Email #12: Stress Less
Stress is an ongoing battle in this day and age. Physical and emotional stress are hard to avoid, but learning how to manage your stress can do wonders for body and mind.
Cortisol is the biggest stress hormone in the human body. Increased levels that remain chronically high are responsible for a number of negative physiological changes, including but not limited to:
- Impaired cognitive performance
- Suppressed thyroid function
- Blood sugar imbalances such as hyperglycemia
- Decreased bone density
- Decrease in muscle tissue
- Higher blood pressure
- Lowered immunity and inflammatory responses in the body, slowed wound healing, and other health consequences
- Increased abdominal fat, which is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. Some of the health problems associated with increased stomach fat are heart attacks, strokes, developing metabolic syndrome, higher levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) and lower levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL), which can lead to other health problems.
(To read more on this feel free to visit the website verywellmind)
We all have different ways to manage stress. I thought I would share the primary ways I deal with stress, in the hopes that it helps even one of you. There is no perfect way, but we all need to find methods that work for us.
Here are my personal guidelines for managing stress:
- Exercise- at least 5x/week
- Eat well- I try to avoid dairy and gluten, limit caffeine and alcohol, and increase fruit and vegetable intake
- Sleep- 7-8 hours/night (preferably beginning at 10pm)
- Write- In the past I have journalled. Now just writing down a list of everything running through my mind to help me turn it off
- Meditate- I do this everything morning. If can’t, I try to incorporate it into my exercise for the day, with something like yoga, which is a mindful movement meditation for me and helps calm my mind
- Spend time outdoors- preferably at the beach this time of year!
- Organize- I have always found organizing a closet or a drawer to be very calming. Cleaning, not so much. But organizing, every time.
- Bodywork: Chiropractic Adjustments, Acupuncture and Massage (among others) have been shown to calm the nervous system and always decrease stress
- Listen to music- anyone who knows me knows there is a rarely time Pandora is not playing
- Pray- I do it every night before bed to express gratitude and recenter myself
I know many people who paint, clean, read, hike and/or garden to manage stress. How about you? What do you do?