8 WAYS TO HELP TURN OFF THE STRESS RESPONSE AND TURN ON RELAXATION IN YOUR BODY.

Hi Friends! I’m been awhile since I’ve wrote to you all.  I wanted to share with you how I’m feeling cause truthfully I’m struggling…and I figure y’all might be too.  I’m tired, I’m depleted, I need a break but have nowhere to go to get one (cause everything is shut down again).  I wanted to give some voice to this reality because its truthful…we are stressed…we are out our max, we are exhausted and even getting cranky (at least I am and I’m not usually).  We are tired of functioning on high alert, in this abnormal new norm.  The effects of swirling fearful reality that this virus could be around is taxing on our bodies and thus on our energies.  

What I wanted to share too was some ideas to off load the stress in our bodies…if we don’t discharge it, meaning complete the cycle of release…it stays stuck in the body and this is how we get illness, infection or disease.  We must, must, must tend to our emotional and physical bodies during these times.   I know for me, my body has this reverberation that feels eerily familiar…I have felt it before I ended up in the hospital for almost a year.  I MUST make some changes and prioritize my well-being.  My commitment is to do doing small practises, 10 mins a day to turn down my sympathetic nervous system and turn on my parasympathetic system so the stress hormone stops pumping through my body and instead the relaxation response is turned on.  Muscles literally relax when this happens. This is sooooo important during these times, we can not sustain the “fight and keep going” response.  

Did you know that stress and the hormone soup it creates in the body, literally stresses the blood vessels…weakens and stretches them and that’s how plaque gets into our blood and heart…. and this is how stress can lead to heart disease (not to mention many other physiological effects)!! When our bodies get tight, stressed, rigid, wound up, bound tightly….our breath becomes shallow and rapid thus reducing blood flow. We often stop moving and this reduces the flow of our lymphatic systems…cortisol and epinephrine pump through the body….tightening and stressing the body even more. Our appetites are affected, our sleep disrupted…our brains chemically overwhelmed. We need to interrupt this cycle and turn off our survival responses and turn on our healing…rest, digest and relaxation response instead.

So please, join me in tending to the relaxation, the rest and digest response in your body.  Commit to soothing your mind, body, heart and soul so you can get through this unimaginable time.  Here are some ideas I have used (still using)to help my body discharge the stressful energy out of my body and to turn on the relaxation response.

• 1)I’ve booked myself a counselling session.  As a therapist, I know how important it is to tend to one’s mental, emotional, spiritual, social and physical health.  Seeing a therapist is a great way to talk about the impact of living in long-term Covid realities.  We need to cry, scream, grieve, be angry, and then be okay…and repeat.  Talk to someone.  I am very conscious of my mental health and take care of it a lot and I am still struggling with my mental health at times.

• 2)Get moving…move the energy of heaviness out of your body with yoga, dancing, walking, or a light jog.  Our bodies are too stressed for hard core workouts right now.  I now I’ve had to really switch gears in the exercise department and let my tired body have gentle and loving movements rather than hard-care warrior workouts.  We don’t exercise to stress the body, but help release the stress, so find that balance and that line.  You’ll know when you’ve crossed it!  You should feel good not depleted.

• 3)Journal…put on a 3-5 minute timer and just write what comes.  Free flow.

• 4)Tend to your soul…light candles, burn incents, infuse oils, dim the lighting, say some prayers.

• 5)Guided meditation apps – Calm, Insight timer, youtube some meditations.

• 6)Do one nice thing for yourself a week.  Paint your nails, do a hair mask, fix your hair all nice just cause.   Buy a special dessert, coffee or tea (hit me up if you need some Sipology tea https://www.sipology.com/crystaltardiff

• 7)Deep breathing literally helps calm the nervous system and turns on our parasympathetic system which helps discharge the stress.  Inhale for the count of 5, hold for 5, exhale for 5.  Repeat 10 times and feel the difference.

• 8)EFT Tapping.  Tap 5-7 times at each of these spots to help turn on the rest and digest benefits or our parasympathetic system.  It turns on the calm.

Take care of yourself my friends, we need you. Prioritize you! Your body, your mind, your heart and your soul need you to show up for you.

xo Crystal

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