National Stress Awareness Month April 2024

National Stress Awareness month helps combat the stigma surrounding stress and mental health. By educating people about contributing factors that lead to stress it supports understanding and encourages more people to seek out help in dealing with their stress. You can find out more about the campaign here. 

We may think of stress as a purely mental condition, but it can have a huge impact on our physical body. It can contribute to health problems such as tension headaches, inflammation, tight shoulders, and insomnia. And did you know stress is one of the biggest contributing factors to joint stiffness and muscle tension!

Muscle tension happens when your muscles are in a prolonged state of contraction. This is can be brought on by stress as a result of your body’s natural fight or flight response. While this can be beneficial in short bursts, over-exposure to stress can result in physical pain.

Here at East Sussex Osteopaths, treatment can be aimed at helping relieve your stress-related symptoms. We employ a holistic approach which encompasses the connection between mind and body.

We do this by:

Deep tissue massage – this will increase blood flow to the affected areas, by directly targeting the muscles and joints affected.

Joint articulation – by encouraging movement to return into restricted areas this will ease your stress-related joint pain.

Stretching – this could be directed at specific muscles, or bigger areas such as the torso. Stretching out your trunk can help encourage deeper breathing and help calm your sympathetic nervous system.

Breathing exercises – to help calm your nervous system when you’re coping with day-to-day stress.

If suitable we will also give you targeted techniques which you can perform at home to aid your recovery between treatment sessions.

If you would like to book a treatment or discuss how we can help reduce your stress-related symptoms, you can book an appointment here. 

Your wellbeing matters and managing stress is a key step towards achieving optimal long-tern health and vitality.