Helping You Love Yourself into Success with Inner Peace! Tips for Physical Stress and Tension Release by Ilenya Marrin, DSS HOME FREE NEWSLETTER PRODUCTS SERVICES ABOUT ME TESTIMONIALS RESOURCES CONTACT Taking Care of Yourself On the theme of loving yourself into success by way of taking care of yourself for more personal peace, relaxation and greater overall well-being, here are a few practical ideas you can use -- related to massage plus a couple of quick exercises for releasing tension and relaxing in the midst of a busy day. My suggestion is always, don't do any of these from a place of will-power. Check inwardly with your multi-dimensional inner wisdom and see if one of these is right for you, or if it reminds you of some strategy you already know that works well for you. Move into action as a form of loving and caring for yourself. Take small steps for success consistently. If you have particular health issues, or any questions about the appropriateness of these ideas for you, check first with your doctor or health care practitioner. 1) Get regular therapeutic massages. These are fabulous for helping your body remember what it's like to relax. Some deep tissue work can also release emotional trauma that has been stored in the body. 2) Check out massage schools. If you feel you can't afford regular professional massage, there are a few options. Check out massage schools in your area, where you can probably get very good body work at a fraction of the usual cost. 3) Learn massage basics with a friend. Find a friend (or your spouse or partner) who shares your interest and hire a skilled massage therapist to teach both of you in one or two sessions some of the basics. Then trade massages with your friend on a regular basis. You could even organize a group of four or six friends and rotate through with different partners. If you are not comfortable with doing full body massage, learn to do really excellent shoulder and back massage or foot massage. 4) Learn massage from a book. Another approach would be to get a massage book with lots of illustrations and learn by working on and sharing feedback with your friend, spouse or partner. I grew up in a family of dedicated shoulder massage folks and several times over the years have traded massages with friends despite no formal training. Caring touch from someone you trust is very therapeutic. 5) Exercise for relieving neck and shoulder tension, here is a simple exercise that relaxes those muscles quickly. It's takes about two minutes, and is really helpful after an hour on your computer. I learned it from a beautiful 67 year old yoga teacher about 20 years ago! Here's the process: Stand with your feet a little more than shoulder width apart. Keeping your arms straight, grasp with your hands just above your knees. Drop your right forearm near the elbow onto your right knee. There is a tendency at first to want to bend your left arm at your elbow, but be sure to keep your left arm straight. Next, turn your head up to look up over your left shoulder. Now, gently bounce your rear just a couple of inches, about 12 times. Switch sides and repeat. Do three repetitions on each side. When I do this, my shoulder tension decreases several points on my rating scale! Frequent repetitions, especially when I'm doing a lot of desk/computer work, are really helpful in keeping me physically relaxed. 6) Quick overall relaxation. Here is another quick tension reliever that I learned many years ago when I started meditating. Sit or lie down in an open body position (arms and legs straight and relaxed.) Take in a deep breath and tense every muscle in your body as much as you can and hold it for about five to ten seconds. Then abruptly exhale and release that tension to relax totally. Repeat three times. It's amazing how tightening the muscles and then relaxing them helps to relieve physical tension. This is a great exercise for when you want to relax before meditating, or any time you want a quick and easy physical tension reliever. Remember, keeping your body relaxed can help you feel mentally and physically balanced and more alert and productive as you work at home or in an office. You'll find that instead of pushing and driving yourself, you are lovingly, happily taking more consistent small steps into your success. Back to List of Articles

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