Stress management
Today’s world is incredibly demanding, placing high needs on us resulting in stress whether we feel it or not. Therefore April is National Stress Awareness Month, to raise awareness of the negative impact of stress.
We did not evolve to live the lives we do, but our mammalian brain continues to experience the perception of stress resulting in the biochemical and hormonal responses to help us adapt and respond to these stressors.
Managing stress and obtaining restorative sleep are pivotal aspects of developing sound health foundations. If we do not address this experience of stress, over time our stress response can become dysfunctional resulting in a myriad of symptoms and many ultimately experience burnout.
Overtime our stress response can become dysfunctional
We cannot change society at the click of our fingers, but we can adapt our immediate surroundings and the way in which we manage and process stress to reduce the burden and help improve our health and wellbeing.
We now have a much-improved understanding of the importance of the vagus nerve and the stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system. This plays an important role in the function of our gut, hormonal homeostasis, and immune system. It also helps to counteract the effects of the sympathetic nervous system that is activated by stress.
It sounds like hard work…. But research has shown significant benefits with breathwork and meditation, even just 10 minutes a day. There are now lots of free or low cost resources to help you learn these techniques.
Research has shown significant benefits with breathwork and meditation, even just 10 minutes a day
It is important to identify a practice that you can incorporate into your daily routine that suits you and your lifestyle best to achieve the best outcome… so perhaps start out experimenting until you find something that feels right for you.
Activities to activate the parasympathetic nervous system include:
Yoga, pilates, tai chi
Breath-work, mediation
Humming
Cold water showers or swimming
Gratitude practices or journaling
Artwork, needling
In conjunction with our stress management piece it is important to consider the need for time to rest and CONNECT.
We are human beings that REQUIRE social interaction, touch, and love in order to function. This is intricately linked with our stress cycle. If a person feels isolated, afraid, and alone then they are likely to be in a hyper-vigilant, wired, and sympathetically driven state as a result of a drive to survive and seek support, companionship, safety, and security.
We are human beings that REQUIRE social interaction,touch and love in order to function.
Time to rest and connect is so easily dismissed or forgotten, often favouring TV dinners, or now people are juggling WFH and childcare, perhaps working late.
Do you sit down with your family or a partner for a meal? Do you have a conversation? Do you rush through your meals to get ‘it done’ and don to the next job? Are you chewing and actually tasting the food that you have just taken the time to prepare?
If not…. Stop. Take a moment to think about one simple way you could adapt this. It is too much to ask someone to change everything in one go. Perhaps start with:
Making a Friday or Saturday night meal a more ‘special occasion’.
Stop eating dinner in front of the TV.
When you have made your meal, sit look at it, smell it, thank yourself for making the time to cook it and really savour that first taste.
Chew, eat slow, and chat!
