How Vivify Services Can Benefit Mental Health
Massage and Mental Health
Massages are much more than a luxury treatment. Licensed massage therapists are highly-trained, well-versed in anatomy and physiology, and they use their expertise to improve wellness in a variety of ways.
While experiencing a relaxing massage, our heart rates, blood pressure, and cortisol levels decrease. This helps reduce stress and anxiety, which are the two leading causes of depression. Even after a massage has ended, studies have found that sleep patterns improve in children, adolescents and adults. Regular massage sessions can provide a reduction in pain for people with chronic conditions, which can also lead to less sleep disturbances. Massage therapy has been known to help lower stress, decrease anxiety, and reduce irritability. Along with increasing brain serotonin and dopamine, the combination of these effects lead to a happier individual.
Acupuncture and Mental Health
Acupuncture is defined as a healing practice that stimulates certain parts of the body using needles about the width of a human hair, inserted carefully into the skin, to alleviate pain, prevent disease, and promote wellness. Practiced for over 3.000 years, Acupuncture is now widely accepted among the medical community. In 2003, the World Health Organization published an official report of more than 43 different conditions under 9 major healthcare categories that Acupuncture was proven to treat effectively. Research into acupuncture as a medical treatment has grown exponentially in the 20 years since (over 13,000 studies in over 60 countries).
When the body is under stress, an area of the brain called the hypothalamus releases excitatory neurochemicals, and research shows that acupuncture can calm this response. Acupuncture has also been shown to increase the release of endorphins, the body’s own ‘feel-good’ chemicals, which play an important role in the regulation of physical and emotional stress responses such as pain, heart rate, blood pressure and digestive function.
NeurOptimal® NeuroFeedback (Brain Training) and Mental Health
The brain is a very complex structure. It processes massive amounts of information, mostly without our awareness. Our neural connections are constantly strengthened with repetition and our behaviors often become an unconscious and uncontrolled response. Unfortunately, we sometimes solidify maladaptive behavior patterns in our brains. By the time we become aware of these patterns, they are usually difficult to change because they are supported by powerful unconscious neural connections.
NeurOptimal® Brain Training works with the central nervous system -your brain- by targeting shifts in the brain’s activity that can undermine optimal brain function. NeurOptimal® picks up information from the brain as its occurring and mirrors it back, allowing the brain to reorganize itself. As a result, the brain becomes more stable, and flexibility and resilience are improved. During a NeurOptimal® session, you wear ear clips and two small sensors on your head. These pick up the delicate electrical activity of your brain. You relax, close your eyes and listen to music. NeurOptimal® processes your brain signals and when it detects them moving into an “instability”, the music pauses very briefly. Consciously, of course, this has no meaning for us — in fact, we may not even notice. But unconsciously our brain understands the mathematics behind the timing of the pauses and adjusts its activity, allowing it to learn to work more efficiently.
Reiki and Mental Health
Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It involves the balancing of one's life force energy, or human biofield (coined by a team of NIH scientists to describe the field of energy and information that surrounds and interpenetrates the human body.)
A Reiki practitioner balances one’s life force energy by sending in positive energy to heal disrupted energy pathways. The positive energy goes where it is needed for healing. A Reiki practitioner’s hands usually hover slightly off the body, it does not require direct touch. It is important to remember that Reiki can never cause harm.
Salt Therapy and Mental Health
Research has found that inhaled dry salt has properties that may help to reduce inflammation in the entire respiratory tract and widen the airways. A clean respiratory system naturally results in higher oxygen intake, increased energy, and an improved immune system.
Our bodies are constantly fighting a battle to maintain internal homeostasis (balance). Our immune systems are always attempting to control or eliminate the germs, allergens, and chemicals that we are exposed to daily. When we are physically taxed, and emotionally or mentally taxed by work or personal stressors, we often feel worn out and fatigued. The natural anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of salt, when inhaled, help reduce the body’s toxic load, which gives relief to our overburdened immune system. Because salt is also super-absorbent, the salt particles act like a sponge, absorbing foreign substances in our system and helping our bodies eliminate them. A healthy and well-balanced body has a better ability to deal with stress and is able to recharge physically and mentally during sleep.
Infrared Sauna and Mental Health
The appeal of saunas in general is that they cause reactions similar to those elicited by moderate exercise, such as vigorous sweating and increased heart rate. An infrared sauna produces these results at lower temperatures than does a regular sauna, which makes it accessible to people who can't tolerate the heat of a conventional sauna.
“Infrared sauna therapy promotes relaxation by helping to balance your body’s level of cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone. The heat generated by the sauna will also help to relax muscles and relieve tension throughout the body, allowing you to relax and de-stress.” – Amy Myers, MD is a two-time New York Times bestselling author and an internationally acclaimed functional medicine physician. Recent studies on continuous use of infrared saunas found a variety of potential benefits; from reducing high blood pressure to a reduction in pain symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia and chronic tension headaches. Research on infrared treatment continues, however no adverse effects have been reported with infrared sauna use. So if you're considering trying a sauna for relaxation, an infrared sauna might be an option.