Massage relieves burnt-out

A recent study shows that burnt-out causes muscular and skeletal pains. It has long been established that massage helps decrease muscular pains and tensions and eases soreness. This has been known by athletes for many years creating the branch of massage called Sports Massage.

It is already well established that stress can cause depressions and tiredness, just as digestion and general health is affected. Now a Norwegian study shows that there is a connection between physical pain and stress.

Since massage directly works on the affected muscles and connected tissues and relieves muscular pains, it becomes a means to heal and aid with burnt-out recovery.

Massage provides a physical removal of waste products from the muscles. Blood flow increases, bringing oxygen and nutrients with them. The lymphatic drainage is enhanced, which removes waste and reduces the affects of pain inducing chemicals.

Another effect is happening inside the muscle which causes it to become more flexible and stretch easier, which again reduces pain and contractions. This decreases intra-joint pressure and reduces nerve-reactions in the muscles. Massage also encourages the release of endorphins which are the body's natural painkiller.

Massage becomes an effective and natural means for pain relief, both acute and chronic. Including the effects caused by stress and burnt-out. Surveys show that people find massage as effective a pain-manager as medication.


Sources:
http://forskning.no/artikler/2008/april/180629
http://www.nmtcenter.com/articles/Massage_Relieves_Musc_Pain.pdf
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/26/health/webmd/main982596.shtml

Colours and moods

Colours can affect our mood and influence our well-being, not to mention that studies have shown a clear connection between colours and health when used in hospitals.

It is accepted that colours affect our mood and can be used to increase energy or make us relax. Colours also hold a high symbolic value and send clear messages to people. The meaning and symbolism of colours vary from culture to culture and this must be considered as well when decorating a massage room.

For most massage rooms you would want colours which are warm, comfortable, encouraging trust, relaxing and peaceful. One colour can easily become dominating and counter-productive, which means to consider complimentary colours which can break the dominating colour and add to the messages that are sent.

When a colour is muted by either adding white or black it still has the same energy, but acts on a less dominating level.

As a quick reference the following keywords can be attached:

• Red - Activity, energy, movement
• Orange - Happiness, enjoyment, play
• Yellow - Objectivity, liberty, thought-patterns
• Green - Balance, hope, healing
• Cyan - Cool, comforting, immunity
• Blue - Relaxation, calming, security
• Violet - Dignity, meditation, mental activity
• Magenta - Letting go, completion, self respect

Many colours used for painting are composed of several basic colours and this must also be taken into consideration when paints and decoration is chosen.

Inspiration: The Book of Colour Healing - Theo Gimbel

Be effective and reduce stress

Often stress is caused by a lot of tasks and matters which demand our attention and time. By becoming more effective and productive, we will suddenly find ourselves with energy, which in return reduces our stress levels.

There are some simple steps which can be taken:

• Dedicate yourself
  
• Don't delay doing things
• Divide big projects into small manageable steps
  
• Do the most important first
• Take action instead of thinking too much
• Positive thinking and stop complaining
• Reduce the number of distractions
  

Once you have decided to do a thing, don't let excuses distract you or cancel your appointment. By being there and dedicating your time and energy to what you planned, you not only feel better about yourself for actually getting out and doing it, but also get things done you had planned. Keeping your decisions and getting out is essential for recharging and growth, as well as for stress management.

Don't delay doing things is very important. If you have a task that needs to be done, then do it at once. Delaying it will only cause you more stress, not only physically because you then have less time to do it in, but also emotionally since you will feel guild and possibly chide yourself for not getting things done. Once a project is over, it is one less stress factor in your life.

If a project or task is too large it becomes overwhelming. When you're overwhelmed you lose sight of the end and only see how difficult it is. Divide large projects into smaller manageable sub-goals and focus on one sub-goal at a time. Forget the end result but focus only on the next step taken. This way you will gain a lot of small victories and see a clear progress which in itself is motivating and de-stressing. A lot of stress comes from seeing no end to our challenges and problems.

When you have many tasks that need to be done it can hard get started. Where to start is just one question, but also that we have a tendency to do the smaller tasks first and postpone the larger and more difficult ones. Prioritise the tasks and find out which one is the most urgent and important. Get the biggest and most important task done with first, even if it's the only thing you get done that day. Once you've completed it it will be a major victory which can carry you on a wave of positive energy to solve the other smaller tasks.

You can spend and waste a lot of time and energy on over-analysing a problem. By thinking too much about possible consequences and outcomes, of what can go wrong and how it can be done the best. Often we'll be well of by limiting the time we think about a thing and just take action. Too much thought can and will cause stress, not to mention it delays when we actually start solving a problem or finish a project.

Think positively. That's essential. Focus on the things you did get done and not what you didn't get done. Celebrate the small victories and the tasks you completed. If you start to complain about how much work you still need to do, how hard it is, how unfair things are and so on you're again wasting a lot of time. Time you could instead have spent completing your task or solving the problem.

Getting distracted by other things is a huge time consumer and lack of time leads to stress. So, when you have important projects that needs to be done, eliminate as many distractions as you can. Shut of the phone, turn off your IM program, decide to only check e-mail thrice a day, don't answer the door, don't check your favourite news-webs etc. A lot of time and energy is wasted just keeping an eye on things eve if it's passively.


Inspiration: 7 habits of highly ineffective people

Types of stress

There are three types of stress:

• Acute stress
• Episodic acute stress
• Chronic stress

Each type of stress will require different approaches.

Acute stress is familiar to most of us. It's the type of stress most people think of when they say stress. Deadlines, a fight, the thrill of sky-diving, an exam, changes in lives, jobs, environment and so on.

Some acute stress is actually beneficial to performance and our lives, and can become almost addictive to some. Think of sky-divers, climbers, off piste skiing, racing and so on. A bit of stress aids us perform better and helps us focus on the task ahead.

While stress can be intense and overwhelming at times, it is a shorter period of stress which usually is fairly easy to deal with and manage. Most people can easily recognize what causes the acute stress and the problems are usually easy to deal with.

The symptoms of acute stress include things like:

• Emotional reactions, anger, irritation, depression, anxiety.
• Muscular tensions, headaches, backache and like symptoms.
• Bowel and digestion issues, heartburn, acid stomach, constipation and diarrhoea.
  

Episodic acute stress is the stress that keeps returning. People who are constantly full of nervous energy, always late, always busy, having a crisis or another all the time, most likely suffer from chronic stress.

They have too much going on in their lives, it's chaotic and disordered. Things that can go wrong will go wrong and they lack an ability to organize and manage all the tasks and obligations they've undertaken.

Another source of this stress type is a constant worry, emotional insecurities and concerns. They are the people who always see things in a negative light, who always expect the worst to happen and fail to see the positives in a situation or even believe in positive outcomes.

The symptoms of this is more chronic pains and problems, such as never ending migraine, constant muscle tension, heart trouble and so on.

Often people suffering from episodic acute stress have become so ingrained in their lifestyle that they don't think more over it or can imagine living in any other manner. Often professional help and a change of lifestyle and perception is needed in order to deal with this stress form.

Chronic stress is a much more subtle and invisible stress. Most often people don't even realize or remember that they suffer from this stress. Chronic stress is caused by long term tension and unbalances such as childhood trauma, dysfunctional families, unemployment and lack of money, a bad job and other things from the past that hasn't been dealt with yet.

Often those suffering from chronic stress have given up hope that their situation can change and settle to a passive acceptance of how their lives and circumstances are. Often the outcome of chronic stress are things like suicide, violence, heart attack and stroke. People wear down until that final breakdown.

Both consistent stress management and professional help is often needed in order to deal with this type of stress. It's a fundamental change og behaviour and mentality which is needed, not to mention dealing with the emotional wounds and scars which the stress has caused.

Source and further reading: http://www.apahelpcenter.org/articles/article.php?id=21

Causes of stress

Change causes stress as does a crisis of one form or another. The causes of stress can be both positive events as well as negative. It is caused by things which changes our situation one way or another. This is why it can so stressful to have your daily routine changed.

Stress can be caused by many things, but generally the causes can be put into three major categories:

• Major life changes
• Daily hassles and demands
• Internal causes of stress
  

Major life changes and be both good and bad experiences, but all stressing none the less. The birth of a baby, the death of a family member, a move to another country, buying a new home, graduating from school, losing your job, divorce, marriage and so on.

The daily hassles and demands are one of the areas where we can do a lot to change our stress with planning and organization. The major life changes are great stressors, but generally also rare and as such more manageable. The daily stresses constantly nag upon us and build over time if we do not deal with them quickly and effectively. By recognizing them as stress-factors they are easier to deal with.

The daily causes of stress include:

• Environmental stressors - the physical surroundings; noise, people, fear of crime, weather etc.
• Family and relationship stressors - problems with family, partner and friends, children, illnesses, dysfunctional relationships etc.
• Work stressors – deadlines, co-workers, workload, meetings, performances, pay etc.
• Social stressors – The social situation, economy, discrimination due to gender, race, beliefs, unemployment, isolation, loneliness etc.
  

Internal causes of stress are related to how we view ourselves and what attitude we have towards our life, situation and challenges that are presented to us. This might be the most important factor for any person to work on and understand, but also the hardest to change. Our mindset and way of thinking can cause us a lot of unnecessary and additional stress.

These can include:

• Uncertainty or worries
• Negative thinking
• Self-criticism
• Unrealistic expectations and beliefs
• Perfectionism
• Low self-esteem
• Excessive or unexpressed anger
• Lack of assertiveness

source: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm