What is stress?
Stress has different meanings for each individual - it can be a build up of pressure brought on by work or home life - like layer upon layer of overwhelm.
It can be when we have too many balls in the air and we are afraid of dropping one or two, or all of them at once - the extra pressure can immobilise us as we can’t always keep up with that fast pace. Sometimes we just need to let them drop and then go about picking them up one by one - taking time to deal with what you might feel is urgent.
Nine times out of 10 most people will understand that we all need to be able to ask for help - each one of us has been there before.
If we don’t address our stress levels it can lead to burn-out, anxiety or ill health - then we don’t have any choice but to let go of everything to help with the healing process - ideally we wouldn’t want to let it get that far.
What do I do to help myself?
I suffered with stress many years ago and at the time I didn’t think that anything was wrong but in hindsight (a wonderful thing!) I can see now that I would be snapping at colleagues or I would start to feel pressure where there was none, (adding it onto myself with my owncritical voice).
Eventually I developed a chronic illness – Lupus, which I am happy to say is in now in remission, but my body had simply said that’s enough!
My next steps were to seek help. Along with my medical practitioner’s help I sought out complementary therapists and undertook a complete overhaul with a natural approach to my health. I cleaned up my act, did meditation, learnt as much as I could about self-help healing, had treatments, long hot soaks in the bath with essential oils, walked more, took exercise, switched off the TV and read some books. I also sought out therapies like counselling, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique - Tapping), started Yoga and deep breathing and relaxation techniques. Most of all I was kind to myself and I stopped cheating my mind and admitted I needed some help.
The Tools available to you!
There are many treatments available to help deal with the feeling of flight, fright or freeze responses we can feel when we are overwhelmed or under pressure or stressed. The body responds to these feelings and thoughts with a release of hormones (cortisol and adrenaline), at times that we do not need them (it’s our body’s way to get ready for any threats to our systems), this can affect your long-term health.
· Emotional Freedom Technique - Tapping and talking
· Aromatherapy Massage
· Meditation and affirmations
· Visualisation techniques
· Reflexology
· Jin Shin Jyutsu - a calming therapy that includes holds on acupressure points
· Reiki
I can help you address stress through treatments such as EFT tapping on the meridian lines and to decompress the pressure with affirmations, helping to clear the fog out of the brain and the release of feel-good hormones such as serotonin.
Reflexology can ease the tension in the body through massaging the pressure points on the feet, hands or face; helping to relax and relieve the stress.
Aromatherapy - using essential oils and massaging them into the body - allowing you to breathe in and absorb the power of these oils some are relaxing some are uplifting and will be made to suit the needs of the person.
Reiki is an ancient art of energy therapy - allowing the healing to process through energy passing from therapist to client.
Jin shin jyutsu is a gentle hands-on therapy likened to Chinese acupressure, but originates from Japan - by holding the safety energy locks in the body it helps the flow of energy to move through a bit like a river flowing up and down and around the body - sometimes with stress we can hold blocked parts inside our body.
These are just some of the ways that I can help - I have been based at The Point, Eastleigh in my therapy room for eight years and welcome anyone who would like to have a free informal chat to email me. www.sensibholistics.com sensibholistics@gmail.com