Massages used to be associated with pampering. A decadent treat reserved for reward or giving a gift to others. But the actual health benefits of massage are real and recent research keeps showing more and more reasons why you should ‘pamper’ yourself more often!

While your shopping for those you love and allocating a large amount of time, energy, and money to making sure everyone else feels appreciated this holiday season, go ahead and “treat” yourself to a massage.

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The holidays really are the best of times and the worst of times. Our tidings of comfort and joy can so easily be devoured by the insatiable stress to do it all, be it all, and buy it all.  Depending on your family’s traditions, this can be a time of great joy and celebration but it can also be a time of great stress. Between coordinating events and the pressure to entertain, Holiday stress can become just as much of a tradition as anything else.

“People are overcommitted,” says Marc D. Skelton, PhD, PsyD, a psychologist in Laguna Niguel, Calif. “Christmas and other holidays around this time are always supposed to be fun, and you’re supposed to do a good job in terms of entertaining friends and family.”

That’s a lot of pressure for anyone! So to keep yourself in the “spirit” and out of stress, try a few stress busters this holiday season and remember to take care of yourself!

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