3 Ways Shiatsu Massage Can Relieve Anxiety
From Zen Shiatsu – Evanston’s Massage Alternative
Shiatsu Massage Therapy is making a difference in stress and anxiety levels in the wake of COVID-19. Through nourishing touch therapy, clients are able to face the future with equanimity. Shiatsu benefits quality of sleep, benefits the emotional state throughout the day, and can relieve the physical effects of stress.
The physicalized effects of stress include chronic immune system issues, increased allergy symptoms, sleep disturbance, pain and tension. Shiatsu is uniquely helpful in relieving these issues. Shiatsu focuses on deeply relaxing the nervous system, shifting out of the wired-and-tired state, and allowing the body to fully relax and restore.
Three ways Shiatsu can help you decrease anxiety & relieve stress:
1. Helping with anxiety about the future
If you feel a powerful stress or panic simply thinking about certain situations, shiatsu massage can help manage your stress. One potential outcome of shiatsu is being able to think about a potentially stressful or frightening event without an activation of anxiety or panic, so that the situation can be faced from a foundation of relaxation and healthy inner resolve.
2. Helping with anxiety carried from the past
If you’ve had the experience of developing an ongoing sense of anxiety during the pandemic that just never went away, shiatsu is a perfect fit. For many of us, part of the anxiety and discomfort we carry is from our body not fully realizing that the stresses from the past are over. Even while our mind might know that the situation has changed, our body hasn’t fully gotten the message. Shiatsu can help your body finish processing so that your energy is no longer being used to brace against past trauma. The result is feeling refreshed and fully in the present moment.
3. Helping to directly relieve stress-related symptoms such as pain, tension, and disturbances of digestion, elimination and sleep
Pain, tension, autoimmune conditions, sleep disturbance and digestive problems are anxiety-producing as well! Many of these symptoms develop while we are under stress, and then become a source of stress on their own. Shiatsu therapists have skills in giving relief with these specific issues through working directly to calm the nervous system.
Our client Kristin’s words on how shiatsu can relieve anxiety:
“Like many people, in the last year I have found myself dealing with new pandemic-related stressors. Career anxiety, concerns for friends and family’s health and safety, and the never-ending isolation resulting from social distancing led to a feeling that I simply could not get my head above water.
I was having trouble with sleep, extreme tension headaches, and jaw pain that resulted in trips to medical professionals for intervention. I needed something to help.
At the advice of a trusted friend, I connected with Zen Shiatsu and after a series of lovely sessions with a practitioner, my body now remembers how to find its way back to peace and calm.
My sleep is restored, and I am no longer reeling with the daily pain associated with the physical manifestations of stress and anxiety. Zen Shiatsu has been a gift to myself and to the people who rely on me to be clear-headed, rested and balanced.”
If Kristin’s story sounds familiar to you, call to schedule a shiatsu treatment with one of our shiatsu therapists today.