Stress is a common response to life’s pressures, impacting individuals mentally and physically. Managing stress through awareness, relaxation techniques, and healthy habits is crucial for overall well-being and resilience.

Let’s look at the word disease. If you segment the word into parts, we have the prefx ‘dis’ and the root ‘ease’. Dis means apart, lack of, or away from, and ease is defined as comfort, the absence of difficulty, and freedom from pain, worry, or trouble. Broken down like this, disease truly means lack of comfort.

So if we have constant absence of comfort in our lives day in and day out, we will eventually develop diseases.

This lack of “ease” is known as stress. When stress becomes chronic or constant, there is a consistent sense of feeling pressured and overwhelmed over a long period of time. Even small challenges seem way too much to handle. Often, we find ourselves turning to unhealthy measures to numb or lift ourselves. We see no path to change or alleviate ourselves from chronic stress, but this can easily be achieved with little steps taken towards a big improvement in our lives. 

Eventually, you can feel like the layers of thick, heavy coats have been lifted off you, just with a little mental housekeeping. ~So lets get to it!

Activities

Do something fun to relax and nourish your soul. This sets your mind free so that you can recharge and be able to better handle the necessary daily requirements. When you get in the flow of a fulfilling activity, all past events, future anticipations, and worries no longer exist.

In the times that we live in, people are frequently in “fight or flight” mode without even realizing it, causing our bodies to be in constant stress. “Fight or flight” is a defense mechanism to get us out of sudden danger, but when we are constantly churning our thoughts over stressful situations, we never get out of the “fight or flight” mode. This is endemic amongst all of humanity’s modern societies, save for only the most ntouched cultures that take time to nourish their lungs with clean oxygen, their body with actual nutrients, and rest and feed their soul with peace.

List hobbies that you enjoy or used to enjoy. What are new interests or relaxing activities that you can participate in?

These should be actual activities that involve creativity and/or physical activity. (not looking at social media or watching the shows)

Examples: yoga, martial arts, watercolor painting, dancing, sewing, crochet, gardening, archery, walking, bird watching, drawing, adult coloring books, swimming, playing chess, and pickleball.

Make time in your life to enjoy this activity. Is this an activity that can be done daily or weekly?

Will this activity be done alone, or can this activity be done with others?

Have the tools and supplies that you will need for your fulfilling activity all in one designated space, i.e., a craft box or workout bag, or a new space designated in your home, such as a creative space or exercise space.

Schedule this activity on your calendar and give yourself permission to have this time to replenish yourself. Set reminders and let it be known to others that this time is designated for recharging yourself and reducing stress.

Breathing Exercises

* Caution: Do not do breathing exercises while driving, near water, or in any other situation where losing consciousness could cause harm to you or others. – Breathing techniques can cause lightheadedness.

Breathing exercises don’t have to take a lot of time out of your day. It’s about setting aside time to pay attention to your breathing. Start noticing the benefits quickly. Here are a few ideas to get started:

The Box Breathing Method:

• Step 1: In a quiet place, breathe in, counting to four slowly. Feel the air enter your lungs.
• Step 2: Hold your breath for 4 seconds. Try to avoid inhaling or exhaling for 4 seconds.
• Step 3: Slowly exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds.
• Step 4: Wait for another 4 seconds before you breathe in again.

With practice, you will be able to repeat box breathing steps for 30 seconds. See the references section below for more information.

Sleep

While we sleep, our body removes the toxins that accumulate in both our body and brain during waking hours. Throughout the day, millions of cells produce waste as they perform their functions. During sleep, the glymphatic system clears this cellular waste. Therefore, both the duration and quality of our sleep are crucial. If these toxins are not eliminated, they can impair the proper functioning of the body and mind, potentially leading to illness.

Things that inhibit good quality sleep can be: 

• Stress before bedtime—such as looking at emails or the schedule for the next day before bedtime.

  • Tips:
    Read a book before bedtime to unwind.

    Use a do not disturb sleep app for your phone to silence it during your sleeping hours

     

• Blue light—You may not realize it, but our phones, tablets, computers, and televisions emit blue light that disrupts our natural sleep cycles. Research shows that a majority of Americans use electronic devices within an hour of going to bed, which can lead to unsatisfactory sleep. The blue light disrupts our circadian rhythm, which is the biological rhythm in our body that makes you feel sleepy or alert at regular times every day. Our internal clock tells our body when it is time to sleep at night. It also tells our body when it is time to be awake during the day. When blue light shines into our eyes from electronic devices, our circadian rhythm gets thrown off and causes irregular sleep patterns. Basically, light from electronic devices at night can confuse our biological clocks. It is also best to develop a sleep routine with a consistently set bedtime to keep a consistently set circadian rhythm.

  • Tips:
    Close window blinds.

    Wear an eye mask.

    Use painter’s tape to cover light leaks such as clocks, TVs, and other electronic devices.

     

• Alcohol—It seems to relax us, but it actually stresses our body with toxins and does not allow our body to enter deep sleep as it should.

  • Tips:
    Often nutritionists recommend supplementing with magnesium to promote muscle relaxation and sleep, decrease inflammation, and reduce stress in the body.

     

• Midnight snacking—Eating too close to bedtime. Eating and going to sleep less than two hours later can cause digestive issues and acid reflux to occur. Also, studies have shown that eating sugary or high-starch foods such as cookies, breads, crackers, pasta, or potatoes can cause a spike in insulin, causing a sugar crash while sleeping. When this happens, people often find themselves waking in the middle of the night or earlier than they wanted to.

  • Tips:
    A small protein snack or veggie snack would be more conducive to sleep. You could also try a warm cup of herbal tea (tea without caffeine).

     

Hydration

Our body is made up of around 90% water. Dehydration can cause unnecessary stress on your body, causing headaches, sore and tight muscles, weakness, tiredness, brain fog, blood pressure issues, dry eyes, and even heart rate problems. When becoming dehydrated, it can silently creep up on you and may not be noticed. Often we do not realize the symptoms, and rather than rehydrating, people often take a pain reliever. Health authorities recommend drinking around half your body weight in water daily to stay hydrated and more if in hot weather or exercising.

• Tip: If you do not enjoy drinking water, try putting an herbal fruit tea bag in your water container, like Celestial Seasons tea. You could also add in other flavorings like mint leaves, cucumber slices, a squeeze of lemon or lime, or crushed raspberry or strawberry.

Gratitude

Though there is much stress in the world, there is always much to be grateful for. Take a moment every morning to think of and appreciate the comforts that we have in our lives and the people who love us.

We have woken up to another day of life to experience. We have our body to hold our mind and emotions. We had a place to sleep and clean food and water to nourish our bodies. Even if it is the simplest thing you can think of, you can be grateful for it. This helps you see positive perspectives in your life, which allows you to enjoy life more.

• Tip: You can use a daily gratitude journal for a few minutes every morning or even journal during your lunch break. It sets the tone for the day and helps us to see through a more positive perspective.

In essence, if we are so overwhelmed by stress that we resort to numbing ourselves with social media, alcohol, sleeping pills, and similar distractions, can we truly say we are living? By taking small, manageable steps, we can significantly enhance our lives and enrich our experiences. Once you commit to making positive changes, you’ll soon discover the joy of living authentically in a happier, more fulfilling life.

Sources: 

Chronic Sttress – https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/stress-disorder

Fulfilling Activity Etheric Art – https://ethericart.com/

Effects of Alcohol on sleep – https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4666864/

Magnesium-https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0324p6.shtml

Blue light- https://naturoacademy.com/blogs/naturoacademy-blog/blue-light-the-new-silent-killer

Foods that harm your sleep- https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/ss/slideshow-sleep-foods

Dehydration – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32310416/

Glymphatic System-https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8603752/

Box Breathing – https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-box-breathing

Wimhof Breathing Method-https://www.wimhofmethod.com/breathing-exercises

Grattitude- https://www.cdc.gov/howrightnow/gratitude/index.html