinsonis
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