Touch Yourself In Public
Bwog’s In-House Masseuse Zoe Camp is not techinically a Stressbuster. She went through with training, but didn’t get certified officially. That can’t stop her from telling you how to help yourself relax during this stressful time, in the first installment of our new relaxation series. Treat yourself (literally!) after your long day of finals.
The Ref Room can be just like this
Ah, finals. The time of the year when you seem to have a stress-induced headache every other day, your daily nutritional intake is at least 50 percent Red Bull, and you want nothing more than to lounge on a beach with a mai-tai while models fan you with palm fronds. It’s easy to let things like relaxing your muscles fall to the back of your mind, and who has the money or time for a massage? Luckily, there are some handy techniques that can help make that crick in your neck from a late night in Butler a little less of…well, a pain in the neck.
For Headaches:
90 % of headaches are due to tired, overworked muscles, and spending hours slouched over a laptop certainly doesn’t help either. A common headache culprit is the set of muscles at the base of the skull—the suboccipitals. When these muscles are stressed, they can cause a nasty headache that extends from the back of the neck, up the side of the head to the back of the eyes. To relieve some of the pressure, place your index and middle finger underneath your ears and slide them around to the back of your neck, right at the base of your noggin. You’ll know when you’ve found your suboccipitals—in most people, they’re constantly stiff and sensitive to the touch and radiate pain up into the base of the skull when pressed. Apply moderate pressure for about ten seconds, release (keeping your hands where they are) and repeat a few more times. Voila! That headache became a bit less aggravating.
Then there are the headaches that feel like someone’s put a rubber band around your head—the classic tension headache. In these cases, a scalp massage can be helpful. It’s really easy, just place your hands on either side of your head and use your finger pads to apply light pressure to the scalp. Try not to just move your fingers. For full effectiveness, it’s important to make contact with the muscle. If you want to go a bit harder, try using your knuckles or the bony part of your thumb. Don’t neglect your temples. It feels great to apply a little bit of light circular pressure there as well.
It may sound strange, but lightly tugging on your earlobes is another way to help your muscles relax and lighten the pain of a headache. Pull down for 3-5 seconds, release, and repeat as needed.
Tags: DIY, happy ending, independence, it's for your health, massages, stress busting, Touch Yourself
6 May 2011 @ 4:03 PM · 5 comments
The Porcine Pathogen remains in force on college campuses across the country (oh, and off campus as well, but who cares about that?). Bwog Bacon Bug Expert Mark “Not Marky Mark” Hay has been procrastinating with some ingenious ways of fighting the flu.
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