For YOU: Tiny Habits to Stop Stress

In case you haven’t noticed…

Stress is not just an emotional experience. It can disrupt just about every aspect of our physical health as well—mainly because we have a physiologic response to stress no matter what the trigger. It can contribute to:

✖️ belly fat

✖️ trouble losing weight

✖️ period problems

✖️ blood sugar swings

✖️ sleep struggles

✖️ groggy mornings

✖️ digestive issues

But we have the power to stop stress in its tracks—every day and all day, with tiny habits. Like…

❣️ Pausing for 30 seconds to focus on your breath

❣️ Getting up from your desk for a 2-minute stretch break

❣️ Going for a walk around the block

❣️ Shaking out your arms, legs, and whole body

❣️ Snuggling or being intimate with a partner

❣️ Tapping around the eyes or under your collar bone

Here is your challenge:

Tap ❤️ to like this post and then pick one thing from that list and do it now!

#stresshormones #hormonehealthmatters #everythingsconnected #elementsnatmed

Stress Stoppers: Try These!

Stress Stoppers 👉👉

You know that moment when your heart races, your muscles tense, your mind checks out, and everything in your body just wants to escape wherever you are?

It’s our acute stress response, and we call it “fight or flight.”

When I notice this happening (the first step is awareness!), here are some things I do:

💡 Notice my thoughts or emotions.

☀️ Reframe negative thoughts to the positive.

👣 Put my feet to the earth to feel grounded.

🌬️ Take some deep breaths.

⛰️Change my location.

💃 Move my body (dance, shake, jump, walk).

None of this is easy.

It takes practice.

But learning to stop stress in its tracks is one of the best things you can do for your current health and your future self.

Which of these ideas do you like best?

Have You Heard of Left Nostril Breathing?

Have you heard of left nostril breathing?

🧘‍♀️ Yogic traditions teach that the left relates to moon energy: cooling, calming, and reflective. The right relates to sun energy: fiery, energizing, and awakening. So, the yogic practice of left nostril breathing is thought to have a calming effect on the body.

🧠 A more science-y way of explaining this is that left nostril breathing puts the body into a parasympathetic state (instead of the “fight or flight” mode of the sympathetic state). Studies have even shown that left nostril breathing changes brainwave activity on EEG. Pretty cool!

Left nostril breathing is simple:

👍 Just press your right thumb against your right nostril, and breathe slowly and deeply through the left nostril.

That’s it!

You can combine it with other breathing practices, like box breathing (inhaling for a count of 4, holding for 4, exhaling for 4, and holding for 4) or just breathe deeply.

Will you try it?

Reference

Niazi IK, Navid MS, Bartley J, et al. EEG signatures change during unilateral Yogi nasal breathing. Sci Rep. 2022;12(1):520. [link]

Stress Hormones: What You Need to Know.

What your body does with stress 👇

I think we can all agree that the holiday season is one of the most stressful times of year.

Maybe you have a *sense* that it affects your health, but do you actually know why or how?

If you want to train your body to be more resilient to stress (so it doesn’t have so much control over your life), it helps to understand stress hormones.

So let’s start there.

There are 2 hormones to know:

Cortisol & Adrenaline (also called Epinephrine). Here are the differences:

1️⃣ Adrenaline is released rapidly as an immediate response to stress, whereas cortisol is released in a daily rhythm regulated by the brain & the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

2️⃣ Adrenaline has fast effects to activate the body when in danger (think “fight or flight!”) Cortisol has slower effects that are not as obvious to track.

3️⃣ Whereas adrenaline increases the heart rate and can make you feel anxious during intense moments, cortisol has longer-term health effects related to metabolism, sleep, brain, and mood.

Cortisol is so central to the stress cycle that I’ll be sharing more about it and what we can do to balance it in upcoming posts.

Like if you found this helpful ❤️ and message me for help.

[New Study] Sleep, Stress, & Anxiety

👋 Raise your hand if you want more resilience to stress!

Less anxiety?

Yes please 🤚

New research shows that one way to achieve these things is simply by getting BETTER SLEEP.

The study looked at data from 1600 healthy adults during 2020 (an anxious time for lots of people!). Most of the participants were women.

They found that both positive coping strategies and higher quality sleep made people more resilient to stress and anxiety—independently, meaning each of these things work on their own.

Need some tips & motivation for better sleep?

✅ Keep the room cool

✅ Turn off screens in the evening

✅ Commit to a calming routine

✅ Cut off caffeine in the afternoon

✅ Get exercise during the day!

We have lots of tools in our functional medicine toolbox to help with stress, anxiety, & sleep.

Like if you found this helpful ❤️

Reference

Sullivan EC, James E, Henderson LM, McCall C, Cairney SA. The influence of emotion regulation strategies and sleep quality on depression and anxiety [published online ahead of print, 2023 Jun 21]. Cortex. 2023;166:286-305. [link]