What is your truth about stress?

“Everything in life is a liberation” — Albert Einstein.

What is your truth about stress, and how do we/you deal with stress? This is the big question that I think never really gets a clear/perfect answer,

as stress is completely different for every single person. When one can deal with something “huge” in their life and work through it completely, having the “tools” in their pockets for their successful processing, others get completely derailed from something simple, like being cut off while driving..most of the time people aren’t paying attention, and it’s not their fault, however, the person getting cut off can take it personally and then it spirals down from there for the rest of the day…do you ever hear someone telling you about something they just can’t let go…thats the spiral….

Food isn’t the only

thing we need to fuel our body, its the best for getting nourishment to our cells and allow our bodies and organs to function, however, we can also eat a pristine diet — absolutely perfect, but if the mind is shaky, stressed, agitated, and doesn’t have the tools to process emotions and your feelings, there isn’t the possibility to eat your way out of feeling something. (Well, a lot of us try to anyway, and it never is a good thing…)

Diet is however, what is going to keep everything in check, and keep your gut healthy, full of the good microbes to keep those bad – pesky – bacteria at bay. It’s going to allow you to make the neurotransmitters required for happiness, joy, peace, along, with dealing with stressful situations, so the body doesn’t get “derailed” every time something stressful happens.

What you think DOES have a profound effect on your feelings. These feelings then choose your decisions you make, which proceed to the way you run your life. So thinking something, anything, good or bad, lovely or harmful will ultimately end up in your life…its natural law. Most of us need to reframe and reset our thinking patterns, they are not wrong, and they are something we have learned from a very long time ago, and may not be the best to allow a stress-free lifestyle. This is where we choose to reframe and set and a new path of thinking. Change needs to happen.

Did you know that “burnout” is now recognized by the WHO (World Health Organization). This shows that over the years the people in our country is getting more and more stressed, that there is an actual word “burnout” that shows you are too stressed and your fried. But so what? Do people really care, or do they think its now “cool” to be stressed…Or what to do about it? Is there a protocol for this?

Mindfulness is the solution. We need to feel our bodies, or our bodies need to feel, in order to “feel” the benefits of a stronger immune system, have a feeling of a sense of purpose, deceased anxiety, increasing sleep, self-control, and self- regulation.

Meditation is something I stress learning and practicing with every single client, if we don’t have this practice of slowing down, and allowing the body to feel even – if it’s for just 5 minutes a day, we can’t connect. In order to move around in the world and be grounded in SELF, we need to actually feel ourselves. Stopping the mind chatter, the monkey dance, the non-stop dialog thats going on “up-there” we have to teach it to quiet down. I love – Box Breathing. This can be done at anytime (besides driving) when you have a few minutes, its extremely easy and a beautiful way to reset.

Sit up straight with spine erect – can be sitting in a chair or on the floor cross legged.
Set a timer if needed, 5, 10mins are great, or just allow yourself to go as long as you like.
Close your eyes and breathe from your belly/naval up towards your chest for 1-2-3-4 counts.
Then hold your breath for 1-2-3-4 counts
Exhale slowly from your chest to your naval, for 1-2-3-4 counts
And then lastly hold for 1-2-3-4 counts
Repeat slowly – and the counting out the numbers silently to yourself of 1, 2, 3, 4, gives your brain something to pay attention to and not go off on monkey mind, list-making….this puts us in parasympathetic mode and allowing the body to heal, de-stress, balance, and even digest.

Finding a consistent practice helps the body relax as well, so if there is a time of day that feels good to do this practice, set up this time to do so, the body will naturally start to get excited about “your” time and the relaxing will happen easier and easier.

There are many, many other practices we can do to allow less stress for ourself. Walking, hiking in nature, getting some sunshine everyday, burning a candle at night, reading before bed, yoga, journaling, writing a letter then burning it later to let-go of resentment or anger, and a huge one that I love is take a break every 90mins of working…get up! stretch, get water, go outside, breath some fresh air, even if it’s only 1 min….this helps the brain reset, we literally can’t concentrate longer than 90minutes…and my favorite, favorite is setting boundaries for yourself. (This could be a whole blog on its own)

Working with me, a functional nutritionist, we absolutely work on diet, whats happening in the body thats making things go off route (pathogens), cleaning up gut health (healing the mucosal lining and leaky gut), balancing the microbiome, and looking at adrenals, hormones, blood markers, thyroid health, whatever needs attention, But we also will absolutely work on the mindful practices, exercise regime, movement, and sleep health. Holistically working with the body, not just a one pointed attention, but whole body health, as when one part of the body “falls apart” so does everything else…eventually, and I hope to catch this before it happens.

Find me at www.jewelwellnessmaui.com for more information and reach out for a free 20min discovery call to see if we are a right fit for each other.