Stomach Massage Helps Anxiety

According to French osteopath and dietician Pierre Pallardy Anxiety can be treated through the stomach. He believes that there is a strong connection between the brain and the stomach via the vagus nerve. This nerve is the only one to start in the brain stem and it is responsible for various organs in the body including the stomach. Pierre believes that when our brain can’t deal with all the emotions and stress, our stomach suffers and vice-versa.

I think that most of us can relate to this theory. For example, when we are nervous we get butterflies in our stomachs, or when we feel lonely we tend to eat more, also when we go through a separation we eat less. When our emotions affect our diet we can end up having all kinds of digestion problems like constipation, diarrhea or nausea. When we have anxiety, stress, depression our stomachs can be upset for a long period of time. Massaging the stomach can be a great aid in helping the digestive system there for helping with anxiety.

Massaging the Stomach through Breathing:

This is a good way to start treating your stomach because it encourages relaxation. A person who has anxiety or stress tends to take short quick breaths of air. In today rushed world we don’t even take the time to breath. Taking deep full breaths is a very important in aiding digestion. When we inhale deep, it allows our diaphragm to go lower and go massing our intestines in order to activate digestion.
To do this, find a quiet area where you won’t be bothered and lay flat on your back so that you are comfortable. Place your hands on your stomach in order to feel the movement of each breath. Close your eyes so that you are concentrating only on this. Start taking deep breaths making sure that you are breathing with your stomach. If you are doing it correctly you will feel your hands being elevated. You can do this for about ten minutes trying to make each breath deeper than the first. Try to be conscious of your digestive organs (stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, intestines) as they are activated. You will know that it is working when your stomach starts making all kinds of noise.

Massaging the Stomach with Your Hands:

It’s best to start this after the breathing technique because you are more relaxed and ready to receive the massage. You can follow these simple steps.

• Start by doing a light effleurage over your belly. Take your right hand and make a circle going in a clock wise direction to follow the flow of digestion.
• Next, put both hands on the lower part of your ribs so that you thumbs arrive in the solar plexus. They will arrive on the stomach. With you thumbs, do semi-rotations all along this area pushing down towards your feet. Start from top to bottom and repeat a few times.
• From the previous position, bring your hands out more along the sides of your body with your fingers still on your rib cage and your palms on the side of your ribs. With your hands you will do a rotating movement going towards the center of your body and down to your feet. Repeat 10 times.
• Next, place the tip of your fingers on the left side of your lower abdomen at the inside of the iliac bone. You will now work the last part of the colon. With your finger do half circle pushing towards your feet. Start at the lowest part of the iliac bone and work your way up. Repeat 3 times.
• Now do the same movement across your belly at the height of the naval, but this time the pressure is from right to left.
• The last part of the colon is work on the inside of the iliac bone on the right side. The technique is still the same but this time the pressure moves up and towards the center of the body.

The best time to practice

Wait at least 2 hours after any meal. I suggest making this part of your bed time routine. It is a good way to relax before falling asleep and could help with insomnia.Also this will activate you’re your digestive tract so it works over night and in the morning it will allow you to evacuate all that was dormant in your system. However, these techniques can be done during the day when you have a moment and feel the need.

This article is for information purposes only. People with serious digestive problems such as chrome’s should check with their doctor first. If you are pregnant only a light effleurage should be done. Avoid all hard pressure and check with your doctor first.

Aromatherapy for Anxiety

Massage Therapy to Help for Anxiety- Tips from one professional to another

When I first started as a massage therapist and people would walk into my clinic complaining of anxiety, I simply thought they were really stressed and would give them a simple relaxation massage.

Being disappointed with my treatments, I started to do more research on the subject since I believe to really treat somebody well you really need to understand how they feel. I went on the internet and read a variety of books to get a basic idea but quickly decided to go right to source and ask my clients how they felt and what bothered them.

Today, when somebody says they have anxiety, I follow up with a series of questions. The first being: ” How do you feel your anxiety?” The answers can vary from ” I feel I can’t breathe, like I have a pressure on my chest.”, or ” out of nowhere my heart starts beating weird and it makes me panic.” I also hear about stomach complaints with phrases like ” My stomach feels all twisted and in knots and I seem to have indigestion” and ” my brain feels really foggy and I’m having a hard time staying focused.” All these answers lead me to believe that some very important points to work on should be the stomach, the head as well as taking some time to focus on breathing techniques.

This all made perfect sense to me. Anxiety, being a psychological disorder affects our mind making us unable to think properly and clearly( foggy head and unable to concentrate). Also, we all know that psychological disturbance can affect our stomach. For example, being nervous to put on a presentation can give us butterflies ( cramps ) in our stomachs, and when we live a stress out heart beat elevates and our breaths get shorter.

From this point on my simple relaxation massage became much more complex and the feedback from my clients has been extremely good.

How I do it:

Breathing:

At the very beginning of the treatment, I take a few minutes to get my clients to be conscious of their breathing and to take deeper and fuller breaths. After a few respirations I put a pressure on their on their upper chest, just enough to get them to work their breathing muscles and ask them to continue with their breathing. After, I move on to put a pressure on the sides of the rib cage using the same technique. When I stop applying the pressure, they are able to take bigger breaths with a lot less effort and their heart rate is slower. Taking the time to do this allows me to start the massage with a calmer and more receptive client.

The Head:

To relax the head I was inspired by Indian head massage techniques. This specialty offers a wide variety of manoeuvres that focus on the head, scalp, face, neck and shoulders and with a little touch of lavender it works wonders.To finish off this area, I like to go work the points at the base of the skull which are important pressure points in Asian techniques to help with anxiety and stress.

The stomach:

I massage the stomach as usual with the help of essential oils. I use peppermint for the intestines and rosemary for the liver to encourage digestion. I also like to use ylang ylang on the lower part of the stomach to stimulate the hormones which can put us in a better mood and relieve the anxiety. And last but not least, I take a bit of time to work the solar plexus with some lavender. This is where most people feel “knoted” and they enjoy the relief that it offers.

Taking the time to focus on these few points has made a tremendous difference on my clients. They feel like they got a relaxation massage with the added benefits of working targeted areas that really bothered them. I hope this article has been informative for other massage therapists and if your experience has thought you any tricks I would love to hear them. You can do so by leaving me a comment below.

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Reflexology for Anxiety

Somebody once told me that the best way to get out of your head is to concentrate on your feet. She then proceeded to talk about a meditation exercise for people with anxiety that suggests that they really think about their feet and how they feel while taking deep breaths. People with anxiety often feel like they can’t turn off their brains and over think everything that is going on in their lives. This technique allows them to take a moment to disconnect so that they can clear their minds.

Foot reflexology can be a great treatment for allowing people to do just this.

My first experience with reflexology was in my massage class. We had one day dedicated to this, to give us a bit of an introduction. I’m not the type to fall asleep during a massage, but there I was receiving my treatment from my classmate when all of a sudden I heard snoring. Hearing this sound brought me back just enough to realize that it was coming from me. Feeling embarrassed to be snoring I tried to fight it but this scenario kept going on as long as my partner was working on me. Is if possible, that me who has a hard time letting go (especially in a classroom full of people) actually completely disconnected from my surroundings and fell asleep? With reflexology, I would have to say yes.

After the treatment I was fully relaxed and decided to go for treatments regularly. I found it most beneficial when I was going through busy periods and had insomnia because the off button on my brain was broken when it was bed time.

When clients would walk into my clinic with anxiety and complaining of an overactive brain that would affect their sleep, I wanted to be able to offer them this service and the relief that comes with it. I decided at this point that I had to go take the class. I have been practicing for a few years now and my clients are as impressed with this treatment as I was. They feel instantly relaxed during the treatment and a majority of them fall asleep. Even those that don’t fall asleep during a massage can’t help it.

The reflexology sessions have an overall benefit on the body and mind, plus I like to take some time to work on certain points that benefit anxiety. Stimulating the head, gonads and solar plexus make for a more targeted treatment.

If you are struggling with anxiety, I strongly recommend reflexology as a good alternative treatment to help you out.

Massage for Anxiety