Relax and Rejuvenate With Electric Back Massagers - Combined with mindfulness breathing

After a long day at work, you probably want to relax and let go of the pressures of your day. Are you a person who finds it difficult to unwind? You’re not alone.

Perhaps you have responsibilities at home that require your attention - cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids. Maybe you try to get a head start on the next day’s workload, by working into the night? Continuing on in this way can be physically and mentally taxing as your body continues to expend energy. Over time, this can have seriously impact your overall wellbeing.

To help your mind and body relax and rejuvenate every day after work, we have found 10 of the best ways to help you enjoy some ‘me time’. Try doing one (or more) of these things to get the most out of your leisure time.

How do you relax and rejuvenate after a long day of work?

1. Lie down and do nothing

One of the best ways to recover after work is just to lie down. This helps you feel relaxed and gives both your mind and your body a much needed rest from your day.

Lie down on your bed or couch. Close your eyes and do nothing. Don’t lie down to read a book or play with your phone, as this doesn’t really give your brain a rest. Don’t look around the room and notice what needs to be cleaned or put away, as this will just distract you. It’s kind of like meditation, but you don’t need to commit as much as meditation.

You don’t need to do this for very long. A few minutes can help you feel more relaxed. Ten or 15 minutes can be enough. If you need to have a nap, make it a short one, as it could disrupt your natural sleep cycle.

2. Get some exercise

Another way to feel good after a long day of work is to get some exercise. I like running, so a couple of times a week I go out for a run. It’s only a couple of kilometres, but the act of running and breaking a sweat makes me feel better. It’s also a great way to reduce stress at work, if you make it part of your schedule.

You don’t have to go running if you don’t like to run. Try riding a bike, going to the gym, playing a sport, doing some yoga or pilates. Any kind of exercise will help you feel better after your long day at work.

3. Take a bath or shower

A great way to feel refreshed is to have a bath or a shower. Lying down in the tub for a while is very relaxing. Run some hot water into the bath, get in, and lie down for 20 minutes. This is similar to lying down on the bed for a while, as it can relax you and make you feel warm at the same time.

If you don’t have a tub, or don’t like to bathe, take a shower instead. Sometimes I like to have a shower after work if I’m feeling run down or sore, and it makes me feel better. Showers are quicker and the feeling of warm water on your head is great.

4. Change into comfortable clothes

It’s normal to change out of work clothes when you get home. Getting out of the suit, or uniform, at night time can make you more comfortable. However, it’s best to get into something that makes you feel comfortable and relaxed.

Don’t stay in your work attire when you get home. If you’re feeling tired or drained, change into comfortable clothes, like track pants and a jumper. It might not be fashionable, but comfort should be the aim here and every little thing you can do to feel better will help.

5. Do something you enjoy

After your long day at the office, working hard, and getting things done for your team and your employer, you should take some time to do something that you want to do. Doing something you enjoy will make you feel better and might make you more relaxed.

Listen to some music, watch a movie or some TV, paint, cook dinner, or play guitar. Work on something you enjoy and that isn’t too draining, and you’ll probably find your mood increases.

I like to watch an episode of a TV show to relax. There’s a few that I watch and, if I need to recover, I can just switch off my brain for an hour and watch one of these shows.

I hope these tips can help you after your next big day at the office. If you’ve got any other tips, share them in the comments section below.

6. Relax With Electric Back Massagers

The experience of using electric back massagers is truly a distinctive one. Nothing says pleasure and relaxation as much as a five-minute session on your favourite massager chair, or a soothing treatment from one of those hand-held electric back massagers.

Nowadays, the designs used for electric back massagers are becoming more and more ingenious. In today's market, you can easily find and purchase a chair massager since these items are now must-have pieces for every home. These handy electric back tools are fast becoming a staple in the average individual's busy lifestyles. It allows people to sit back, relax, watch television, and enjoy hours of tension-alleviating back therapy on their recliner seat. What a regular masseuse can do, a machine can now accomplish as well.

The astounding thing about these electric back massagers is their apparent versatility. Recliner massage chairs have interfaces that allow you to choose a specific program. How about a relaxing shiatsu-based acupressure massage? Or how about a massage designed solely to ease stiff shoulders? Why not whisk yourself away to a more relaxing place with a rhythmic massage that allows you to listen to tranquil music as you feel your massage follow the beat of the peaceful rhythm? There are hundreds of programs to choose from, so you can end up with a massage tailored to your specifications.

Recliner chairs allow you to multi-task in ways you've never even thought possible. These electric back therapy chairs you do to your work, eat, or watch your favourite television channel while having your massage. Some electric back massagers also come with calf and foot massagers that provide intense relaxation to your tired legs. These calf machines are often fitted with air-bags that inflate and deflate to create a rejuvenating experience. Electric back pads promote the overall circulation of your body's blood. Becuase of this, it also promotes health and well being.

Another interesting thing about today's electric back tools are their capability to emulate human hands. In the electric therapy tool market, the device that can emulate human touch accurately sells the most. This means that when choosing your device, make sure yours is comes with a feature that emulates human touch. Shiatsu electric back tools are an example of a therapy device that replicates the human touch These differ from handheld tools and chair massagers in function and form. Shiatsu massagers are as big as a thick paper back, with moving "fingers" which are responsible for the massaging action.

Shiatsu massagers enjoy the flexibility of a hand-held massager, while at the same time, possessing the holistic ability of an electric chair massager. A shiatsu massager can be used to massage the neck, the back, the arms and the legs. You can also stand on it if you want to massage you feet. Shiatsu massagers are incredibly versatile in their ability to massage. Therefore, it is extremely cost-effective to purchase one. A shiatsu massager is well known to imitate a masseuse's hands, creating a better massage experience. These electric massagers are handy devices that you can use to unwind and relax just the way you want to.

The simplest way to be calmer, to relax, and to reduce stress

Why bother with the breath? A scientific guide to mindful breathing

Sitting, sweating, in a scorching-hot Thai Monastery in Bangkok 10 years ago, I remember thinking, ‘why is this Monk so fixated that I focus my attention on my breath? What’s the big deal with noticing the rising and falling of my belly, hour after hour!?’ 10 years later after noticing many, many mindful breaths and studying neuroscience and psychiatry, some intriguing answers emerged. So I thought I’d share some of them!

Many people talk about mindful breathing but don’t give a detailed understanding of why it’s held in such high regard. So I wrote this post to give people a fuller understanding about the benefits. In the hope that people who were on the fence about mindful breathing might give it a go and discover for themselves why its played such a special part in human history. And to encourage you to set aside 10 mins in your busy day to practice it. Whether it’s chilling out, de-stressing or just relaxing. If you think mindful breathing isn’t for you, make sure you’ve considered its full potential and tried it out a good few times with decent teachers before ruling it out. It may well be like physical exercise - challenging to stick to - but universally fruitful for those who commit.

• Over a lifetime, you’ll probably take over 600 million breaths - but how many of these have you noticed? I certainly hadn’t paid a moments notice to my breath for at least the first 16 years of my life. Yet its a tried and tested cognitive technique used by humans for over 2500 years – and it’s a skill that keeps on giving, year after year.
• Before you read the next paragraph, I invite you to do what I was instructed to do 10 years ago: ‘Just notice your breath and observe whether you’re currently breathing in or out. Then count 3 consecutive breaths.’ Now read the next paragraph.
• Now that you’ve banked some practical experience, let’s consider why you’d bother prioritising mindful breathing over alternative distractions like TV, social media and the general business of 21st century life. Well here’s 14 science-based reasons on what makes meditating specifically on the breath so remarkable. As there’s more to breath-awareness than first meets the eye, take a look at what distinguishes this practice. We’ll start with the obvious ones and work up to the more subtle ones. As you read through them, try to ask yourself ‘what might this mean for me, in my life?’.

THE OBVIOUS BENEFITS…

1. Availability 24/7 : Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, your breath is always there to focus on. As long as we’re alive, the breath is there. If you can’t find your breath, its probably time to call an ambulance! All you have to do is remember to tune into your breath.
2. Ubiquity. If you’ve ever stepped into a yoga studio, done Pilates, dabbled in the alexander technique or taken classes on public speaking, sports performance or sleep hygiene, you’ve probably already tried mindful breathing. Mindful breathing is often the common active ingredient across multiple spiritual, meditative and contemplative traditions. Because breath-awareness is recognised across so many disciplines, it’s a worthy investment of your time and attention.
3. Relaxation. Studies show that within minutes of focusing on your breath, you rebalance your autonomic nervous system. Your overactive fight or flight or sympathetic system gets dampened down and your parasympathetic rest and digest system gets engaged. This means practice will change your stress hormones such as cortisol, reduced your blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and breathing rate. Within 10 minutes you’ll often feel a significant drop in your stress levels.

SOME SCIENTIFIC BENEFITS…

1. Potency. How many techniques have been proven to improve such a wide range of difficulties: stress, poor sleep, feeling low, anxiety and even breaking bad habits like smoking or over-eating? Whilst not a panacea, mindfulness has solid evidence that it not only helps de-stress and calm the mind but it also helps you respond more flexibly to life.
2. Grounding. We spend 50–60% of our waking life distracted thinking about things that may never happen in the future or things we can’t change in the past. What’s more, whenever our mind wanders, its biased towards negativity - ever noticed that when you day dream its not usually to idilic Hawaiian beaches but shoulda-coulda-wouldascenarios? Focusing on the breath is the best anchor we have to refocus back on the here and now. It’s is scientifically proven way to enjoy a more relaxed life in the present.
3. Neuroplasticity. Studies show that mindful breathing is an excellent way of stepping out of the usual mind-wandering ‘doing mode’ of mind. This elaborative thought into the future and past happens so often it’s even called the brain’s ‘default’ mode – distraction in the mind happens automatically, without any stimulation, and often within seconds! One thought just leads to another and so on… However, when we meditate on the breath, we practice the ‘being mind’ which learns to stay more present-focused. Science shows that when we do this, we change how our brain connects. In particular, mindful breathing appears to change the connectivity in 2 central regions in the brain that activate whenever we daydream whilst in the ‘default mode’ of mind - the anterior cingulate cortex and posterior cingulate cortex (these 2 regions represent the ‘hotspots’ on the brain image above). So when you’re next focusing on your breath, remember that the practice is so profound that you’re actually modulating your brain - changing the way your brain connects.
4. Cyclicality. The breath is great, but why not just scan the rest of my body for sensations – or even my big toe? Whilst you could (and people do) focus on the rest of the body, sensations are often appear less varied and hence less interesting to concentrate on. Notice that as we breathe there is constantly changing sensations because of the cycle of breathing in and then out. The cycle is also driven by different parts of the autonomic nervous system, causing the outbreath to feel especially relaxing. Tune in now to your next outbreath – does it feel subtly more calming than your inbreath? People often tune into their outbreath when they’re trying to let go of something in the mind – it may help people accept and reprocess certain challenging emotions. In fact, the process of breathing is so influential that it changes our heart rate. When we breath in, our heart rate increases, causing it to temporarily beat faster - which is known as a sinus arrhythmia.
5. Informativeness. Learn to listen to your breath - it tells you about your mind. Think of it like an abundant untapped resource, a personal messenger. When you’re stressed, it will be fast, laboured and from the chest (thoracic breathing). When you’re relaxed, watch how it slows down, becomes deeper and more abdominal. Use the breath as your personal teacher for what is going on in your mind. It helps you learn about your mind-body connection. It helps you transition from thoracic to calm abdominal breathing.
6. Volitionality. Breathing is a bodily processes that is so flexible, you can even choose whether you want to consciously control it or not. Initially, you can intentionally control your breathing and perhaps make breaths more exaggerated so that you can focus on them more easily. You can also synchronise your breath with bodily movements, as is often done in yoga. You can also try the 4-7-8 breathing technique to relax. For the highest levels of concentration and relaxation, allow your natural breathing rhythm to completely take over. Generally, the more you let of control and control of your breath, the more relaxing you’ll find mindful breathing.

YET MORE BENEFITS…

1. Novelty. Because your breath is dynamic and always changing moment-by-moment, it gives you the richest sense of variety and new stimulation. How does you breath feel now? and now? and what about now? The novelty of your constantly evolving sensation stream from your breath makes it easier and more rewarding to sustain attention on. You can think of it in terms of start of the inbreath - mid inbreath - end of the inbreath – pause – start of the outbreath – mid outbreath – end of the outbreath and so on.
2. Profundity. There are individuals all over the world and particularly in South East Asia who are right now, devoting their lives to the practice of breath-awareness. Unlike other skills that you can be ‘completed’, and ‘ticked off’ there is always more depth and concentration to build when noticing the breath. Like a snowflake, every breath is unique in its shape and combination of sensations. Feel air over your nostrils, the contact of clothes brushing over your skin and the rate and depth of your breath. Scientifically, this means that there is no ceiling effectwhere mastery results in no further benefits. Unlike a tick-box exercise - its life skill that rewards commitment with profound health and wellbeing benefits.
3. Simplicity. Mindful breathing is secular, simple and effective – it’s just a natural cycle of kindly focusing, noticing distraction and refocusing back on the breath (checkout the blue diagram). Maximum parsimony + maximum potency = maximum benefit.
4. Freedom. And of course lastly, you have the freedom to try it whenever you like - its free. If there’s one calming life skill I recomend to nail down, nail down this one, nail it down some more, and once you’ve mastered it, practice it some more.

I hope this post helps you understand why mindful breathing is such a powerful technique. And why millions of people have committed a lifetime of practice to the endeavour. Its been really helpful to me over the years and I hope its elegance and simplicity shines through. Whether you’re looking to unwind and relax or deeply develop the mind, remember, there may be no better focus than on your breath.

Good luck,