A Touch of Wellness

The art of being.

Misled by a Name

Many small and large manufacturers use fragrance oils in their products that are "naturally-based". That sounds good, right? But be aware, while there might be a natural ingredient in the product, fragrance oils are NOT essential oils. They do not impart therapeutic, healing effects. Regardless of the product name or how it's pitched to the consumer.

Only pure oils distilled from roots, flowers, leaves, bark etc can bring you nature's harmonizing benefits. Don't be fooled by casual language. Read the labels carefully to make sure you are getting unadulterated essential oils and not a substitute or second-cousin derivative.

One Minute to Calm

There are many ways to breathe. Here's a technique I use to calm down immediately. It works best if you've practiced regularly. Then, when the need arises, it's a natural thing to do.

Difficulty Level: Easy Time Required: 1 minute

1. Start by blowing hard all the air out of your lungs.
2. Breathe in fully through your nose on a slow count of three.
2. Let your belly move out as you breathe in.
3. Breathe out through your mouth on a slow count of six.
4. Let your belly move in as you breathe.
4. Repeat two more times.

Practice three times a day and your body can do this easily when you really need it.

According to a Reuters Survey, 1/3 of business professionals in the US, Britain, and Asia say they've suffered from stress-related health problems brought on by too much information.

You are not alone, but you can do something about it. Step away from the screen and get a healing massage session.
Visit our website for easy booking online- https://bit.ly/3xxmUTL

The intensity of our pain will match the degree to which we resist the truth of a change: bit.ly/GiftOfAProblem

The Gift of a Problem | A Touch of Wellness | Mindful Massage and Bodywork Using a problem as opportunity.

Subtle but transformative.

Our culture teaches us to ignore pain, to push through exhaustion and other body signals of illness in the making. We falsely learn there's virtue in doing whatever it takes to keep going - even at the risk of our health. bit.ly/TforTandTT

Touch for Tough and Tender Times | A Touch of Wellness | Mindful Massage and Bodywork Our culture teaches us to ignore pain, exhaustion, other signals of illness in the making,...we always pay the price...massage and awareness go a long way...

If you work in an office setting, sitting at a desk, with a computer screen in front of you ..... you'll want to make the space work to fit your body. bit.ly/ErgonomicsAtWork

The Ergonomic Workstation – How to make it work for you | A Touch of Wellness | Mindful Massage and Bodywork .....make the space work to fit your body: to preserve your health and boost your productivity. It is important to adapt the workplace to the worker.

Faith.

How we respond is the key to our recovery. From the many conversations I've had and listened to over the past couple of months, here are some thoughts that might help you reframe events if you're having a difficult tiime.
https://bit.ly/2YXfQSd

It took your lifetime to get to where you are now......dramatic and over-enthusiastic attempts to do something new usually fail... bit.ly/CureLifestyleDiseases

The Only Way to Cure Lifestyle Diseases |A Touch of Wellness The only way to cure lifestyle diseases is to change our lifestyle. How to make the change?

We might not have control...but we CAN call on this.

Practicing aging well is best begun from a young age, but it's never too late to start.



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Services | A Touch of Wellness Summaries of massage and other manual therapies, fee information with links to book appointments.

What’s Wrong with Painful Massage?

It’s true that in cases of traumatic injury, or long-held postural patterns, manipulation of the tissues that are ready to change can be painful initially.

But if you’re having frequent massage sessions that cause you pain every single time either during the session or the day afterward, then your body is being overworked. Not only is this not helpful…..but your body is being rushed to change faster than you are ready for. Its defenses are being broken down by an outside force and, just like a rebellious child, will respond by building stronger defenses than before.

This cycle of forced surrender and rebuilding resistance will continue to ingrain the stress pattern more deeply, resulting in even more tension and discomfort.

I encourage you to not be just another body on the table. Choose a massage therapist whose skills are diverse and sensitive enough to know how to work with your tissues to support you in feeling renewed.

Have you had this kind of experience? Did you think this was how massage should be? What did you do about it?

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A Helping Hand for Fibromyalgia Sufferers

Massage therapy may be helpful for some fibromyalgia symptoms if it's continued for long enough.
A 2014 evaluation of 9 studies (404 total participants) concluded that massage therapy if continued for at least 5 weeks, improved pain, anxiety, and depression in people with fibromyalgia but did not have an effect on sleep disturbance.
A 2015 evaluation of 10 studies (478 total participants) compared the effects of different kinds of massage therapy and found that most styles of massage had beneficial effects on quality of life in people with fibromyalgia. Swedish massage may be an exception; 2 studies of this type of massage (56 total participants) did not show benefits.
For more information, see the National Institutes of Health NCCIH's fact sheet on fibromyalgia (https://bit.ly/3eecstm).

THEME/IMAGE

Massage Has Immediate Benefits to a Healthy Immune System [ Title} – courtesy of Massage Magazine

Researchers recruited 34 post-surgery breast cancer patients, diagnosed with stage 1 or 2 breast cancer, to a massage therapy group receiving 30-minute massages three times per week for five weeks, or a control group.

On the first and last day of the study, participants were assessed for both their psychological state and levels of immune system markers in their urine samples.

According to the study findings, [ link : https://bit.ly/3hq7MRk%3Dihub ] immediate effects of massage therapy included reduced anxiety levels, depression and anger, while longer-term benefits showed direct impact on the body's immune markers — such as increased dopamine, improved serotonin values and better lymphocyte levels.

The researchers concluded that breast cancer patients experience significantly improved immune function after receiving massage therapy.

There's no hiding.

Massage Improves our Ability to Fight Disease

Clinical research indicates that regularly administered massage increases our immune system's ability to kill certain invasive cells, while decreasing stress hormones like cortisol, for an improvement of the body's overall immune function.
In this study [ link is: https://bit.ly/3vWHzzi ], 20 HIV-positive men received five 45-minute massages per week, for a month. The participants showed both an increase in serotonin and in the cells that comprise the immune system's initial defense against infection and disease.

The essence of change...

Let us keep our minds open by all means, as long as that means keeping our sense of perspective and seeking an understanding of the forces which mold the world.

Thought to ponder...