J.21/ Ways To Cope With Stress
What coping mechanisms do you have when you’re feeling stressed or anxious? I have some general recommendations that might help you with day to day stress.
Do you find yourself overwhelmed by small tasks or get anxious when day to day stressors happen? This can be caused by long term stress and your body not being able to distinguish what is a small or large stress. If your body is under constant stress or if you have been through a traumatic event, that will change the way our body perceives stress. Stress is something we all experience but it’s an individual response, the same experience may happen to two different people and you’ll get two completely different stress responses from them both. Your stress response is comprised of, genetics, past experiences, your general health and your current life experiences.
There are some basic things you can do to help manage how you’re feeling in the moment. It may sound silly but doing something active like running or star jumps will help to take your mind off what you’re experiencing, in addition it will also calm your nervous system. Something else you can try is breath work, there are many techniques you can try. One of my favourite breathing exercises is box breathing, it consists of breathing in 4 seconds, holding the breath for 4 seconds, letting the breath out for 4 seconds and repeating if necessary. Making sure you’re spending time outdoors will also help with your response to stress, it’s something very simple but spending time outside will relax your body. There is a technique you can use while you’re outside (or inside), it involves focusing on 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can that you can hear, 2 things that you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. By doing this you are taking your mind off the current stress and dialling down your flight or fight response.
As always eating a well balanced diet, getting enough physical exercise and adequate sleep is highly important to helping you having good mental wellbeing. These are basic recommendations but they really do help change the way your body perceives stressors. In certain cases you will also need extra help such as a reaching out to a psychologist or counsellor. And you may find you need the help of natural medicine, specific nutrients and herbs can benefit your mental health and help you with anxiety. My all time favourite nutrient for stress is Magnesium, I find most of clients need Magnesium as it has many uses in the body such as, it can also help with sleep, balancing your sugar levels, anxiety, muscle aches, headaches and more. And my go-to herb for stress is Lavender, there something so soothing and nurturing about this herb. For more information on ways to cope with stress using Naturopathic Medicine you can book online here.
