When we were small, they packed our lunches, dried our tears and taught us respect. No matter what we did or didn’t do, we knew our moms would always be there. Even as adults, we’ll never stop needing their valuable advice and unfailing support, and with children of our own, we now recognize just how challenging their jobs were. Instead of buying the traditional but predictable candy, flowers or jewelry for Mother’s Day, why not give your mother something that brings her blissful comfort and relief from the stresses of her daily life?

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Moms of All Ages Need Massage Therapy

Massages make perfect Mother’s Day gifts for moms of any age. Young mothers with infants or toddlers can certainly use some time to relax and unwind after dealing with perpetual feedings, diapers and crying spells. After carrying their little ones around all day, moms have tired feet, sore backs, burning shoulders and cramped arms. The exhaustion caused by sleepless nights can take a huge toll and make their symptoms even worse. A refreshing massage can lift away their pain, and work the knots out of their tired muscles to allow them to rest easier.

Moms who are sending their children away to college are feeling the stressful effects of separation, but massage therapy can provide a burst of anxiety-soothing endorphins and a relaxing experience to help make the transition easier. Moms entering into their golden years may have medical problems or chronic pain conditions that make their lives difficult and dampen their spirits. Massage has been proven to relieve most causes of musculoskeletal pain. It can increase mobility and range of motion for moms with arthritis. All senior moms can enjoy improvements in their general health through massage; it can boost their immune systems, improve their circulation and lower their blood pressure.

As winter’s cold grasp fades away, and everyone else is rejoicing in the beauty of sunshine and blooming flowers, you’re battling an aching back and a monstrous headache while you shuffle through stacks of papers and endless files, and you somehow manage to do all this on three hours of sleep and one latte. That’s right; you’re an accountant. You won’t be frolicking merrily in the dew-covered grass until after tax season is over. Your profession requires that you endure enormous stress every spring, and burnout is a real possibility. After sitting hunched over at a desk and staring at spreadsheets all day, your muscles are in knots. Your neck and shoulders feel as if they’re on fire. You have bags under your eyes, and your stomach grumbles from stress-related indigestion and a surplus of junk food.

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Staying Healthy and Sane Through Tax Season

The good news is that even though it may seem to, tax season doesn’t last forever. Until the last return is filed, and you deliver the last round of bad news to agitated clients, there are a few ways to get through the chaos with your mind and body intact. First, get enough sleep, even if it means delegating everything else to family members. You can make it up to them later. Next, don’t turn into a pillar of stone. Get up and take a short walk at least every couple of hours. Eat real food. Even though chips and cookies help dull the stress, you’ll feel much better if you eat a balanced, healthy diet. If you find yourself overwhelmed, practice meditation or breathing exercises at your desk. Finally, treat yourself to professional massage therapy; this action alone can relieve most of your tax season symptoms.

If you’re a secretary or office worker, a chronic tight back, neck or shoulders may be a frustrating part of your everyday existence. Spending long hours trapped behind a desk day after day takes its toll on your body. Human bodies are designed to move and shift constantly using a complex system of levers and pulleys. Sitting in one position for prolonged periods of time is not healthy, and it leads to your all-too-familiar headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, sore hips and stiff back muscles. At the end of a typical work day, you may feel more like a hit-and-run victim than an administrative assistant.

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Tips to Improve Workplace Ergonomics and Well-Being

While it can’t solve all your problems, your posture and the positioning of your furniture can have a dramatic effect on your muscles and joints. The following tips can help you develop healthier workplace habits and minimize your pain.

1. Keep your computer monitor at eye level and one arm’s length from your body. Your elbows should be bent at a 90-degree angle with your upper arms close to your trunk. Chair arms should rest comfortably under your elbows so that your arms are supported gently and are not hanging or hunched.

2. Sit with your back straight and your mouse within easy reach; you should not have to use your shoulder to lift your arm, or turn your body to use your mouse.

3. Keep your hips and knees at a 90-degree angle to your foot, which should be resting easily on the floor.

4. If you suffer from frequent headaches or shoulder and neck pain after sitting for long periods, try gentle neck rolls and shoulder shrugs to relieve muscle tension.

5. Stand up, stretch and walk around every 20 minutes if possible. Moving releases tension caused by prolonged sitting and improves blood flow throughout your body.

If you’re a nurse, stress is part of your job description. You spend the entire day on your feet monitoring vital signs, administering medications, handling important paperwork and performing countless other tasks in addition to consistently providing comfort and compassion for people who are sick, frightened and in pain. You’re always acutely aware that the tiniest lapse in judgment or memory could have devastating consequences. Meeting impossible deadlines and dealing with unexpected, life-threatening situations are routine.

While trying to keep up with the overwhelming demands of your work, you endure backaches, joint pain, swollen legs and aching feet from the constant standing. Your muscles are sore and stiff from lifting and turning patients. The physical and mental exhaustion may lead to headaches, anxiety, depression or even total burnout. You need and deserve a break. Dealing with perpetual stress when you barely have time to stop and eat lunch can be a challenge. Some nurses find that deep breathing techniques, visualization, positive affirmations or relaxation programs can help. For physical discomfort, quick stretches, yoga or power naps may provide limited benefits, but the most effective and lasting relief from both mental and physical stress is massage therapy.

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How Does Massage Therapy Reduce Workplace Stress for Nurses?

In 2010, the Mayo Clinic conducted a pilot study to determine if workplace-based massage therapy could reduce pain and stress in the nursing staff at a large teaching hospital. The results were encouraging, but most hospitals and other medical facilities don’t keep a massage therapist on staff for nurses. Fortunately, the benefits of massage are cumulative, so utilizing your time off for therapy sessions can reduce stress and physical pain on an ongoing basis.

One of the best ways to enjoy the benefits of massage is to have a massage therapist come to your home. Home massage allows you to rest and relax in your comfortable home environment instead of using up your precious personal time driving to and from appointments. After a relaxing massage releases your agonizing muscle tension, works out painful trigger points and adhesions, increases your circulation and floods your body with feel-good endorphins, you can relax and enjoy a great night’s rest before you tackle a new work day and all its challenges with renewed vigor.

Your role as a nurse makes you one of the most important people in the healthcare field. You know how to take care of others; don’t forget to take care of yourself. Schedule a professional home massage for your next day off.

Today’s advanced technology makes our lives easier, but after spending eight or nine hours typing at your computer desk or on your laptop every day, your muscles and nerves may not agree. Poor posture, awkward hand positions and repetitive movements associated with computer use commonly lead to problems like carpal or cubital tunnel syndrome, sciatica, muscle weakness, cramps and sore, agonizing trigger points.

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How Overdoing It Feels Like

Getting your project accomplished while your shoulders burn, your neck aches, your back spasms or your hands feel numb and tingly can seem like an impossible task. The added stress of a deadline makes everything worse. Your pain perpetuates itself and slows your progress until you feel utterly hopeless, and then your state of despair alters your brain chemicals and compounds your physical discomfort even further. When the work day is finally over, and you are free to relax, your fatigue and pain may dampen your desire to do anything other than collapse onto your bed in misery. The scenario is probably not your idea of a productive day.

Home Massage Can Alleviate Computer-Related Agony

Physical problems related to computer use should always be taken seriously. If you don’t address pain caused by repetitive stress injuries or nerve entrapment, you could end up with chronic, disabling nerve damage or limited mobility. Having regular massage therapy at home can help you feel better physically and emotionally. It may even stop temporary aches and pains from becoming permanent. Massage directly relieves symptoms by alleviating tight, tense muscles, postural imbalance, inflammation, nerve entrapment, tissue adhesion and trigger points that cause referred pain.

It also has indirect effects including enhanced sleep quality, better concentration, endorphin release and improved circulation, which boost your work performance as well as your overall health and well-being. When you have massage sessions in your home, you don’t have to fight traffic or workplace stress and drama afterwards; simply enjoy the feeling of deep relaxation and balance that will help you be fully present for the rest of your day.

When your doctor diagnoses you with high blood pressure, the news can be quite frightening. Given that hypertension is associated with deadly heart attacks and strokes, you may become worried about your future health and your family. Unfortunately, you can’t control many factors that contribute to high blood pressure such as age and genetic tendencies, but you can control others. A temporary rise in blood pressure is a normal reaction to physical exertion or intense emotions.

However, if your mood frequently runs hot due to work-related stress, family or relationship issues or general anxiety, your body is constantly releasing hormones that cause your blood pressure to stay at unhealthy levels for extended periods of time. Therapeutic massage can help you break the cycle.

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Therapeutic Massage Can Combat the Silent Killer

Imagine you’re trying to meet a tight work deadline when you receive the unexpected news that your car needs a new transmission, your child has been suspended from school, and your roof is leaking. Moments like that sometimes happen. When they do, you need a way to decompress, and lower your blood pressure before it does permanent damage. A relaxing massage releases built-up tension in muscles, relieves physical pain and produces a release of endorphins that make you feel happier and more content.

A simple change in chemistry initiated by massage can enable you to better cope with life’s challenges. Massage isn’t just about feeling good; scientific studies have proven its remarkable ability to heal. A recent Iranian study found that a 10-minute Swedish massage given three times a week produced a reduction in blood pressure lasting up to 72 hours. Similar studies have shown marked decreases in diastolic and systolic blood pressure and lowered heart rate after massage.

Home Massage Offers Even More Benefits

Enjoying a massage at a local spa is certainly beneficial, but after it’s over, you have to get in your car and fight traffic before you can relax. Since the most relaxing and comforting place you can be is usually your home, why not have your massage there instead? With home massage therapy, you can escape the stress of work, and relax while your skilled massage therapist releases bodily tension and starts the chain reaction that allows your mind and your blood vessels to relax. When used in conjunction with traditional medicine and a healthy lifestyle, massage can help you prevent the many potential complications of hypertension. Don’t let high blood pressure rob you of your health; make home massage part of your wellness routine today.

A healthy heart helps to keep your entire body functioning at its best. By caring for your heart before you show signs of heart disease, you can help avoid cardiovascular problems like stroke, heart disease and even kidney failure. Your heart responds positively to a healthy diet and routine exercise, but it also benefits from massage therapy. It’s been well documented that therapeutic massage has a calming effect on people of all ages, but recent studies suggest that massage therapy also aids in controlling blood pressure.

Studies show that therapeutic massage creates physical changes in your body like lowering your blood pressure. According to a 2013 study in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine, scientists determined that massage therapy acted as a non-medical yet highly effective method for controlling blood pressure. Research showed that the healthy cardiac effects of the therapeutic massage were not temporary. Even after 72 hours, the lowered blood pressure readings were maintained.

Do you check your blood pressure?

According to a recent article on the National Institutes of Health website, “Prehypertension is considered as a cardiovascular disease predictor.” Prehypertension is described as having a systolic blood pressure of 120 to 139 and a diastolic blood pressure of 80 to 89. In one test, prehypertensive women were separated into two groups. One group received massage therapy and the other group did not. The group experiencing massage therapy had a significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure reducing their risk of acquiring heart disease.

Another randomized study mentioned in the National Institutes of Health website showed that therapeutic massage had benefits forpost cardiac surgical patients. Patients who had undergone heart surgery had a quicker and easier recuperation when massage therapy was included as one of their healing therapies. According to the study, “Massage therapy significantly reduced pain, anxiety, and muscular tension and improves relaxation and satisfaction after cardiac surgery.” Medical scientists were surprised to see the vast benefits massage therapy had on patients with heart disease.

Whether you work for a small business or are part of a large corporation, workplace stress can negatively affect you, your team and your company. Stress kills creativity. It causes job burnout, frequent absenteeism, and depression. It cuts productivity and accuracy but increases employee dissatisfaction.

Stress can kill the spirit of a team or an entire workplace, yet it’s impossible to work or even live without stress interfering with the flow of your day whether at work or home. Since stress is going to exist in the workplace, learning how to combat stress is necessary for yourself, your team or your employees. Finding one’s power during stressful situations yields great results like increased productivity and higher levels of employee contentment and happiness. Daniel Goleman author of “A Relaxed Mind is a Productive Mind,” warns that stress and reactions to stress can spread like a virus. He says, “A steady dose of toxic energy from higher-ups will encourage valuable team members to update their résumés rather than their to-do lists.

Some experts say if you want increased production from employees, skip the business meetings and offer massages instead. Recent studies show that medical professionals with high-stress jobs that require incredible mental fortitude are finding significant relief from work-related stress symptoms by simply incorporating a therapeutic massage into their daily routine. Many hospitals are beginning to offer massages to employees during their lunch break, and the results are amazing. Nurses, doctors and other medical professionals report that headaches, shoulder tension, insomnia, muscle pains and fatigue are lessened or eliminated by these short therapeutic massages.

Large corporations and even small businesses are starting to appreciate the benefits of a professional massage for their employees. Even a short 15-minute massage can help reduce ailments like asthma, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, tension headaches and anxiety and depression. Absenteeism goes down while job satisfaction goes up when employees have access to massage therapy. Massages calm the worried mind, improve circulation and encourage a sense of wellness in employees. When employees feel better and more relaxed, it allows them to focus and stay on task.

Monkey mind is a term that Buddha used to describe the dangerous mental acrobatics we put ourselves through on a daily basis. We over think our lives, replay former conversations, second guess our decisions and anticipate problems before they happen. We allow our inner voices to create incessant chatter, mayhem, and screeching that Buddha referred to as a mind filled with “drunken monkeys.”

Massage is able to bring a purposeful peace and healing silence to our overactive minds and allows us to reach a state of stillness called “massage mind” that is very much like a state of deep meditation. Extraneous ambient sounds disappear while our internal voices settle down into a whispered murmur and then morph into a distant hum. Eventually, one can reach a relaxed state where your mind is no longer your enemy but is a quiet observer allowing you to reach a deep, cleansing, quiet peacefulness.

This relaxed state is known to aid in healing troubled minds or weakened bodies and to replace worry and angst with mental and physical wellness. According to many professional massage therapists, “massage mind” is a state that is easily achieved by experienced meditators, but it is also a byproduct of therapeutic massage. Your professional massage therapist can help you reach the goal of eliminating monkey mind by being responsive to your needs.

If your objective is to rid yourself of those drunken monkeys keeping you awake at night or impeding your progress at work, tell your therapist that your goal is to train yourself to successfully silence your thoughts and reach the stillness known as massage mind. Your massage therapist can help you by choosing music and specific massage techniques that gently guide you into this state of relaxation.

According to Pat Crozier, a well-known massage therapist and educator from Chandler, Arizona, “When the brain is in this meditative state, it is able to sort through the clutter and focus on any areas that need it, allowing healing to occur at the cellular level.” She continues, “ The meditative mind is a wonderful place to hang out. It’s calming, strengthening, restorative, and clearing.” Massage mind will help you reach a state of balance and health by removing abusive and detrimental thoughts that evoke fear, anger, shame, sorrow and sadness.

Clients report that with the cessation of the negative voices, a positive feeling develops. When this occurs, emotional baggage is often left at the mind’s curbside.