Over the past 2 weeks I have seen several regular clients who have been on the verge of having problems again – physical aches and pain problems that we have kept at bay for months (years in one case).

What struck me as I was listening to them prior to the treatment was that each person had a tale of tension, problems, stress in their lives which they all felt was contributing to their pain coming back, possibly even causing the pain to return.

One lady is worried about her job security and isn’t actually enjoying her job anymore anyway.  A chap I see twice a month is really busy with work, family and studying and his shoulders are bad again.  Another lady has been having problems with colleagues at work and has been experiencing bad pains in her lower back for about the same time.

“Resilience” is a term that describes our ability to recover from things.  The dictionary describes resilience in two ways: “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness” and “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape”.  This second meaning I can relate to directly as a massage therapist because muscles, tendons and fascia literally get bent out of shape by the stress we feel on a day to day basis and this leads to tension, aches and pains.

These clients are feeling the physical impact of mental and emotional stress on their physical bodies, something that I see every day in my clinical work.

Stuff happens to us daily.  We react.  We get bent out of shape as a result – emotionally, mentally and physically.  It’s vital that we give ourselves what we need recover and allow ourselves to “rebound” afterwards.

This could be in many different ways.  A massage, a long, hot bath, a long walk alone (or with someone else, or the dog!), reading, listening to music, cooking.  Whatever works for you.

But do something.  Do lots of something. Do it often too, so that you can “bail out the stress bucket” and stop it overflowing.  With the weekend coming up, plan some things for yourself that will help you to rebound from what life has thrown at you recently.