Holiday Travel Stress Relief

Whether you’re a frequent-flyer or not, holiday travel certainly tends to be the catalyst for excess stress. Between booking-woes, finding the perfect gifts, and making sure presents don’t get smushed, we tend to file away our worries about aches and pains until our bodies become fully overloaded. During this Holiday season, you run the risk of bringing home more than you left with, and I’m not just talking about all those blinking felt reindeer antlers you bought… It’s common to acquire a new pain in your neck and shoulders from that long direct flight, and frequently a new knot will hitch a ride back from your hometown with you. But as long as you’ve prepared your body and are adequately equipped to defend it against these nasty travel villains, than you can expect to arrive at your destination with nothing more than you intended!

When making your travel plans, I recommend you go online and book a massage or spa service at our beautiful Portland Airport location. You know you’ll just end up killing time waiting to board anyway, and massage is the best way to tap into your body’s innate ability to heal itself. Do yourself a favor, indulge in our transportive environment (“Seriously, how is it this peaceful in the airport?!”), and treat yourself to a service with one of our skilled Licensed Massage Therapists.

Even once you’ve left the cozy confines of the spa and boarded your flight, there are things you can do to help keep your body moving fluidly, all the way from departure to arrival. In yoga, stretching and strengthening the muscles of the body is done to alleviate aches and pains, and to bring you into a higher, more meditative and contemplative, consciousness. While you’re 30,000 feet in the air, remembering to stretch can be vital to keeping your strength up, and your fatigue down. Most commonly, the chest muscles become shortened as our shoulder joints inwardly rotate as we try to squeeze into seats between strangers, after hauling our heavy bags down narrow aisles. Once getting relatively comfortable in your seat (or, as comfortable as you’re going to get), most of us tend to try to remain seated the entire flight, just to avoid the nuisance of asking the passengers next to us to reposition. However, it’s much better to get up at least once per hour to stretch your body, and let it move! Even a short trip to the bathroom provides ample opportunities to stretch…

  • As you stand up and move into the aisle, feel any stiffness in your lower legs dissolve by simply pointing and flexing each foot a few times to stretch your calves.
  • Stand firm and stable with your lower body, while twisting your upper half to the right, a little further with each breath, unwinding tension stuck in your spine and between each rib. Repeat on the left.
  • While you wait for the bathroom, bring your right arm out at a right-angle from your body, elbow bent and hand up, like you’re hailing a taxi. Hook your arm onto the partition wall, lean in, and BREATHE, stretching your right pectoralis muscle. Repeat on the left.
  • Roll your neck in slow circles from left to right, than right to left, releasing any remaining tension in your neck.
  • Finally, as you walk back to your seat, reach up and spend a moment massaging your scalp, from the nape of your neck, around your ears, up and over the crown to the temples and forehead, bringing a peaceful but energized feeling to your whole body!

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