5 Powerful Stress Relievers You Can Do At Your Desk (by Forbes.com)

5 Powerful Stress Relievers You Can Do At Your Desk (by Forbes.com)

Stress can take a serious toll on your mental and physical health if you’re not proactively taking steps to combat its harmful effects. And while practices like yoga and exercise are good long-term strategies for stress reduction, there are times where you need immediate relief from distress.   Workplace stress relievers are helpful for difficult days, and exercises you can perform at your desk can be a lifesaver. High stress levels and spikes in anxiety impair concentration and creativity. Relaxing for a few minutes before you make that sales call, or calming yourself down before you give an important presentation, could be key to peak performance.   Here are five quick stress relievers […]

Job Performance and Massage

Job Performance and Massage

Coffee breaks and lunch hours are traditional parts of a work day. In recent years so are fruit days, in house catering services and in some cases, in house exercise rooms – wouldn’t it be nice if massage sessions were too? Perhaps they should be and there is enough research to support it.   This research evaluated the efficacy of employer-funded on-site massage therapy on job satisfaction, workplace stress, pain, and discomfort. Twenty-minute massage therapy sessions were provided. Evaluation demonstrated improvements in job satisfaction, with initial benefits in pain severity. (Back, C., Tam, H., Lee, E. Haraldsson, B. The Effects of Employer-Provided Massage Therapy on Job Satisfaction, Workplace Stress, and Pain and […]

Headache and Massage

Headache and Massage

Massage Therapy A natural aid to headache treatment Massage therapy offers two important benefits to tension headache sufferers: it can help relieve actual headache pain, and it does help prevent headaches by reducing tension and improving circulation How does it work? Massage works by increasing oxygen and blood flow to tense muscles. During a tension headache, muscles of the scalp, jaw and neck are tightly contracted. The blood vessels supplying oxygen to these muscles are constricted, so that the muscles must work with an inadequate supply of nutrients. It is believed that this combination of muscle spasm and inadequate blood supply is the main cause of pain in tension headaches. […]

Back Pain Implications and Benefits of Massage

Back Pain Implications and Benefits of Massage

‘Sitting is the new smoking’ is the phrase on the lips of a generation of worried office employees Barely a week seems to pass without a warning that our sedentary lifestyles are causing potential dangers to our physical health. Whether you spend your day sat at a computer screen or a TV screen (or both), the chances are that you are raising your risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Part of the problem is that today’s lifestyles are not as consistently active as those of generations gone by. Link Research A randomized between-groups design was used to evaluate massage therapy versus relaxation therapy effects on chronic low back pain. […]

Implications of Stress @ Work

Implications of Stress @ Work

Can stress actually cost you money? We think so. But it’s not just us. Research shows that employee stress is at an all time high, and it’s leading to increased costs among organizations. Employees are working longer hours and have more responsibilities, in an uncertain economy. Extra sick days, carpal tunnel (καρπιαίος σωλήνας), and worker’s compensation claims are all stress related, and end up costing you more money.   Research in workplace stress found that physically, stress causes: headaches,backaches, eye strain, neck pain, lowered resistance to infections, high blood pressure, ulcers and heart disease. Emotionally, stress causes : depression, anxiety, poor concentration, irritability and anger. One in five employees report taking a sick day to relieve […]