| How Corporate Massage Reduces Stress in the Workplace What exactly is stress? Stress is the body’s physiological response to a situation. Our body’s way of coping with a stressful event is to prepare to either fight the stress or run from the stress. This is an in-built biological response that was designed to deal with things such as the ‘fight’ of, or ‘flight’ from, the sabre tooth tiger that is about to attack your tribe. Once the brain registers a stressor (whether it be a tiger about to attack or an impending deadline and financial target), the ‘flight or fight’ response is activated and hormones are released that stimulate the nervous system to prepare the whole body. This involves a number of physiological responses that allow your body to fight or fly, such as your: - heart rate and blood pressure increasing to pump blood faster to your muscles,
- blood vessels to the heart and muscle dilate and vessels to the skin contract, and most importantly:
- immune, digestive, urinary and reproductive functions slow down.
So what happens when the stress is chronic rather than temporary? Your body, and this fight or flight response, was designed to deal with temporary stressors such as tigers and snakes, rather than the more modern day stressors of workloads, and so the fact that modern day stressors tend to be ongoing can be problematic for the body - the body is likely to be unable to return to a place of rest and rejuvenation. This may effect the body in a number of ways, such as: - The increased heart rate and blood pressure leading to chronically high blood pressure and extra strain on the heart.
- The slowing of digestive and functions may lead to impaired digestion and malnutrition.
- The slowing of reproductive functions may lead to lowered libido and reduced fertility.
- The impaired immune response means that the body is less able to fight off infections.
- However perhaps the most noticeable effect of stress is that the constant holding of the muscles in a state of readiness results in chronic tension (think of the tightness across your shoulders and up your neck), and this greatly fatigues the body.
How can I de-stress at work? Naturally a certain amount of stress is important in order to get a job done, it’s just a matter of keeping this at a healthy level. Onsite Massage in your office can be incredibly beneficial for maintaining healthy levels of stress. How can On Site Massage in the office keep stress levels healthy? On Site Massage stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the opposite end to the ‘fight or flight’ response and will bring your body back into balance. Massage slows the heartbeat, the blood pressure reduces, breathing becomes slower and deeper, blood vessels to skeletal muscles return to normal and blood vessels to the skin and reproductive systems dilate, and stress hormones are metabolised. Furthermore massage actually manually releases tension and relaxes the muscles that are tight and sore from being in a constant state of readiness for ‘fight or flight’. Corporate massage leaves you not only de-stressed, but feeling good as massage releases endorphins too. What exactly is on site massage? On site massage is clothed seated massage on a specially designed chair. It is oil-free and the techniques are specific to back, shoulders, neck, arms and head. How can I get on site massage in my office? Call the BTS team today to enquire about our Corporate Massage Services for London. Our professional and skilled therapists will come to your office or event to provide a completely relaxing yet thoroughly reviving treatment that will leave you and your colleagues feeling on top of the world!  | 
