stress management Archives - Health Tips From The Professor

Treat Yourself To A “Mental Massage” and Enjoy The Season

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Merry Christmas

I love the Christmas season. The colors, the smells, the sounds of music. I’m a vegan so turkey isn’t happening for me, but the array of deliciously prepared vegetables, and the variety of desserts always make me excited for this month to get underway!

We give so much to others, especially during this season, that I want to remind you to take care of yourself too. Like they say on the airplane…”Put your own oxygen mask on first!” One of the best gifts you can give to those you love, is a healthy and happy you!

Eliminate the aches and pains that can make you feel grumpy, and if you have someone who could benefit from eliminating pain, please feel free to send them my way. That includes people who don’t live near me, we can meet on Zoom.us and work together to find, and stop, pain. I’ll be happy to help both of you.

I hope you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas!

P.S. Be sure to scroll down to the end, so you can claim my Christmas gift to you.

Reduce Holiday Stress

Isn’t it a shame that this beautiful time of year also brings an overload of stress to so many people? Shopping, especially if finances are short, is a stress producer; large family gatherings can cause stress; and just the hustle and bustle of the season with so many parties and extra functions added to our daily schedule can also be stressful.

Many, if not most, of these stressful situations are meant to be happy, and often they are happy, but they put additional stress on our already busy lives. What can we do?

Most likely you’ve already read articles that offer suggestions about limiting parties, inexpensive gifts that are thoughtful, and other great holiday ideas, and that’s all wonderful. What I want to offer you is a holiday gift you can use all year, a gift that will enable you to lower your stress every day.

Back in 1990 I was the massage therapist on the S.S. Queen of Bermuda, a cruise ship that went out of New Orleans and traveled as far south as the Panama Canal, and as far north as Montreal and Quebec. I LOVED it! I was super-busy doing 6-7 hours of massage four out of seven days, and 4 hours on the other days. It was while I was on the ship that I developed the foundation of the unique style of therapy that I do now…but that’s another story.

One of my jobs on the ship was to entertain the passengers for an hour at 9AM on Sunday morning. I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to lead a relaxing visualization program. I’d start by having everyone stand up and do a 5-minute self-applied Shiatsu (tapping) treatment on each other. You can do it to yourself, but it’s better if you have someone do it for you, and then you repay the favor. It’s a great way to relax, and when you come to the office, I’ll be happy to show it to you. That left me fifty-five minutes to go…I needed something relaxing that would start their cruise off on a happy note.

Treat Yourself To A “Mental Massage” and Enjoy The Season

That’s where my “Mental Massage” concept came about.

I had people relax in their chairs and I’d start talking – visualizing tension like a block of ice that was being melted with their thoughts. I’d gently lead them into relaxing their muscles from their forehead to their feet, watching the ice as it flowed out of their fingers and toes.

Then we’d go back up to their head and visualize fluffy blue mittens gently stroking their face, arms and legs, cradling and rocking their heart and stomach, and their muscles just totally relaxing while they felt heavy in their chairs.

Finally, we’d go back to their head again and visualize pure, positive energy, in the form of diamond dust, sparkling pink, blue and yellow crystals, filling their entire body and flowing out through their fingertips and toes.

Then they would sit there for 5 minutes just enjoying the feeling, knowing they could do this any time they wanted.

It was so relaxing that passengers would come to the massage room and ask me for a cassette tape of my visualization. I didn’t have one, so I made one and would run off copies for anyone who asked. The results were so good for so many people that it encouraged me to continue doing it when I was off the ship and started my therapy practice.

Here Is My Christmas Gift To You

There were a few of my clients who had serious conditions that caused them so much stress that they really needed to relax. One woman had Crohn’s disease, and a man had a heart condition. Another woman had an ulcer, and another man had PTSD. I ended up making them special tapes that focused on each of the organs that needed attention.

Eventually I made a professional copy of the visualization, changing the title to “Relaxing into a Perfect Body” because it ended up combining the healing statements that helped my clients, covering organs throughout the body. I’ve been giving it away ever since.

I want to give it to you so you can relax during this happy, but stressful, time of year. And then you’ll have it whenever you feel you want it. Just click here to listen to the recording: Relax into a Perfect Body!

Preventing Sleeplessness Without Medication

Author: Dr. Pierre DuBois

Do you struggle to fall asleep at night? Do you find yourself wide awake at three in the morning staring up at the ceiling and wondering if you’ll fall back to sleep at all before your alarm goes off?

If you answered “yes”, you are not alone. Research has shown that up to 50 percent of the population suffers from insomnia with up to a third having struggled with it for at least a year.

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

The average adult requires a little over 8 hours of sleep each day. However, very few people are able to manage that with lives that are more hectic than ever. Jobs, children and other obligations require us to be up with the birds and to go to bed far later than we would if we were following our own biological rhythm. A disruption to our circadian rhythm, which governs our hormone production, body temperature and sleep, can lead to insomnia.

What Does Insomnia Do To Us?

We need adequate, restful sleep in order to perform at our best. Prolonged insomnia can cause mental fuzziness and interfere with how you perform your daily activities. It also increases your risk of depression, headaches, auto accidents, and can lead to substance abuse.

Of course, worrying about the lack of sleep you are getting rarely helps you get more sleep! Stress, anxiety, and widespread use of coffee and alcohol are some of the greatest contributors to insomnia.

How Do You Fight Insomnia?

Learning how to manage stress effectively is one of the best ways to increase your chances of getting a good night’s sleep, and making some changes to your lifestyle may make a difference in the number of hours of sleep you get. The following are the top 10 strategies you can use:

Get regular exercise before dinner, which can help put your body in a restful state by bedtime. Just be sure not to exercise too close to bedtime, as this will likely make you restless.

Try to get out in the late afternoon sun as often as possible to stimulate melatonin release, which will help get your circadian rhythm back on track.

Use stress reduction techniques such as yoga, meditation and Tai Chi, which are great ways to help teach your mind and body to relax.

Caffeine and smoking keep the body stimulated. Try to avoid them from mid-afternoon on, and keep your consumption of alcohol to a minimum.

Eat a small snack of protein with a complex carbohydrate just before bed, such as peanut butter on a whole-grain cracker. It can keep your blood sugar from dipping too low and waking you up in the night.

Keep to the same sleeping and waking schedule every day and don’t change it by more than an hour on weekends.

Avoid television or computer use at least an hour before bedtime, as it stimulates the brain, making it difficult to fall asleep.

Keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool.

If you are lying awake for more than about 20 minutes, get up and go sit in another dimly lit room until you feel sleepy.

These strategies have proven useful for many people in getting them back to a regular sleeping rhythm. Give them a try — they may help you too!

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.