How anxiety/stress can feel when it affects your body
Muscle tension caused by anxiety/stress can feel like many things. Most commonly the shoulders can feel like they’re creeping up to the ears, there could be a tight band around your head, or you could feel a tug pulling from the back of the neck to the base of the skull.
Some causing factors
Psychological tension can be present in the form of anxiety, frustration, sadness or anger. These can be brought up by problems at home or work; e.g. “This is too much work for me”, “I wish I had more free time”, “I should be fitter/healthier”. The more negative, fearful or fault-finding our perspective is, the more tension we store in our muscles.
Environmental stressors and habits can be simple things you may do every day without even realising. For example, poor posture; do you slouch? Do you look down for long periods of time? These cause stress on the muscles and overtime can turn into a habit; thus causing stiffness and pain.
Sedentary lifestyles tend to exacerbate our physical pain as we aren’t giving our muscles a chance to expel tension.
Other habits that can increase the likelihood of developing muscle tension are lack of sleep and a poor diet.
How Remedial Massage for Anxiety can help
Remedial massage for anxiety is great at reducing muscle tension and pain. Massage increases the blood flow, lengthens and relaxes the muscles and mind. Within the blood flow are positive hormones endorphins, serotonin and dopamine. These give a sense of well-being and reduces stress and anxiety. It also helps increase tissue elasticity by rising the muscle temperature- so that those knotty and stiff muscles in your back, neck, shoulders and even head can melt away. We look forward to seeing you at Pro Remedial SA for your next treatment.
Pro Remedial SA, Eloise Cocks, Remedial Massage Therapist