Have the fires of love fizzled for you and your partner? If so, you're not alone. Living today is filled with distractions and obligations that can block passion and loving empathy: work, stress, family responsibilities, physical health, mental well-being, aging and boredom are just some of them.

The reality is that pitfalls to loving are normal facts of life, and it's unrealistic to believe that any love guru, self-help program, or small blue pill is going to permanently remove all distractions from your life and turn you into a no-fail love machine.

The benefits of touch have long been associated with relaxation and a sense of well being. Increasing numbers of people are seeking massage as a way to relax. Forty percent of women and 29 percent of men reported having a massage in the past five years, according to a 2010 Massage Therapy Industry Fact Sheet compiled by the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA), in July of 2009.

Health care providers and hospitals, too, are embracing massage therapy with growing appreciation for its effectiveness in helping patients. The AMTA's 2010 Industry Fact Sheet shows that 76 percent of massage therapists received referrals from health care professionals, up from 69 percent in 2008. Why? An increasing number of studies indicate that massage therapy produces beneficial results in relieving pain, lowering blood pressure, and improving circulation, among other benefits.

"Massage therapy has moved mainstream, but it's rooted in medicine," says Susan Zolvinski, allied health chairperson at Brown Mackie College - Michigan City. "I learned the basics of massage therapy in nursing school 30 years ago. A simple back rub can reduce the heart rate, lower blood pressure and de-stress a patient. It's a good complement to the wonderful treatments we have." Today, the field has expanded dramatically, with many different sub-specialties within the more than 300 different types of massage.

Massage is no longer a luxury reserved for the wealthy. Growing public awareness of massage's benefits for alleviating a number of health problems - from stress to arthritis pain - and greater availability of services have made massage therapy accessible and affordable to a much broader spectrum of consumers than ever before.

If you're among the Americans whom the National Center for Health Statistics says spent $22 billion on visits to complementary and alternative medicine providers in 2007 (the latest year for which data are available), you'll want to get the most benefit and the best value out of your massage therapy visit.

Trust in ever-resourceful and adaptable Americans to create opportunities to improve their own lives, and the lives of others, from the shambles of the economy. With unemployment rates still making news, many Americans are finding new ways to make a living, turning layoffs into launch pads for new careers.

That drive to find something new, secure and rewarding is drawing many to the health care industry, where career opportunities are expected to continue growing at double-digit percentages through 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Setting goals and challenges for yourself can quickly overwhelm you if they're too big. A wise and more positive approach is to set a series of small, realistic goals that deliver easy successes and quick rewards.

If taking better care of yourself is one of your self-made goals, aromatherapy can help strengthen your resolve, make your efforts enjoyable and reward your successes. "Applications of 100 percent pure essential oils (which are distilled from aromatic plants) provide true aromatherapy benefits, as opposed to synthetically perfumed products," says Tom Havran, aromatherapy expert at Aura Cacia. Havran suggests