Massage and aromatherapy: 2 ways to beat stress
You can’t always tell by looking. Some of us may outwardly appear cool and calm…while inside we’re ready to burst. The question is what to do about it. Over the last few days I’ve been seeking out some solutions to the problem of stress.
Janelle Chanona
“Sometimes the hustle and bustle of everyday commitments to work and family, combine with the stress of life itself…the heat…getting stuck in traffic…to the point where you just wanna scream!
“So maybe now would be a good time to look for a little stress relief.”
Our first stop is L’Essencia to meet masseuse, Lorelei Matus.
A massage is an extremely intimate experience and being half-naked in front of a stranger can be a daunting proposition.
Lorelei Matus, Masseuse
“You do get relaxed and you feel good about yourself when you get a massage. But you have to build this bond with your therapist you know, because if you don’t feel comfortable with the person it won’t work.”
“It’s mainly for relaxation, but a lot of people you could do it for illnesses it helps because you come in contact with someone and you have to have a lot of trust with the person…Even for pregnancy, like pregnant women, when they do get massages, it helps when they are giving birth actually.”
Janelle Chanona
“Why is that?”
Lorelei Matus
“It makes it easier. And even for babies, when they are young. It’s just a sense of touch, security, feeling that someone is there.”
Here Matus uses a variety of techniques to get her clients comfortable and as her fingers untie the knots in my back I start falling into a doze, even when reality steps in and kills the lights and the fan. (Blackout)
Lorelei Matus
“A lot of people mainly put a lot of stress in the upper part, it concentrates there more, because it’s just different postures, positions and because of the work that they do. That’s why I enjoy doing the back because the back tells a lot. And especially the upper part, the neck area, you tend the feel the knots.”
According to Matus, there are simple steps you can do at home to ease the pain.
Lorelei Matus
“Stretching helps if you have a job where you sit a lot. Now and then you get up and you stretch, which I know most people won’t do, but it helps…Stretching helps a lot just turning your head around you know, with your shoulders, your hands. You may not feel it, but it helps relax the muscle.”
Janelle Chanona
“Looked good didn’t it? So how about something a little bit more intense?”
Since life can be a real circus, we’ve come to the carnival room at Xscape Massage and Aromatherapy Centre for a massage with a kick. Here, therapists use scented oils to relax the stressed.
Diana Fuller, Xscape Massage and Aromatherapy Centre
“At the heart of aromatherapy are essential oils, lavender, orange, lime, eucalyptus, lemon grass, juniper and other weird oils that people are not familiar with like myrrh, frankincense niroli for instance. These oils, basically how aromatherapy works is that when you smell, smell is a basic instinct and it’s a natural part of what we do everyday. We take in smells and what smells does is that it provokes emotions, memories for instance.”
“Essential oils, it’s a very tricky thing, you don’t want to go and start mixing up oils; it’s a very dangerous thing to do. So you want to stick with very gentle oils such as lavender, chamomile and tea tree. You have other oils such as orange, lime, pine, which are invigorating oils. At the end of the day when you’re stress and you want something to pick you up, you can drop a couple orange and pine and lime into your bath and it will give you a sense of rejuvenation.”
But it is a trick Diana Fuller has mastered as she concocts her combinations of scented oils.
Diana Fuller
“Today to pick up Janelle, we are going to be using cedar wood and orange. And I won’t tell you how many drops of these I’m going to do, I don’t want you to try this at home.”
And just like that I’m back on the table.
Diana Fuller
“The oils at this point actually start working again. You should feel the effect after a while.”
Fuller says she’s been doing aromatherapy in Belize for the past three years with her client base increasing every year…and I can feel why…So can you copy this combo?
Diana Fuller
“At home, if you can’t sleep at night you can put a couple drops of lavender oil on your pillow and you go to sleep, because it has that relaxing, calming effect. If you trouble from stuffy nose and you have a cold, you can take eucalyptus oil, drop a couple drops on your pillow. So that is part of aromatherapy, you can treat yourself. And the world is moving towards that, where you know, people want to treat themselves, they want to be healthy without the dangerous side effects of taking a pill from the pharmacy.”
And feeling good is what beating stress is all about. On tomorrow’s newscast I’ll explore acupuncture.
