What’s the Best Way to Manage Stress?

Stress management – it’s all the rage right now, and there’s a very good reason, stress impacts our lives in so many ways!

Too many of us are stepping on the gas all time, which is putting us into in a constant fight or flight response aka, a cortisol roller coaster. Stress releases cortisol to get glucose into our muscles ASAP, this gives us energy, which back in the caveman days was a good thing – it would give us the burst of energy we needed to escape from a pack of lions.

Nowadays, this chronic stressful state can lead to many dangerous outcomes including:

• Increased blood pressure / stress on heart
• More stress hormones (adrenaline, cortisol)
• Increased blood sugar leading to weight gain
• Decreased growth & sex hormones leading to premature aging
• Suppressed immune system

I don’t know about you, but none of these symptoms are what I want in my life!

Stress isn’t always bad – balanced, controlled stress can be a positive element in our lives, keeping us at the top of our game. What I’m talking about in this post, is chronic, nagging, heart pounding stress that never seems to stop to give your body or mind a rest.

The best way to manage chronic stress is unique to everyone. We all need to explore the strategy that works best for us.

To me, there are two steps to stress management:

Step 1: First of all, be mindful of what’s going on, listen to your ‘self talk’. Take the time to recognize the stressors in your life, is there a particular person(s) or task(s) that really stresses you out? Do you tend to stress out more at a particular time of day? Are you always connected to your emails, texts, favourite social media platforms and do you feel the need to respond to all of these communication platforms immediately? The good news is, it is possible to reverse damage caused from chronic stress; but it’s only after you pay attention to what is stressing you out, can you attempt to remove the stressors.
Step 2: Remove the stress by learning how to control your responses and by learning how to put yourself into a more relaxed state. Similar to an overworked body, our overworked brains need ‘rest days’ too.

Relaxation techniques can lead to:

• Decreased blood pressure and heart rate
• Slower and deeper breathing
• More relaxed muscles
• Increased energy levels, focus and motivation
• Less illness, aches and pains

Here are FIVE tactics I have used to de-stress myself and/or my clients:

1. Relaxation breathing. When you breathe deeply, your breath sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax; the brain then sends this message to your body.
2. Meditation. It helps calm a busy mind, relax the body and give you the ability to become more grounded and find your inner peace.
3. Find your ‘SLOW DOWN’ ritual. This activity should help you slowdown and live in the moment (ie. cooking, adult colouring books, knitting, cross stitching, scrapbooking)
4. Schedule ‘unscheduled’ time. Block time off in your calendar to do something you haven’t planned in advance. This should be your time to slow down and to focus on what’s important to you that day.
5. Unplug from technology for at least 1 hour everyday. Studies show that blue light from our phones is causing people to be more hungry and sad. The constant ‘dinging’ alerts we receive from our texts, emails, Facebook, etc all day long, are putting us into a constant state of stress, so stop the madness and unplug!

Stress affects everyone’s mind, body and behavior differently. While we can’t avoid all stress, we can counteract it by learning how to really relax; this state of rest is the opposite of chronic stress. Give one of these stress management techniques a try today.

Please reach out with any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you about how you de-stress.