Social Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips to reduce holiday stress include saying no, accepting yourself, and venting.

1. Talk to your friends about your frustrations and joys.
2. Have a glass of wine or eggnog, but don’t overdo it.
3. Prioritize invitations to reduce holiday stress.
4. Say no to parties, or make a brief appearance.
5. Refuse to compare your appearance, lifestyle or possessions to other people’s.

Physical Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips to reduce holiday stress include physical activity, massage, and nutrition. Learning how to relax and stay health is a great way to reduce holiday stress.

1. Get a massage…you can even book online with us.
2. Go skating, skiing, or walking in the snow.
3. Take a hot bubble bath.
4. Stop eating before you’re full.
5. Get enough sleep to reduce holiday stress.
6. Reduce your caffeine intake.
7. Take your vitamins, supplements, minerals.
8. Drinks lots of water.
9. Get a manicure or pedicure.
10. Make love to reduce holiday stress.

Mental Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips for less holiday stress include choosing your priorities, letting go and snoozing.

1. Volunteer at a food bank or special holiday dinner.
2. Take downtime to snooze, read, relax.
3. Play your favorite card and board games to reduce holiday stress.
4. Take a crossword puzzle or Suduku break.
5. Pick your battles, choose your priorities.
6. Let go of the little stuff to reduce holiday stress.
7. Watch your favorite TV shows or movies.
8. Share your baking with homebound people or lonely neighbors.

Emotional Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips for less holiday stress include punching pillows, being alone and laughing.

1. Practice gratitude.
2. Have realistic expectations to reduce holiday stress.
3. Laugh!
4. Stay in touch with your authentic emotions.
5. Cry, scream, or punch the pillow when you need to.
6. Stop to take a deep breath.
7. Be alone for a few minutes or hours to reduce holiday stress.
8. Keep old traditions alive, but be open to new ones.
9. Let yourself grieve if you’ve recently lost someone you love.

Creative Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips to reduce holiday stress include music therapy, museums, and movies.

1. Paint, draw or carve your thoughts and feelings.
2. Visit a museum or art gallery to reduce holiday stress.
3. Go to a movie in the middle of the day by yourself.
4. Listen to music that relaxes and/or energizes you.
5. Go for a drive in the country; stop for hot chocolate and muffins.
6. Write in your journal to reduce holiday stress.

Spiritual Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips to reduce holiday stress include praying and remembering the big picture.

1. Meditate or pray often.
2. Read the Bible, Torah, or other meaningful book.
3. Seek the deep meaning behind church or mass services to reduce holiday stress.
4. Remember that your God, Creator or Higher Power is working behind the scenes.
5. Adjust your perspective to include peace, compassion, and forgiveness.

Practical Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips for less holiday stress include shopping early, organizing potlucks, and delegating.

1. Use lists and calendars to stay organized
2. Set attainable decorating goals to reduce holiday stress.
3. Delegate chores: cooking, childcare, caring for guests, etc.
4. Cook the turkey; let guests bring the rest.
5. Be flexible with timing, food, and schedules to reduce holiday stress.
6. Rent funny DVDs and videos to keep people occupied.
7. Shop over the Internet to avoid crowds.
8. Ensure your prescription medication is refilled.
9. Give yourself extra time to reduce holiday stress.
10. Stick to your financial budget.
11. Avoid impulse buys to reduce holiday stress.

Relational Ways to Reduce Holiday Stress

Tips to reduce holiday stress include sticking with your routines and ignoring criticisms.

1. Change your regular responses to aggravating family members.
2. Shrug off insults, challenges, and criticisms.
3. Avoid past betrayals, mistakes, failures – both yours and others’.
4. Don’t expect people to change (unless you change first).
5. Enlist kids’ help in baking cookies and cleaning up to reduce holiday stress.
6. Stick with your kids’ routine, if possible.
7. Enforce the regular rules for sharing, indoor voices, etc.
8. Maintain healthy boundaries to reduce holiday stress.

RELAXING HYPNOSIS STRESS BUSTING VIDEO

photo by Bhernandez

With each passing day it seems like we give less time to ourselves and more time to the long list of tasks that scream for our attention.

It is a self-perpetuating cycle. As we accumulate stress in our bodies, we are less able to heal and regenerate and get rid of the accumulation. We become less effective in all that we do, leading to more stress!

Message therapy can rejuvenate your body and the leave you feeling lighter and better able to deal with an ever growing  list of things that just have to be done!

Massage therapy sessions help to relax your entire body. You will be better able to achieve a deep sleep which further enhances body healing system. After a good sleep, your relaxed state of mind and regenerated muscles help in reducing overall anxiety and brings down your respiratory rate. This assists in reducing your blood pressure and builds up your bodies immune system. The immune system works with better efficiency when body is relaxed because there in an increase white blood cells in the body.

Regular massage sessions also help with certain medical conditions, especially those related to muscles, tendons or ligaments. Regular massage helps in decreasing the level of pain which helps to develop a state of well-being. Constant nagging pain in tendons or ligaments leads to feelings of stress and depression.  So a relaxing massage can also act as a great anti-depressant.

Though massage therapy is not an ultimate cure to many medical conditions, it can help alleviate the stress, tension and chronic pain that contribute to disabling symptoms. When you work with one of the highly trained and certified message therapists at the Coal Harbour Massage Center, we develop a program specifically suited for your physical condition and stress level.

You will be amazed at what Massage Therapy can do for you!

Massage therapy works wonders on stress-related pain and tension!

Even here in beautiful downtown Vancouver, work is a major source of stress in our lives. Emails flood into our inbox, our cell phone is permanently attached to our ear and there is never a moment’s peace. The unrelenting tension of a fast-paced work environment can make you cranky, tired, stiff and sore. And then … you may go home to more of life’s little challenges!

You may suffer from tension headaches or stiffness, soreness, pain and tension in your neck, back and shoulders. The list of stress-related ailments is long and varied and may even masquerade as a pulled muscle, a frozen shoulder, a tension or migraine headache or TMJ.

Sitting hunched over a keyboard all day adds to our stress levels. We often feel isolated and desperate as email after email pops up and demands our attention. Besides the anxiety and frustration that accompanies computer use, sitting for long periods contributes to postural problems, and keyboarding can cause repetitive strain injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

If we don’t get rid of the daily accumulation of stress, we can end up storing stress in particular areas of our bodies. This can lead to many illnesses and can actually shorten our lives. Though it may appear to be a luxury, there are huge health benefits to having a long, relaxing massage that rids our bodies of accumulated tension, stiffness and stress. Aches and pains, tension and stiffness will melt away and you will leave feeling relaxed, yet revitalized and restored. Many clients report a feeling of absolute clarity and the ability to once again, focus!

Untreated pain can lead to long-term injury and seriously debilitating headaches. You owe it to yourself to let go of the stress and the pain that are accumulating in your body and your life!

For one full hour, it’s all about you … your health and your well-being. No cells phone allowed!

Stress Relief is Only a Step Away!

Check out our location in Downtown Vancouver’s beautiful Coal Harbour district. We are only two blocks away from the Coal Harbour Sea Wall. Be sure to schedule some time for a refreshing walk before or after your massage.

Massage therapy relieves both chronic and acute pain caused by inflammation or damage to the soft tissues arising from injury, stress or disease. Injury includes strain, over use of muscles or joints, repetitive injuries, as well as major trauma from a car accident, fall or other mishap.

Pain has a negative impact on your quality of life and can impede recovery from illness or injury. Unrelieved pain can become a syndrome in its own right and cause a downward spiral in your health and your outlook on life.

Managing pain properly facilitates recovery, prevents additional health complications, and improves your quality of life.

Are You in Pain?

Pain is the means through which your body tells your brain that you have a problem. Once the brain has received and processed the pain message, pain has served its purpose. The body uses natural pain killers, called endorphins which are meant to derail further pain messages from the same source. However, these natural pain killers may not adequately dampen a continuing pain message.

Types of Pain

Pain is generally divided into two categories: acute and chronic. Acute pain is associated with injury, headaches, disease, and many other conditions. It usually resolves once the condition that caused the pain is resolved.

Unresolved  or Chronic Pain

Sometimes the pain signals do not stop. Even after healing or a cure has been achieved, the brain continues to perceive pain signals. In this situation, the pain may be considered chronic. The pain associated with cancer, persistent and degenerative conditions, and nerve damage, is included in the chronic category. Also, unremitting pain that lacks an identifiable physical cause, such as the majority of cases of low back pain, may be considered chronic.

Pain can also be caused by muscle imbalances due to poor posture. It’s a “chicken and egg” question. Does poor posture cause muscle imbalances, or do muscle imbalances cause poor posture? Whatever the answer, if these conditions are left unresolved, you could end up in a world of pain.

Chronic pain can set up a negative downward spiral, both of your physical and mental health. Chronic pain can be exhausting!

Massage therapy can help accelerate the healing of many acute pain producing conditions. It can also help relieve the pain of chronic conditions by helping relax the body assisting in the self-healing process. Many massage therapy techniques can be utilized to teach the body to let go of the pain and return to normal function.

Improve your quality of life!