How Stress Impacts Your Health & Longevity | Ep 129

Imagine getting up every day full of energy is if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be like?

What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with the disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system, or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today in all your tomorrow's don't wait for your wake up call.

So these practices promote relaxation, of course, but they also help improve your focus and provide a sense of calm. And that is because when you are going through ping, ping, ping, ping and that stressed out state, you are not able to focus well. But when you calm your mental body, you will improve your focus.

The third one is mindfulness and meditation. So mindfulness involves being fully present in the current moment and non judgmentally, acknowledging one's thoughts and feelings. Regular mindfulness meditation has been shown to reduce stress and improve overall well being. There are again numerous apps and guided meditation resources available to assist beginners. And when we step into non judgmentally, acknowledging our thoughts and our feelings, allowing them to flow through us, instead of squashing them down and not wanting to feel them. That also improves our health and longevity. Because when we squash those feelings down over years, they build up and become toxic. Whereas when we just say I'm feeling this, it's okay to feel this. I have a right to feel this. I'm going to just feel it until I don't feel it anymore because it's flowing through me. It only takes 90 seconds for an emotion to have a chemical response in our Body is us dwelling on it that makes it last so much longer and build the stress around that feeling.

Number four social support. Connecting with loved ones, friends or support groups can provide emotional support and help alleviate stress. Sharing your feelings and experiences with others can provide a fresh perspective, empathy, and a sense of belonging. We humans were never meant to do life alone, we are supposed to live in community with the support of other like minded people. And so tap into that, especially if you're feeling highly stressed, and you need support. Sometimes we feel like we can't ask someone for support. And yet, we all want to give. So if you don't allow yourself to receive, you're blocking that energy cycle of the giving and receiving in order for you to be able to receive someone else has to give in order for you to be able to give someone else has to receive. So if you're that person that's always give give giving than other people are receiving. But if you are not the person that's receiving, and then able to ask for help, then you're disallowing other people from being able to give and guess what people like to give, they like to help. And so all you need to do is ask and people will help. The next one is time management. poor time management can lead to increased stress, prioritize your tasks, set realistic goals of completing them, and break them into manageable steps. Creating a schedule or a to do list can help you stay organized and reduce feelings of overwhelm. When you try to keep it all in your head. It just gets to be too much, especially when you're stressed because then you can't focus and you're like I got to do this and then paying you're over here and you've forgotten what that was. And now you're wasting energy trying to hold on to it all.

Make a schedule, write it down. It's all there to help keep you organized. And you may not get it all done today. That's okay. tomorrow's a new day. And you can come back and continue working on your list. I'm sure that if you put this into action, you will find that you get a lot more done than you thought you could when you're keeping it all in your head. Number six is a healthy lifestyle. So prioritizing self care by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Ensure you get enough sleep, eat a balanced diet, limit your caffeine and alcohol intake, good nutrition and adequate rest can better equip your body to handle stress. The more sleep we get, the more we can handle the daily stresses that are thrown at us think about it in your life. If you're feeling tired and something stressful comes up are you quick to get cranky and anger and feel irritated. Whereas if you're well rested, does it just kind of wash over you like water off a duck's back. You know it to be true. We all need seven to nine hours of sleep every night. And if you're not getting that, what shifts can you make in your life in order to be able to give yourself that additional rest so you can better handle the stress. Find hobbies and leisure activities. engaging in activities you can enjoy will distract you from the stress and provide a sense of fulfillment. Pursue hobbies, engage in creative outlets read listen to music or spend more time in nature. And that is my favorites. Spending time in nature is when we get out in nature and we walk we're naturally breathing more. Nature has such a calming effect on our nervous system. So it will naturally drop us out of chronic flight and into our parasympathetic nervous system. Not to mention the wind is blowing dirt and microbes onto our skin that get into our bodies that are made for a healthy gut. And if you've ever spent any time in nature, you'll notice that you just notice that sense of calm and you also have that sense of awe and wonder the beauty of Mother Nature is you enjoy the scenery all around you. So get out in nature, it is incredibly helpful at lowering your stress levels.

Next is cognitive techniques. So challenge negative thinking patterns and replace them with positive and realistic thoughts practice self compassion, and remind yourself of your strengths and achievements. How often are we beating ourselves up? We have 70,000 thoughts inside our head every single day. How many of them are lifting you up telling you how amazing you are? How you are going to achieve everything you set your mind on. Not many You write. So often they're telling you, you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, you're not pretty enough, you can't do that. And they're bringing you down. Those are all the toxic thoughts that I help people release using timeline therapy. But you can just start creating awareness around the toxic thoughts that you have on a daily basis. Some of them are deeply buried in our unconscious mind. And from when we were a child, and those are the ones I help release. But you can just start changing your fresh thoughts coming in and not allow those negative ones and reframe them, you hear the negative one and go, nope, that's not true. I know that's not true. I am amazing, I am incredible, I can do whatever I set my mind to. I saw a post recently on social media that I absolutely loved. And it was a little kid, like maybe a three year old, just skipping along the shore of the lake, and there was a dock out into the water. So in nature, a sunny day, beautiful scenery. And it popped up with a caption saying, for personal reasons, I choose to be successful at everything I do. And I just thought that was wonderful. And we can all say that to ourselves. And at three years old, you probably did. But do you still say it today. And if you don't start saying it again, because you can consider keeping a gratitude journal to focus on the positive aspects of your life. This is really powerful, too. I started my gratitude journal over five years ago. And in the first six months, I noticed the shift. Because I knew every night I was going to write in my journal, the things that I was grateful for that day. So it had my mind focusing on the good, so that I could have something to write down, whereas our minds are pre programmed to focus on the bad to keep us safe. But in today's world, we don't have to worry about that we're not going to have lions and tigers attacking us. We have homes to live in, we have food to eat, we have clothing to wear. So let's stop focusing on the negative. And let's transition to focusing on the positive. So what are you grateful for today,

write three things. And some days initially, maybe you won't find three things. Because you're looking to heart,

you could just write that you're grateful. For the day, you're grateful for your home your warm, comfy bed, you're grateful for the sound of the rain outside your window, because it's been dry, and you don't want forest fires and you want it to rain, whatever it is, find what you're grateful for, and write that down before you go to bed. And if you do it before you go to bed, the last thing you feed your unconscious mind before you go to bed is what it will work on all night long. So you're now putting your brain to sleep on happy thoughts, which means you'll have a more restorative sleep, which means you are better able to cope with the stress the following day throws at you. You also want to set boundaries. And again, practice self care. I cannot say that enough. So learn to say no, when you feel overwhelmed, and set healthy boundaries in your personal and professional life. Prioritize self care activities that rejuvenate and replenish your energy. So often we use the words yes and no backwards, and we say yes to everybody else. And each time we do that, we're saying no to us. And what we really need to start doing is we need to start saying no to other people so that we can say yes to us. So we have time for us to be able to prioritize our self care activities. And it doesn't mean you say no to everything, you just get a little bit more critical around what you're saying yes to. And instead of saying yes, right off the bat, you give yourself a little bit of a window and say, thanks for asking,

let me get back to you after I check my calendar. And that gives you that space. And then you can start thinking hmm, is this something I really want to do? Do I have the time the money and the energy to do this? And if you do, that's great. And then you want to ask yourself, but do I want to because just because you have the time, the money and the energy to do something doesn't mean you want to do. And if you do want to that's great. You can go back to that person now and say yes, I would love to do that. Thanks for asking. You might want to set some boundaries around that though around the length of time that you need to be there volunteering or whatever it is that you're doing to make sure that you're really clear on that. And let them know the hours you are available, which may not be all of the hours they want you

if you don't have the time, money or energy, or if you do but you don't even want to do this. It's okay to say no. And for those of you who say yes, all the time. It takes practice to say no and I challenge my clients to Do this all the time. And I had to learn this myself. And the first time I said no to someone, my brain was like, What are you doing? You know, you could do this with your eyes closed or your hands tied behind your back. Why are you saying no?

I was tucked back to my brain? I said, I'm saying no, because I need to practice learning to say no. And this is a perfect opportunity to practice it. And I did, and I walked away. And my brain was so confused. But I felt good, because I said, No. And that meant I said yes to myself. And no is a complete sentence. You don't have to justify why you are saying no, you can simply say, No, I'm sorry, I'm not able to do that. Or you can simply say, No, thank you. You don't have to give any added justification. And then lastly, I just want to say, seek professional help when it comes to managing your stress. If your stress becomes overwhelming or persist, despite your efforts, do seek support, we can run labs to see where your hormones are at where your vitamin levels are at where your adrenals are at where your minerals are at. so that together we can bring your body back into balance, while holding you accountable to creating new lifestyle habits that support your health and longevity. The work needs to be done by you, nobody can do it for you. But when you take the responsibility, when you decide that you are worth it, that your health is worth it, that you have lots to do in this lifetime, and you want to live vitally right to the end and you want to have longevity, then you can start choosing today

to bring your stress levels back into balance through any of these tools that I've recommended. And if you feel like you want some extra support, please do reach out, because this is what I help with my clients with over and over again. Why? Because over and over again, it comes up as being an underlying root cause of whatever chronic illness or other health condition they are struggling with.

So remember that managing stress is an ongoing process. It's something you are going to do every day for the rest of your life. And that what works for one person may not work for another. It's essential to explore different techniques and approaches to find the ones that resonate with you and make a positive impact on your well being. So my question to you is, what is your health worth to you? Every day that you put off prioritizing it, you are allowing it to decline. Don't become another statistic, receiving some diagnosis and wishing you done things differently. Start doing things differently. Now, it doesn't have to be hard, especially when you seek the support you need in order to get started. So thank you for tuning into this episode. I hope there's something that you can take away I would love to hear from you. What one or two things are you going to do? In order to balance out your stress? Please email me and let me know at Melissa at your guided health journey.com. And as always, thank you to my audience for listening. I'll be back next week with a new episode. And if this episode resonated with you, please share it with others that you know need to hear it as well. Thank you.