In the first article of this series, you met Ava a 33 year old woman. Ava is experiencing many stressors from daily living. Specifically stress from work, her family, and she recently began experiencing mental and physical health concerns. At many points in life, similar to Ava’s experience life can become overwhelming.
First article: Your Health and Wellness – It’s all Connected
Second article: The Brain Gut Connection
During these overwhelming times, there is one problem that underlies everything, and that is unmanaged stress. Stress can be anything that disrupts the status quo of our daily lives. Stress can show up in many different forms including things like having a disagreement with a partner, issues parenting a teenager, or trouble navigating job requirements.
The human body can handle dealing with a certain amount of stress, but too much stress over an extended period of time can become an issue.
Heavy stress can impact how we show up in the world and damage our overall health. According to Science Daily, “Life expectancy is influenced not only by the traditional lifestyle-related risk factors but also by factors related to a person’s quality of life, such as heavy stress”.
As addressed, this stress left unmanaged can even shorten our lifespan. Thinking about this could produce some stress, now before you start to get stressed about experiencing stress, consider this. We don’t always have the ability to control our stressors, but we can control how we respond to them and take care of ourselves.
For example, Ava can’t determine how stressful her work demands might be, but she can control what she does before, during, and after work to take care of herself. So for this reason, here are five daily practice that can be utilized to help with stress.
5 Daily Practices to Help with Stress
Carve out time each day to get immersed in nature.
This could be as simple as taking a walk outside on your lunch break or stepping outside barefoot upon waking up.
Create a morning routine that feels special to you.
Carve out a small amount of time in the morning to do something just for yourself. This could incorporate a meditation, a nourishing breakfast, or a morning coffee/tea ritual.
Prioritize human connection throughout the day.
Oftentimes when stress creeps in it’s easy to stop prioritizing quality time, because whatever you are stressed about takes the main focus. Looking forward to laughter with coworkers during the day and quality time with loved ones after work just might help ease your day.
Create a sleep hygiene routine.
Make sure you’re waking up at the same time each day, getting enough hours of sleep, and cultivating a sleep atmosphere that is relaxing. This could look like prioritizing low sound levels, making sure the room is cool, and making sure the room is dark.
Prioritize moving stress out of your body through exercise.
At the end of a stressful day sometimes the last thing you want to do is move your body, but oftentimes it’s actually the best thing you can do. Even just a walk around the neighborhood or some light yoga can help get you out of this state and into your body.
Addressing the root of stress isn’t this simple, but having preventative practices in place can help you deal with your stress more effectively. In turn lower stress could help you improve your blood sugar, digestion, sleep, weight, relationships, and overall health.
Still feeling unsure on how to apply these concepts? Our team has many health and wellness and mental health team members that would be happy to have a consultation with you. Navigating everyday challenges like this isn’t something you have to do alone.
