General Relaxation

We’ve all had days where life at work is just dragging on; as if you’re working in slow-motion and the tasks are piling high. Sometimes the best thing to do on days like this is to take a long lunch break. How about escaping to get a massage to help get you through the second half of the day? There are many benefits to a lunchtime massage.

Stress Reducer 

It’s not news that one of the many benefits of massage therapy is that it reduces stress and anxiety. If you’ve had a rough morning, and you are feeling a little anxious, escaping the pressures of the office for a massage will help you come back with a new view.

Pain Reliever 

Even if you have an “ergonomically” perfect chair; you’ve probably had a little back or neck ache from time to time. We all “hunch” forward when typing on the keyboard…which translated to upper shoulder back and neck pain. And if you stare at a computer or had a stressful morning, you’ve certainly experienced a headache. A soothing massage can help relieve tension throughout your whole body and get you back to the office ready to go.

Refreshed and Alert 

When you take advantage of a lunchtime massage, you’ll find that you will come back to the office much more alert than when you left, especially if you’ve had “one of those mornings.” Massage allows blood to flow freely throughout your body, although you’ll be more relaxed, you’ll find yourself ready to take on the afternoon.

You have tough days, everyone does, it is just a part of work life. The next time you’re having a “morning,” try a lunchtime massage to help rejuvenate your day. Call Jodi at Inner Focus Massage for a lunch time rejuvenating massage at 701-238-8257.

As your year starts to ramp up and life gets busy, it’s a good week to check in on your New Year’s resolution. Have you started your new healthy lifestyle? Eating right? Exercising? Making healthy choices day-in and day-out? If not, now’s the time to start. If you’re looking for something that will help your mind and your body throughout your resolution, try regular massage therapy.

Massage & Wellness
When thinking of a fitness resolution, you’ve most likely considered a workout routine and healthy eating. Massage can play an intricate part in your 2018 fitness plan. Regular massage therapy will help improve your performance, balance and help you recover faster from your workouts. It doesn’t matter if your goal is to run a marathon or relax after a long week, incorporating massage therapy will help you feel better.

Physical Benefits
Your cardiovascular system and your muscular system improve with the help of massage therapy. Regular massage increases your blood flow to your heart, which helps produce oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and contributes to removing toxins. Having a healthier cardiovascular system helps your muscular system. The increase in oxygen and blood flow throughout your body can relieve muscle tension, help with faster recovery and reduce any soreness. You’ll also notice more flexibility and have an increase in your range of motion.

Psychological Benefits
Your overall health and wellness encompasses much more than your physical body. For a strong health and wellness resolution, you must think about your mind as well. So often we get caught up in life’s stresses and become filled with anxiety. Part of your health and wellness resolution should include relaxing your mind. Massage is the perfect way to help relieve stress and anxiety. Massage can increase dopamine and serotonin levels, which are directly linked to reducing stress.

Think about the resolution you made this year and make sure that massage therapy is part of your health and wellness routine.

Aaahhh, the golden years.  The idyllic-hazed lifestyle of cozy cardigans and slippers.  Quiet afternoons spent reading and napping are interrupted by only the occasional game of bridge or slow shuffle around the park.  Chamomile tea is sipped every afternoon before a 4:30pm dinner, and then it’s a rousing dose of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune before heading off to bed. (We’ll pause here while any retirees reading this can finish wiping away tears of laughter at this description.)

Chances are instead that the fit person with the kettle bell next to you at the gym, the youthful grandma chasing her grandchildren around the zoo, and the artist featured on the walls of the hipster coffee shop are just a few of the nearly 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 every day.  Retirement does not have to be a 20-year sedentary siesta, but can be, for many people, an exciting phase of life that allows new ventures and a more active social life.

However, like most good things, working your way to a healthy, fulfilling retirement takes planning and habit-building.  Below we’ve laid out 4 habits that are worth building now to ensure happier, and healthier, golden years.

1. Make a friend.  Or even better, several.  Seniors with strong social interactions are less likely to experience depression, anxiety, or high blood pressure, and can have a stronger immune system.  Studies have found that those with friends are generally happier and healthier than those without.  Exercise or art classes, volunteer sites, church activities, and common-interest groups can provide a bounty of friendship potential.
2. Be purposefully active.  Aside from the endless, gold-star list of other reasons why physical activity is great for you (including that it reduces stress, keeps your immune system in check, and helps keep you at a healthy weight), exercise can be a crucial piece to your physical functioning as you age.  Fear the thought of no longer being able to dress or bathe yourself? It’s apparently a tough battle to win, as during that very same year, CBS reported that retirees spend an average of 43 hours per week watching television.  Yikes!
3. Get on that hobby horse.  Remember how you’ve always wanted to learn to make pottery?  Or learn German?  Or paint with watercolors?  Not only will your work-free schedule allow you the time to take up a new hobby, but your mind and emotions will thank you for it.  Given that the age that most people retire happens to coincide with the age that most people start to experience age-related brain decline, developing several mentally demanding hobbies will help stave off depression, as well as keep your mind sharp and active.
4. Take time to take care.  With all of the exercise, socializing, and hobbies you’ll be doing, don’t forget that taking care of yourself via regular massages continue to be vitally important for your physical and mental well-being. Retirees who receive regular massages tend to sleep deeper and longer, leading to better brain functioning and a greater sense of well-being.  Massage can also help prevent painful age-related conditions involving the joints, back, and neck.

Retirement will include more downtime and relaxation for sure but these golden years should not be purely a multi-decade catnap.  Developing these few healthy habits now, and keeping them strong into retirement, will make your retirement years much more golden. Jodi has a number of retirees as regular clients. Interested is seeing what massage can do for you? Call Jodi for an appointment or with questions – 701-238-8257.

“Be kind whenever possible.  It is always possible.”  When you read this quote by the Dalai Lama, what comes to mind?  Coming to the aid of a neighbor down on her luck?  Showing patience to the coworker who regularly tromps on your nerves?  Volunteering at the local homeless shelter?  We’re guessing that, to you, “being kind” almost always takes the form of you extending kindness outward.

If you’ve never read the children’s book, “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” by Carol McCloud, the premise is this: each of us walks around with and imaginary bucket.  When we do or say something nice to another person, it fills their bucket.  If we do or say something unkind, it causes their bucket to get a little emptier.  The moral of the story is a useful, ageless one; do what you can to fill others’ buckets by being kind.  A fitting read for World Kindness Day, don’t you think?  We think so, too, and we’d like to put a slightly different spin on it.

Let’s talk about your own bucket for a while.  It makes sense that you won’t do a very good job of filling others’ buckets if your own is dry and empty.  You’ve undoubtedly experienced “dry bucket” times, where you’re simply spent and have nothing left to give.  You feel resentful, tired, “at your wit’s end” and lackluster.  It’s pretty miserable for you and others around you.

Do something you enjoy every day.  Think about your day – between work, making meals, errands, bills, and chores, how much of your day-to-day is really spent on doing something that makes you happier and/or healthier?

If you make a mistake, be a friend to yourself.  It’s so easy to let our inner critic run unchecked when we feel that we’ve messed up.  Instead, think about how your parent or your best friend would respond if you told them what you’d done.  Then talk to yourself the way that they would.

Take steps to take loving care of your body.  While we’re tempted to give the old “diet and exercise” speech, think about the non-essential extra ways that you can care for yourself.  Things like taking a bath with luxurious bath salts, getting a pedicure, or treating yourself to a wash and vacuum for your car can make you feel valued and cared-for-by YOU.   And yes, massage fits quite nicely in this category, although it veers more into the “essential” category.  Taking the 60 or 90 minutes to get a professional massage is a great investment in your current and future well-being.  Not only does it improve your mood, but it helps keep you healthier, keeps your muscles and tendons working together the way they should, and helps clear your mind.

Being kind to yourself frees you up emotionally to extend kindness towards others in a genuine and meaningful way.  Without feeling overextended or emotionally tapped, you’ll find that your connections with others feel better to everyone.  With a full bucket, you’ll be better equipped to fill the buckets of your loved ones, and truly live out the kindness inside of you. If a massage sounds like something that would be “kind to you”, give Jodi a call at 701-238-8257.

Are decisions your nemesis?  Are you always the one at the restaurant table still hemming and hawing over your menu, long after everyone else has ordered and the server is standing, poised and pen in hand, waiting for your decision?  Have you lived with various colors of sample paint smears on your wall for months, not being able to commit to one?  Have you still not decided what you want to be when you “grow up?”  And once you make a decision, do you sometimes spend hours wishing you could undo your decision?  Whether or not the decision to be made has major ramifications, it can be just plain hard for a lot of us.

This can be partly blamed on the fact that in this age we simply have SO MANY options of nearly everything; way more than our counterparts did even two decades ago.  With modern technology and conveniences have come a larger abundance of decisions to be made.  Not only that, but we have infinite information at our disposal with which to endlessly weigh the pros and cons of every decision.  For nearly every choice we have to make, there are articles or blogs or studies to be found online on each and every side of your internal debate.

So why is choosing so difficult for some of us? Whether you’re pondering which coffee drink to order from the barista, or something as life-altering as where to move for your job transfer, this step into the unknown makes us uneasy.  Committing ourselves to just one choice can elicit some real anxiety and insecurity.  Making a decision forces us to close the door on other options, and face the consequences, good or bad, of our choice.

Also, there is often more than one “right” answer, leaving you to examine the choices with an even greater microscope of scrutiny.

Believe it or not, massage can actually help with how you make decisions, and the ease with which you tackle it.  For one, massage allows you to enter into a sort of meditation.  It requires you to be still, focus on your body and your breathing, and quiet the buzzing in your head for a while.  Massage puts you in touch with your body, and the basics that are important to you, much like prayer or traditional meditation.  When we’re quiet and still, and in touch with our soul and body, often a clear decision will rise to the top in our minds.

Also, massage releases hormones that can lessen feelings of depression and anxiety.  If you’ve ever struggled with the feeling of depression, or the helpless feeling of mind-churning anxiety, you realize the impact they have on us when we’re trying to make a decision.  Somehow these symptoms can freeze our ability to move forward in a healthy way.  The hormones serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and adrenaline released during massage are responsible for encouraging feelings of motivation, well-being, self-confidence, and relaxation.  Massage also lowers our levels of excitatory hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, which, when raised, can lead to feelings of anxiety.

Decisions can be tough.  And if making choices is something that is a constant struggle for you, getting a massage on a regular basis can help.  It relaxes your mind, quiets your thoughts, and can be an all-natural path to a more confident, more decisive you. If you are ready for that truly relaxing massage, call Jodi at Inner Focus Massage  – 701-238-8257