by Elizabeth Diebold, LMT & Owner of Avalon 8 Wellness

When was the last time you had a massage on your day off? How did you feel afterwards?
Relaxed?
Rejuvenated?
Less Stressed?
Happier?
Muscles aches reduced or gone?
Now imagine how you feel while you are work. In most corporate settings, you sit at a desk all day. Maybe you are on the phone or on the computer. Maybe it is a high stressed job or maybe you are so busy you barely have time to go anywhere on your way to or from work and weekends are packed with activities with your family and kids? When would you have time to even think about getting a massage?
There is a solution – Bring massage to the workplace! This is happening in many different corporate settings. Why? Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress-related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress.
Massage is an effective tool for managing this stress and the proof is in the benefits! The answer is simple, if corporations have happy healthy employees, they are more productive which will help increase overall profits!
What are some of the benefits of massage in the workplace?

• Decreased anxiety.
• Enhanced sleep quality.
• Greater energy.
• Improved concentration.
• Increased circulation.
• Reduced fatigue.

There are many ways to bring massage to the workplace. Some of the larger companies actually have fitness centers and massage therapists on site. Other smaller organizations may hire a massage therapist to come in and perform chair massage for their employees weekly, monthly or quarterly.
What is great is that there are many options no matter what size your company is to provide massage benefits to your employees.  Also there are 3 ways to pick up the cost of integrating massage into your office.. Companies can cover the cost, the employees can cover the cost, or the cost can be shared between the company and the employee.
The fact remains that there are many benefits to having massage in the workplace and more and more companies are integrating wellness into their programs.
Here are a few of the benefits companies have found by bringing massage into the workplace: Increased Performance.

• Increased Energy.
• Improved Problem Solving.
• Increased Productivity.
• Greater Employee Retention.
• Heightened Morale and Employee Appreciation.
• Decreased Absenteeism.
• Enhanced Creative Thinking.
• Overall Positive Work Environment.

Is massage currently at your workplace? If not, contact your human resource department and ask them if they would consider it. Like I mentioned before there are many cost-effective solutions that can be worked out if the employer can’t cover the whole cost. More and more companies are open to inviting wellness into their workplace because in the end it really does benefit everyone! And if the human resource department gets enough requests for it…maybe they will check into it with a little nudge from their employees. Please check out my website or contact me at elizabeth@avalon8wellness.com.