Aromatherapy Massage – Soothing Away Anxiety & Stress
I recently read an article by Vikki Stark about Wife Abandonment Syndrome. She had listed 10 points that she called the Hallmarks of Wife Abandonment Syndrome. She was describing what happened to me over 4 years ago. I would certainly have found her book extremely helpful at the time, but when you are in the thick of it, it is incredibly hard to know which way to turn next or in fact what help you actually need. You believe no one can fully understand what you are going through and you exist in a lonely world of anguish, pain, and confusion.
All I had to do was look for help in the right places and ask the right people the questions I needed answering, easier said than done.
Four years later, I have become one of those people to whom you can look for help. I use Complementary Therapies to help ease troubled minds and soothe aching bodies. If I had known then what I know now I would have put myself into the hands of an aromatherapist.
Aromatherapists use essential oils which have been extracted from a wide variety of plants and are very concentrated. Each oil has its own unique healing properties and fragrance. Several oils are often used in combination to promote healing on different levels – physical, mental and emotional.
Massage is an excellent way of applying oils to the body as the oils are absorbed through the skin and also inhaled.
An aromatherapy massage starts with a consultation. This enables me to find out from you any medical conditions that you have and your current state of mind. I can then suggest a blend of oils to suit your specific requirements. For anxiety, tension, and stress I might choose Basil, Cypress and Vetiver. These oils would be used on the body.
The massage begins with a facial and a scalp massage. For the facial, I would choose one oil that you love the aroma of, for example, Jasmine or Rose. Facial massages are intensely relaxing and you will soon be inhaling the beautiful scent of the essential oil encouraging you to unwind and let go. The massage then moves on to the legs and feet, the arms and then the abdomen if you wish. You then turn over and the backs of your legs and your back are massaged. Finally, take a few moments to relax in peace before a reviving glass of fresh water.
I will offer you after care advise and also recommend ways to use the oils at home such as in baths or as room fragrances.
The benefits are huge. It is an opportunity for you to do nothing for an hour or so. You lie there whilst someone else gives your mind, body, and soul the attention it so desperately needs. Massage gives you a feel good factor, badly needed when your self-confidence has been knocked. It is a feeling of being cosseted, of being loved. Human touch is vitally important especially when your world has been ripped apart and you are lost. Prescription drugs can have side effects but aromatherapy energises you enabling you to face up to those difficult decisions you now have to address.
Vikki Stark concludes that “ although recovery is a struggle, many women find that it forces them to reinvent themselves in positive and exciting new ways”.
How very true. I lead a very different life now to the one I has as a married woman. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to train to become a Complementary Therapist. I am now my own person, no longer ‘wife of …’. My life is far richer now that I can focus on my own dreams instead of fighting to keep the sinking ship of my marriage afloat.
