Stress kills. How many times have you said “I’m so stressed” or felt like you were under a mountain of pressure. There are many types of stress and some of it we can control and some we can’t. It seems ironic that in times of stress we have a natural tendency to stop taking care of ourselves. Click To TweetWe stop eating right, binge on food that is bad for us, stop taking supplements, stop exercising and stop taking time to do something for ourselves or even just stop and take a deep breath.
I’m not immune to it either. My mom recently fractured her ankle and did a lot of damage. She is seventy so it meant hospital and she’ll be there for at least two more weeks. So I found myself spending almost all day at the hospital, often with a laptop perched on my lap fighting with the hospital’s abysmal Wi-Fi and every five minutes getting up to adjust a pillow, call a nurse, feeding ice chips and a host of other chores. I put my business on hold as much as I could but still received a mountain of emails/texts/PMs etc. with questions and wanting help. So the pressure started building and building. My desk started looking like it was groaning from the pressure of all the notes, messages and paperwork that was building up. I was eating junk food and drank a caffeinated soda (which I know is poison). Then I stopped and realized I was eating a box of candy. Candy I don’t even like. I was just sitting there stress eating.
At that point I realized I’d fallen into a trap that I routinely help other people out of. I’d let stress take over and let all my healthy habits and things I knew I had to have for good mental health slide.
Indeed, stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Being able to recognize common stress symptoms can give you a jump on managing them. Stress that’s left unchecked can contribute to serious health problems.
According to the Mayo Clinic this is the impact stress can have on your body:
Courtesy of the Mayo Clinic: Mayo Clinic: Stess
Sounds pretty scary and it is. The first step is recognizing that you are under stress and to take steps to reduce it where you can and support your body to lessen the impact of it. Here are some things I recommend:
- Take at least 15 minutes a day to meditate, breathe deeply or listen to soothing music.
- Exercise
- Supplement your body with natural quality supplements
- Eat a balanced diet
- Avoid caffeine, sugar and refined foods as much as possible
- Avoid tobacco
Using essential oils with calming properties aromatically is especially soothing. Consider a Grounding Blend or a Calming Blend. Those are my too favorites but I also find Frankincense and Lavender particularly soothing. Combining the oils with supplements dramatically helps me be able to deal with stress and stay calm and grounded.
If you’d like more info on the supplements I endorse and the essential oils I use contact me here.
