This time of year can be quite stressful.  Gifts to buy, pies and cookies to bake, dust bunnies to clean in preparation for the guests you have to pick up from the airport.  Relax?  Yeah right!

What if relieving all that stress was as easy as kicking back for just a few in a hammock hung in the backyard or, even, back of the basement?

Sounds pretty good, right?

Here’s how it works.

According to research on the hammock site, Hangouts.com, everyday people, as well as trained therapists, have been using hammocks and hanging chairs as a means of relieving stress and physical aches and pains.

Back and neck pain is often quite quickly and easily relieved by lying perpendicular on a hammock.  To do so, you’ll find yourself lying across the hammock, rather than lengthwise.

According to Hangouts.com (also the source for the picture here), The support removes pressure points and thus allows the muscles of the body to relax. Support without pressure points allows the blood to flow to all body parts and thus maximizes the healing potential that our bodies have. Without pressure points the verdabrae of the body can begin to align themselves.

The hammock works, in a sense, like a massage, helping you achieve a similar physical state of muscle relaxation equivalent to a massage session.  Pregnant women have also found that hammocks help to relive prenatal pains and allow them to sleep more soundly.

Many enjoy sitting cross-legged, in a meditative yoga sit, in their hammock.  Doing so, allows the body and mind to relax so they can achieve a deep meditation and a state of muscle relaxation similar to a yoga session.

The swinging and spinning motions of a hammock can even help Autism patients.  By stimulating cerebral activity it can help  increase one’s ability to focus and concentrate.  Good not only for Autistic children, but for those suffering from ADD, ADHD, or for any of us who lack the ability to focus from time to time.

But if you find yourself without a backyard or front porch fitting for a hammock (or weather unfitting at the moment), don’t worry.  Hammocks can be hung and enjoyed just as easily indoors.

Though I remember swinging in our old rope hammock as a child, I more recently tried out a slicker version from Eagle’s Nest Outfitters.

The company was founded in the summer of 1999 by brothers Peter and Paul, who decided to leave the traditional workplace behind and make hanging out a full time occupation.

The brothers wanted something that would not only challenge them but would also be laid back, allowing them to live their lives in no particular way but their own. Starting with a sewing machine and a vision, they began sewing hammocks and slap straps in their sister’s garage.

They first traveled the  East Coast in a beat up old mini van, setting up shop selling and sleeping in whatever parking spots they could find. The response was beyond their expectations and soon the boys found themselves established high up on the Blue Ridge Mountains where they set up full-time shop supplying  hammocks and accessories to like-minded people all over the world.

Sounds like a story I’d like to be a part of!

Find their fantastic collection of beautiful and well-made hammocks and accessories at EaglesNestOutfittersInc.com.

Also on SaraSnow.com