The Power of Positive Thinking

 

A positive thought can carry you for hundreds of miles, while a negative moment can stop you dead in your tracks. Stay the course of pursuing a happy, healthy and fulfilled life by embracing the power of positive thinking. The best fuel to keep propelling your journey forward to everlasting joy, strength and satisfaction includes the right mix of good thoughts, supportive influences and a strong heart.

Focus on What Makes You Happy
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut doing what you think you’re supposed to be doing or what others expect of you. To be truly happy, though, you need to be real with yourself and not focus on a perceived, artificial sense of happiness that may be portrayed by your friends, family or the media.

Another element to achieving happiness is making it a point to give yourself a break. Too many times, you can be your biggest critic. Let yourself be happy and enjoy the times when you accomplish a goal. If you fall short, it’s OK. Chalk it up as a learning experience and move on. Be happy with the person you are and don’t waste your energy beating yourself up emotionally for what could’ve been or will be in your future.

“I believe that everything happens for a reason and better things will come along if you don’t get the first opportunity you were looking forward to,” Williams shares. “Tell yourself that tomorrow is another day.”

Funnel Out Negative Thoughts and Influences
Small nagging feelings and negative influences that continually chip away at your positive attitude can quickly become road blocks to experiencing happiness. Turn away this type of negativity by not dwelling on it, but rather focusing on all of the good things that happened during your day (both large and small) and the people who mean the most in your life. By staying mentally strong, you are setting yourself up for a more positive and fulfilling lifestyle.

“If you have more of a mental hold on yourself, you are a stronger person who can deal with negative experiences better,” says Williams. “It’s important to keep yourself together and content.”

Life is too short to be bombarded by the negative influences of your social media friends or the gloomy stories highlighted on the nightly news. Instead, surround yourself with good-natured people who actually live in your neighborhood and are invested in establishing a supportive community. Also, keep your social media activity focused on sharing uplifting stories, milestones achieved and the small happy moments that make up your day.

“People are going to talk and you’re going to hear about it. But, you know yourself the best and it’s important to focus on that,” advises Williams.

Follow Your Heart
The beat of your heart is the source of your literal livelihood.  But it's also your figurative guiding compass for directing you toward happiness and a sense of fulfillment.

To stay on track to living a prosperous life, Williams believes that it’s imperative to follow your heart and everything else will naturally fall into place as it’s meant to be.

“I honestly just count my blessings and focus on how lucky I am to have such a great family, friends and support system,” shares Williams.

You are who you are by the life experiences, influences and beliefs you choose to adopt. But, you are the only person who can truly make you happy. If you believe in yourself and the power of positive thinking, great things could be waiting for you right around the corner.

Navigating Pain: Pinpointing the Causes and Effects

 

The journey to alleviating pain can be a long road if you solely focus on where your pain is rather than determining the actual source of your discomfort. To help you chart a course to a more pain-free lifestyle, it has to be broken down to the three most common pain areas in the body and provides pointers for finding relief and relaxation. It might surprise you that when using massage to address nagging, painful areas, massage therapists may not necessary focus their efforts on where you feel the pain.

Pain Point: Neck and Shoulders
Sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time, reading books or playing games on electronic devices and commuting for long periods of time each day can wreak havoc on the muscles in your neck and shoulder area. To help minimize the physical stress and strain your neck and shoulder areas experience on a daily basis, put a picture of something you love on the ceiling above your computer desk so that you have a reason to look up and change your body’s position regularly during your workday. Also suggest drinking water continually throughout the day to not only promote healthy hydration, circulation and mental clarity, but also to provide regular opportunities throughout the day to get up out of your seat to go to the bathroom.

Both of these lifestyle habits can help encourage you to take breaks throughout the day, change your posture, stretch and move around to keep muscles loose and limber.

“As we are sitting at the computer all day, we don’t realize how much we are looking down and leaning over, resulting in our shoulders and neck becoming hunched over,” Stuard reflects.

When your neck and shoulder muscles are screaming with pain, though, Stuard’s first instinct isn’t necessarily to massage the pain point. Since the muscles in the body are similar to a pulley system that tugs and pulls, sore muscles in the back of your neck and shoulder blade area can actually be the result of tight pectoral muscles on the front side of your body. Tight pectoral muscles can pull your shoulders and neck into an unfavorable forward position, resulting in tightly fatigued and sore neck and shoulder muscles. By massaging tight and contracted pectoral muscles, you are releasing the tension that may be causing your neck and shoulder pain.  

“I first address the cause and then the result,” Stuard said. “You still have to massage the area where the client feels the pain, but only after you address the cause. Some clients are surprised when I have them start a massage lying face up on the table when they are seeing me to help with neck and shoulder pain.”

Pain Point: Lower Back
When you lift a heavy box and feel a spark of pain radiate through your lower back, your first reaction is to grab your back and start massaging the area in pain. The root cause of lower back pain, though, can actually be tight leg muscles in some cases that are pulling on the hips and triggering the pain you feel in your back. To break up this chain reaction of pain, it can be most effective to start with deeply massaging your tight leg muscles, moving up to your hips and finishing off with a gentler, light massage on the lower back muscles.

“If certain areas are really tight, you can use deep tissue or even trigger point massage techniques,” Stuard explains. “But, if someone can’t handle the intensity of deep tissue, then you can use gentler techniques that will focus on massaging over a larger area with less pressure, but for a longer period of time.”

Pain Point: Heel and Foot
A common pain point for active people, especially runners, is in the heel area of the foot. Often referred to as plantar fasciitis, this debilitating heel pain can often sideline runners for extended periods of time, especially if they are focusing solely on healing their foot. Many times, the root cause of foot and heel pain can be tight Achilles tendon and calf muscles that are intensely pulling and shooting pain downward. Consistently stretching your calves, staying active, wearing supportive footwear, and massaging your lower legs, ankles and feet on a regular basis can help put you on the right path to pain-free living.

“I always encourage clients to keep moving after a massage,” Stuard advises. “After a massage, you may be sore or tender and have a tendency to want to be sedentary. But, you need to keep moving to keep from getting more stiff and sore. Your body needs time to adjust to its new way of moving.”  

Awareness of your body and the trigger points associated with common areas of pain are critical elements to diagnosing and healing your body’s aches and pains. Combining a healthy and active lifestyle with regular massage therapy sessions can help keep you on the road to living a pain-free and rejuvenated lifestyle.

“If you’re going 24/7 every day, you aren’t going to take the time to slow down, take a breath and become aware of how your body feels,” Stuard explains. “Use massage as an overall tool to give yourself time to rest and focus on where you feel body pain.”

Dress for Better Health

 

Fashionable or functional? Color that pops or blends? Comfortable material or eye-catching? Every day you stand in front of the clothes lining your closet faced with the important decision of picking the best outfit to flatter your figure, give you the attitude you need to succeed and provide the image you would like to portray to the public.

What you wear from head to toe can be one of the biggest influences on your daily mood, body posture and alignment. The following tips can help you pick outfits and accessories to reflect your personality, as well as dress you for better health.

Running Around in Heels and Sneakers
Wearing high heels with your favorite cocktail dress may make you feel more confident in a group of people and help you see eye-to-eye with all of the guests.  But the damage to your body associated with squishing your toes into a narrow box and putting extra weight on the balls of your feet all day and night can have lasting effects. Even the sneakers you wear to workouts and the sandals you sport to run errands can put your feet in a bind if your shoes are old, worn out or don’t have adequate arch support to fit your foot’s structure.

Wearing shoes without arch support – whether it’s flip flops or stilettos – can lead to painful, throbbing feet at the end of the night, as well as cause pain and discomfort in your calf muscles, knee joints and hips. It’s important to add footwear into your wardrobe that is not only fitted appropriately to your foot – arch, size and width – but also helps to promote healthy balance and alignment for all areas your body. Dress your feet for style and health by picking shoes that mix fashion sense with support.

Lugging Around Handbags and Wallets
As you move up your body, other common areas that can be stressed by the outfit accessories you choose are the shoulders and hips. When you are accessorizing your outfit with jewelry, it is important to steer clear from heavy earrings and necklaces that can weigh down your head and neck. Carrying a heavy purse, handbag or briefcase day-in and day-out also can strain your shoulder and neck muscles as you lug around electronics, books, baby items and cosmetics in your on-the-go bag. Men who carry heavy wallets in the back pocket of their pants can cause undo stress on their hips and lower back, as well.

Reducing the weight of your load, carrying your purse on both sides of your body and using a briefcase/work bag with a two-strap system can help with keeping your body more inline and in balance as you travel through your day.

Putting on Some Color
Picking the right colors and dressing up an outfit with the right combination of glitz and glam can make or break the image you are trying to portray through your wardrobe. According to Psychology Today, the colors you choose have a lot to say about your personality and image. Take a look at what your favorite colors might be saying about you.

• Black : Artistic, Sensitive, Careful with Details, Doesn’t Share Easily
• White: Organized, Logical, Clutter-Free Living
• Blue: Harmony, Reliable, Sensitive, Thoughtful, Tidy
• Green: Affectionate, Loyal, Frank
• Yellow: Learner, Knowledge Sharer, Easily Happy
• Purple: Artistic, Unique, Great Respect for People
• Red: Tenacious, Determined, Live Life to the Fullest
• Brown: Reliable, Dependable, Stable, Good Friend

As you pick out your wardrobe tomorrow morning, choose an outfit that not only makes you feel happy and confident but also promotes comfort and health for your body. Clothes don’t necessarily make you the person who you are on the inside, but they can have a great effect on the message you are communicating about yourself and the strain you are putting on your body. Dress well for your personality and your health.