Beat the Holiday Stress Get a Massage

The Christmas holidays give us time for good food, time off work and school, and bonding moments with family and friends. All of it can allow us to relax and at the same time can also be the cause for some holiday stress due to lots of traveling for family and friend reunions, cooking food for gatherings and playing with small kids at home. After all is said and done, the holidays can leave us exhausted - and nothing is better for relaxation and recovery than a good massage!

Here’s four ways of how we at Balance leverage our massage therapies to cope with the Holiday season: 

Holiday Challenge #1: Emotional Complications

Preparing for holiday gatherings can stir up various emotions. You might be excited, overwhelmed, or anxious in preparing your place or yourself for the events. Whether we like it or not, these can lead to emotional stressors that can eventually manifest into physical pain, such as tissue knotting or even muscle strain and tensions. Getting a deep tissue massage can help you better manage it. 

Focusing on the soft tissue’s deeper layers, a deep tissue massage can relieve tension and address movement restriction due to muscle tension buildup. It involves muscle fiber and tissue spreading, hence, loosening and relaxing muscles and decreasing pain. Once muscles are loosened, muscle movement will be easier, and pain will decrease. 

Holiday Challenge #2: Travel Pains and Sleeping in a Different Bed

Visiting your parents or in-laws who are living thousands of miles away must be an adventure that your family has been waiting for. However, it comes at a price. Taking different transportation modes; from planes, to trains, cabs, or ferries, all these can cause you pain. Not to mention the pain of lugging big suitcases around for you and your kids. 

And of course it often means sleeping on a foreign bed or even the parents’ couch. Massage therapies such as shiatsu, Swedish, and again deep tissue massage are perfect for those who have travel plans for the holidays.

These massage therapies can lessen jet lag effects by promoting the flow of blood and in turn reduce the accumulated stress in the body. If you are a frequent traveler, physiotherapy can also help with back pain, neck pain and shoulder pain caused by carrying large pieces of luggage from one airport to another. 

Holiday Challenge #3: Kids Play

Christmas is for kids, they are a big part of this season. They bring happiness to gatherings but can also drain your energy. Playing with small kids can lead to muscle and joint strain if you are not fully prepared. 

Scheduling a massage or holistic bodywork therapy before and after the holidays can help you prepare for pains that may happen due to having vigorous physical activities with children. Holistic bodywork applies alternating pressures on your body to relieve tension and have a relaxing and calming impact. 

Aromatherapy massage is an alternative option. It uses essential oils to relieve physical pain and improve your mood – and a good mood is essential when playing with young children. 

Holiday Challenge #4: Food and Drinking

Imagine…cakes, wine, roasted pork, ice cream, creamy lasagna all on the holiday table. All of these are sumptuous but not the most nutritious or healthy options for our body.

Getting lots of sugars, fats and toxins in the body will have an effect on our physical health. This is where the lymphatic drainage massage can help you.

Lymphatic drainage stimulates the lymphatic system. It will eliminate metabolic waste that causes muscular weakness and fatigue. This massage involves deep strokes to flush out body waste and reduce swelling. It also aims to replace this waste with nutrients and healthy oxygen that our body needs. Once swelling and pain is reduced, our mental stress can be prevented. 

Holidays give us time to relax and unwind. Be sure to prepare physically and mentally for the season to ensure that you have memorable and enjoyable holidays with your loved ones.