Try a Massage for Anxiety Management

Anxiety is defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome (Google Dictionary).

 Anxiety is often accompanied by muscular tension, restlessness, fatigue, problems in concentration and oftentimes sleep problems. Anxiety can be appropriate, or it can be experienced regularly in disproportion to the actual events in your life that trigger the anxiety. If this is the case you may suffer from an anxiety disorder and it would be best to speak with your health care provider about your treatment options.

Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. Often anxiety creeps in during times of change or upheaval. Sometimes we experience increased levels of anxiety seemingly without any cause.

For severe anxiety there are medical treatments, although we believe it is always a good idea to explore your natural options first.

So what can I do?

 Exercise regularly – exercise is a natural stress reliever. It expends all that nervous energy you have created and leaves your brain flooded with dopamine (aka happy chemicals!)

Eat well – Eating poorly or skipping meals will give you a drop in blood sugar that will exacerbate your anxiety. Load up on healthy food that you enjoy to give you a physical and psychological lift!

Get enough sleep – This can be a tall order for some during periods of anxiety, but it is important to get a good night’s sleep. Being overtired most definitely will increase your anxiety levels.

Self-talk – Tell yourself that in this life we need to learn to accept uncertainty and not require immediate solutions to life’s problems. That is just the way it is. Additionally, choose a 10 minute period each day to devote to all your worrying. The rest of the day needs to be devoted to going about your daily business worry-free. If a worry comes up, you can write it down and save it for your 10 minute worry period.

Practice physical relaxation techniques – Progressive muscle relaxation exercises, mindfulness meditation and deep breathing exercises are proven ways of helping to reduce anxiety. Detailed information about each of these exercises is beyond the scope of this blog, but you will be able to find a wealth of information about these with a quick search on the web. Another treatment is regularly scheduled massages.   Studies have shown that massage lowers cortisol (the evil stress hormone!) and raises both serotonin and dopamine (yay happy brain chemicals!). So try a massage for anxiety management!

We wish you success in reducing anxiety and may you enjoy worry-free days ahead!