We are all under pressure. Pressure is another word for stress. When a person thinks of stress, they think of the things that cause the stress: job, children, relationships, money, and time – you name it.
One can cope with stress to a degree. Some people do better than others. Everyone has his or her own ’stress threshold.’ If one stays inside this threshold the body functions normally But when the pressures of the world go beyond this point, the stress infiltrates (goes into) the body, and a person feels ’stressed out.’ Most diseases in the body can be traced to stress or pressure, to one degree or another.
Pressure Point Therapy could have been called ‘Stress’ Point Therapy or massage therapy. But it’s best for you to differentiate between stress (which most people consider mental) and pressure, which is a physical thing not a emotional thing. But does affect your emotions. This pressure actually exists and it is wreaking havoc with your body. A professional Massage Therapist should understand the concept of these pressure points and it’s therapy.
Your body stores ’stress’ in areas called Pressure Points. Pressure Points are small painful pockets of energy that are located on or along a nerve or nerve pathway in the body. Pressure Points will block the nerve energy from flowing through your body.
As you may know, nerves run the entire body. Your nerves control all functions in your body. The nerves run your heart, digestive system, muscles, immune system, senses such as sight, taste, hearing, etc. If a nerve is blocked by a Pressure Point, the messages that flow through the nerve also become stopped. For example, you have a nerve that is responsible for your digestive tract. If it is blocked by a Pressure Point, you may end up with indigestion, constipation or even diarrhea. Pressure Points blocking the nerves going into the head can result in headaches, neck pain or even vision disturbances.
Most of the Pressure Points we are addressing are located within the muscles of your body. The nerves run directly through the muscles. This is especially true in your back. As you may know, your back contains the spinal column, which houses 80 percent of all the nerves in your body.
When your body gets stressed out, your muscles tighten up. Many of you regularly feel this in your neck and shoulder areas. These tight muscles can put pressure on the nerves that run through the muscle. When this occurs, the nerve sends an “emergency” signal back to your brain, which, in turn, further tightens up the muscle. This pattern results in the small areas of extreme tightness that we call Pressure Points.
A professional Massage Therapist should be able to work these pressure points, so you have a healthier body, stress free.
