You work hard. You understand how important it is to revitalize physically and mentally to perform at your peak and be your best. Super charge your daily ritual with a Human Touch® Ascent Series massage chair and gain your high performance edge. The Novo massage chair offers a variety of benefits, including:

• 30 Auto-Wellness Programs, including full-body immersion, rocking motion, and an effective collection of therapeutic relaxation and recovery programs.
• Zero-Gravity Massage. Enable zero-gravity auto rocking with just the touch of a button, and you’ll automatically be moved to an optimized neutral posture position, then gently rocked in synchronicity with the auto-programs for a more soothing and refreshing.
• Unibody Track. The striking design of the Novo is more than just style. The unibody track covers up to 60% more of the back than conventional chairs, extending high performance coverage from your neck and shoulders all the way down to your thighs.
• Extending Foot-and-Calf Massage. With under-foot rollers for optimized reflexology and adjustable intensity for calves and feet, the extendable leg rest automatically adjusts to your height.
• Cloud Touch Acupressure. Strategically placed targeted aircells apply to pressure to key healing points and manipulate your body to stretch muscles.
• Lumbar Heat. Using Human Touch Air Technology®, heat flows continually to target the lumbar area, gently soothing tight muscles and relieving pain.
• Bluetooth Speakers. Enhance the relaxation of your massage with the sounds of your favorite music, using the built-in Bluetooth speakers on the Novo.

Take a look at this video for an introduction to the Novo Ascent Series massage chair.

For more information on the Novo massage chair, click here.

Meditation can sometimes be misunderstood by people who feel that it seems inactive or boring. Other people are so used to the daily buzz that they don’t think it’s possible for them to sit silently for a period of time. Others still feel like they’re just TOO busy to meditate, even for a few minutes. However, there are a multitude of ways to meditate, with options that can fit just about any lifestyle. Here are a few forms of meditation for practitioners of any concentration level, schedule, and interest in meditative spirituality.

Loving-Kindness Meditation

This is the simple practice of directing well-wishes toward other people. To practice, sit comfortably with your eyes closed, and imagine what you want for your life. Start by directing phrases at yourself, such as “I wish to feel more peace.” After this, you extend well-wishes toward other people, and determine what positive hopes you have for them. These visualizations go beyond just friends or even people you feel neutral about, and reach out to people whom you don’t generally care for, in order to spread happiness to your surrounding world. This type of meditation has been shown to increase positivity, empathy, and kindness. Best for: Those struggling with low self-esteem; those looking to become more empathetic to people around them.

Moving Meditation

There are several forms of moving meditation that can help people who like to multitask, or those who struggle sit still. Exercises such as Yoga or Tai Chi encourage people to move their bodies at a deliberate pace, all while focusing their attention inward in order to really connect their minds and bodies as one. Even walking can be a means of meditation if you simply focus your attention on your mind and body. During any form of moving meditation, it’s important to keep the body in continual motion, in order to maintain the mind-body connection. Best for: Busy people; athletes.

Chakra Meditations

This style of meditation is centered on the idea that we are made of seven different “energy centers,” each of which is located in a different part of the body. These energy centers, or chakras, are associated with a different color, sound and purpose. Mediation involving one’s chakras often uses sound, touch, and visualization to hone in on a specific area of the body, and heal any issues or heavy emotions that dwell there. Many people who practice yoga believe in chakra meditation, and use it as a supplement to their yoga practice. Best for: Spiritual individuals; yoga practitioners.

Vipassana Meditation

Also called “Insight Meditation,” Vipassana Insight Meditation is the practice of paying close attention to sensation. It emphasizes awareness of breath, and teaches you to focus your attention on the thoughts that arise while you breathe in and out through the nose. No matter your thoughts, it asks you to allow them to flow through you without taking them too seriously, and then gently return your awareness back to your breath. This is the most common type of meditation that is offered at silent meditation retreats. Best for: Beginners; those looking to attend a silent retreat.

Open Monitoring Meditation

Experienced practitioners see this as an actual purpose to meditation, and not a form of meditation itself. Open Monitoring Meditation encourages turning their focus on their awareness itself, rather than focus on one’s breath or their thoughts. One way to accomplish this might be to sit or lay down, and simply listen to the goings-on in the world around you. You might notice the weight of your body as it distributes onto your chair or the ground, or you can listen to the sounds outside of your window that were only background noise until now. Your state of awareness is heightened as you really start to pay attention to each passing car, gust of wind, or cool breeze. This type of meditation really enhances your connection to the world around you, and helps to calm your mind as you own racing thoughts become more still. Best for: Busy thinkers; those who struggle to sit still.  

Get the rest you deserve with the Navitas Sleep massage chair from Human Touch. The Navitas Sleep features 36 wellness programs, which is more than any chair on the market. In addition, it includes 9 dedicated sleep programs developed by sleep experts on the Human Touch Wellness Council that are designed to help end each day calm, relaxed and ready for a restful night and rejuvenated morning. With 62 massage techniques- more than any other chair in the world- the Navitas Sleep rivals the most proficient masseuse. With touch accuracy to within a 2mm tolerance, you can customize your experience to target even the most precise areas, and get the exact massage you want every single time. It also features a fully mechanical calf massage, without the use of airbags. It includes targeted shiatsu therapy, under foot reflexology rollers, heat, and the flexibility of extending length to rejuvenate your legs using 19 different massage techniques, the most programs for any chair available. Create a program for any occasion using our intuitive precision controls, then save it to one of 8 customizable memory slots to access again anytime you want. You'll never be more than a touch away from the perfect massage - created by you. The Navitas Sleep offers a ritual for relaxation before you get into bed and optimizes your circadian rhythm for fullness of sleep, allowing you to hit the ground running each morning. Take a look at this video for a visual introduction to the Navitas Sleep Ascent Series massage chair.

Long Beach, CA–  Human Touch®, the United States market leader of innovative massage, health and wellness products, officially announced the introduction of its Novo massage chair, designed to supercharge its users’ daily ritual and gain a high performance edge.

The Novo helps to rejuvenate the body and is perfect to help athletes of any level prepare for, and recover from, strenuous workouts. Its distinctive unibody design follows a unique L-track that massages the entire back, past the hips and down to the glutes. It also features a custom super stretch, Bluetooth speakers, lumbar heat, cloud touch acupressure, extending foot-and-calf massage, and zero-gravity massage. With 30 auto wellness programs and an easy-to-use LCD controller, the Novo massage chair is endorsed by the World Federation of Chiropractic as an optimal way to improve spinal health and relieve overall stress.

“Millions of Americans suffer from unhealthy levels of stress, which not only takes a toll on a person’s mental wellbeing, but physical health as well,” says Dr. James Rouse, ND, a naturopathic doctor and Human Touch^® Wellness Council authority. “The Novo is the perfect addition to any daily lifestyle regimen, providing essential health and quality of life benefits, such as stress relief, pain reduction and improved sleep.”

Key Novo features and benefits include:

30 Auto-Wellness Programs, including full-body immersion, rocking motion, and an effective collection of therapeutic relaxation and recovery programs.
Zero-Gravity Massage. Ergonomic zero-gravity seating provides extra relief of back pain and reduced pressure on the vertebrae, allowing your large muscles to completely relax for a restorative massage.
An L- track that covers up to 60% more of the back than conventional chairs, extending high performance coverage from your neck and shoulders all the way down to your thighs.
Extending Foot-and-Calf Massage with adjustable intensity for calves and feet, and under-foot reflexology roller massage.
Full Body Stretch to stretch the spine and increase blood flow to the vertebrae and discs, effectively rejuvenating the lower back.
Cloud Touch Acupressure. Strategically placed targeted aircells apply to pressure to key healing points and manipulate your body to stretch muscles.
Lumbar Heat. Using Human Touch Air Technology®, heat flows continually to target the lumbar area, gently soothing tight muscles and relieving pain.
Bluetooth Speakers to enhance the relaxation of your massage with the sounds of your favorite music.

“The Novo massage chair is the newest addition to the Human Touch Ascent Series product line, and is quickly becoming one of our top-selling wellness solutions,” said David Wood, CEO of Human Touch. “It’s the perfect solution for people who maintain an active lifestyle, because it helps them to prepare for and recover from physical activity using the world’s most advanced massage technology. We’re pleased to offer the Novo as a high-end chair that focuses on performance, combined with a modern design that is unlike any other chair on the market.”

The Novo massage chair is now available in red, cream, brown, black, or blue SōfHyde with a retail price of $7,999.

There’s no touch like Human Touch®

Human Touch® has been the leading provider of high-quality, innovative lifestyle products, massage chairs, and experiences that deliver indispensable, life-changing benefits to an ever-growing number of consumers for more than 35 years. Human Touch® has been making people feel better by developing state-of-the-art massage products containing patented massage systems that replicate the hands and techniques used by massage professionals, thereby helping to reduce pain and stress caused by today's hectic lifestyle. Products are available at fine furniture stores, back care specialty stores, and mass-market retailers across the U.S., through international retailers and distributors in more than 40 countries, and online at www.humantouch.com. Follow Human Touch® on Facebook and Twitter @HTFeelBetter.

Dr. James shares 5 Happiness Hacks that can help augment our natural chemistry to bring happiness forward.

Back-to-School is a busy, exciting time for most families. It means new friends, new teachers, and new schedules for all. It also means that kids are exposed to a lot of new ideas, activities, and… germs. And while we can’t monitor their every move during school hours (they have to grow up sometime, right?), we can do a few things to ensure that they don’t suffer too much through Cold Season.

Keep Them Well While They’re Away.

One of the most important things you can do is to teach your children how to properly wash their hands. According to Web MD, only 33% of female middle and high school students use soap when they wash their hands. That number drops to a frightening 8% of boys in the same age group. Yikes! Most illnesses are contracted when kids get germs on their hands and then touch their eyes or nose, so teach them that they are best off just avoiding contact with these parts of their face unless they’ve cleaned their hands first. Instill healthy habits by teaching them to wash their hands for approximately 20 seconds, and make sure that they always, always, always wash their hands before they eat food. Using hand sanitizer is another way to help your children avoid school-time illnesses. Kids older than 6 years old can be allowed to use sanitizer to keep hands free of germs, though visible dirt should still be cleaned off with soap. Some schools provide sanitizer for their students, while others may even allow kids to bring a travel-sized sanitizer. Find what is permitted or provided at your child’s school. Your child should also know the proper way to cough or sneeze- into his or her elbow crease. Doing this keeps germs off their hands, which helps to stop germs in their tracks.

Get Involved.

Another way to help keep your child well is to help his or her school to maintain a germ-free environment. Some schools struggle to afford wellness products for their classrooms, so get involved by offering to donate tissues, hand sanitizer, soap, or anti-bacterial wipes. This also helps you to engage with the administration on what is being done to keep kids healthy, and opens the conversation to allow further discussion on how parents can help make their kids’ schools clean and safe.

Do Your Part.

Of course, keeping your child healthy at home is the primary way to keep them well. Make sure that they get enough vitamins, sleep, and exercise to maintain a healthy immune system. Keeping your home free of dust and mold are also critical to keep everyone healthy. And it goes without saying that keeping YOURSELF well is important. Running yourself ragged and having too much stress on your own body will not only increase the likelihood of you becoming sick yourself, but also impair you from giving 100% of your chicken soup-making, VapoRub™-soothing, bedtime-cuddling self.    

Long Beach, CA –Human Touch®, the U.S. market leader of innovative massage chairs, Perfect Chair® Recliners, and other wellness solutions, has announced plans to place its ZeroG® 5.0 Massage Chairs in select Massage Envy franchised locations across the country.

Also, as a commitment to helping massage therapists recover after providing a Wellness Massage service, they will be encouraged to use the chairs, as well as Human Touch Reflex6 Foot and Calf Massagers installed in break rooms, to rest and rejuvenate between appointments.

Members and guests also can use the chairs free of charge, complementing the hands-on care therapists provide. The chairs will offer therapeutic seating in select Massage Envy franchised locations’ tranquility room, so clients can begin to relax before their appointment or extend the benefits of massage after their service.

“Regular massage helps us take care of our bodies with proven, lasting effects,” said Beth Stiller, Chief Commercial Officer of Massage Envy. “This new program with Human Touch is especially important for therapists, who are compassionate caregivers, and who also need to take care of themselves. We believe the chairs will enhance the Massage Envy experience, and give therapists, members and guests another way to include massage in well-rounded health and wellness routine.”

Massage Envy franchise owners can also sell discounted Human Touch massage products directly to their members for in-home use. These home sessions have been shown to enhance the benefits of regular, professional massage therapy sessions.

“Our new partnership with Massage Envy serves as a way to enhance their members’ massage therapy sessions and the value of their membership,” said David Wood, CEO of Human Touch. “Studies show that a large number of clients already enjoy the benefits of combining chair massage with professional massage. We’re confident that Massage Envy members will discover these same results, allowing them to maximize their potential and feel their best.”

Rejuvenate with the ZeroG 5.0 Massage Chair

The ZeroG 5.0 massage chair provides a remarkable full-body massage using Human Touch Technology® specifically designed to enhance the way you feel. The Smart 3D FlexGlide® massage engine simulates the expert techniques of massage professionals to help restore your body and leave you relaxed and ready to live life to its fullest. Take a seat, recline to zero-gravity, and simply point to where you need relief on the revolutionary BodyMap PRO® remote. Other features include four auto-massage programs, a foot and calf massager, and soothing lumbar heat technology. Enjoy these impressive features bundled into the most modern massage chair designed for any luxury living space.

Soothe your Soles with the Reflex6 Foot and Calf Massager

The Reflex6 Foot and Calf Massager delivers a remarkably life-like massage that emulates the expert hands and techniques of highly trained massage therapists. It massages the calves in an upward, rolling or wave-like fashion, using a patented CirQlation® technology developed by Human Touch that incorporates proprietary mechanics to drive its robotic actuators. The Reflex6 also offers an on-board console, patented Warm Air Technology®, and adjustable tilt for relief from multiple angles.

About Human Touch

Human Touch is the leading provider of high-quality, innovative lifestyle products, massage chairs, and experiences that have been delivering indispensable, life-changing benefits to an ever-growing number of consumers for more than 35 years. Human Touch has been making people feel better by developing state-of-the-art massage products containing patented massage systems that replicate the hands and techniques used by massage professionals, thereby helping to reduce pain and stress caused by today’s hectic lifestyle. Products are available at fine furniture stores, back care specialty stores, and mass-market retailers across the U.S., through international retailers and distributors in more than 40 countries, and online at www.humantouch.com.

About Massage Envy

Massage Envy, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a national franchisor, and through its franchise locations, is the leading provider of therapeutic massage and skincare services. With its membership model, Massage Envy believes total body care is an integral part of everyone’s well-being journey. The Massage Envy franchise system is, collectively, the largest employer of massage therapists and estheticians, with more than 25,000 dedicated professionals that provide best-in-class service to over 1.65 million members. Founded in 2002, Massage Envy has more than 1,100 franchise locations in 49 states that have together delivered more than 100 million massages and facials. The company was recently ranked by Forbes as the No. 1 Best Franchise with an initial investment of $500,001 and up. For more information, visit www.MassageEnvy.com, or follow us on Twitter @MassageEnvy and Facebook www.facebook.com/MassageEnvy.