De-stress your life naturally
Natural ways to destress
Stress seems to be everywhere these days. Our lives are overscheduled and hectic to say the least which makes taking care of ourselves even more important! The adrenal glands, your “stress glands” help control your body’s stress response, in both acute and chronic situations, inflammation, immune function, weight, and hormones. In other words, they are essential organs that have a big job and need support.
When we are under stress, our bodies release cortisol. Cortisol tells our body that we are in flight or fight mode and need to do whatever we can do to survive. So what does that mean? When you’re in that flight or fight mode (aka trying to run from a bear) your body isn’t thinking about your long-term health. It is solely focused on the very short term to create an environment where you cannot just run from the bear, but outrun that bear to survive. In the short-term, bursts of cortisol make total sense. It increases our blood pressure and increases blood sugar to give us more energy, diverts attention away from your digestion, suppresses your immune system, affects carbohydrate metabolism, and pulls calcium out of your bones.
However, most of us aren’t out in the wild running from bears with short term stress and returning to a stress free life once that bear is gone. We are under constant chronic stress, due to our life stress, work, finances, kids, partners, and everything else we are dealing with on a daily basis, which means chronically elevated cortisol. Over time this leads to a decreased immune system, high blood pressure, insulin resistance which can lead to type II diabetes, chronic carbohydrate cravings, and increased fat storage which leads to weight gain.
Your adrenals can only take so much before they get burnt out, so taking care of yourself is important for your adrenals and your health. If your adrenals are overworked and under-supported, you may notice fatigue, skin issues (such as eczema), allergies, asthma and weight gain, just to name a few! Don’t let adrenal fatigue take you down. Take care of your adrenals so that they can take care of you!
1) Mindfulness. Taking care of your adrenals goes beyond physical support. Mindfulness can be an important part of making sure your adrenals stay healthy. The benefits of mindfulness on stress and the way it affects our bodies is huge!
a. Deep breathing. Taking a few minutes to focus on your breathing can help calm you down and help in stressful situations (think sitting in traffic, or after a phone call with your boss). This only takes a couple of minutes but can make a big difference. Take deep breaths into your belly and feel your stress disappear.
b. Meditation can be a great stress reliever. It allows us to take time out of our busy lives and really escape our stress. You don’t have to meditate for hours for it to make a difference- even 10-20 minutes a day can help. Take the time out, either when you wake up in the morning, or before you go to bed at night, or both!
c. Yoga gets your body moving and can help you de-stress and relax. Exercise helps boost your immune system and can help decrease stress levels and the added benefit of mindfulness that comes from the deep breathing and body movements of yoga can help eliminate your stress.
d. Reading. Reading helps you focus on something other than your stress. Reading before you go to bed can help you wind down before you sleep, making it easier to fall asleep. Screen time before bed can disrupt our sleep and our ability to fall asleep and reading helps you avoid screen time before bed.
2) Nutrition and Diet
a. Healthy eating. Make sure you are eating regularly and making smart food choices. The last thing your body needs when it is under stress is extra stress from your diet. Visit our nutrition page for more information on what to eat for your health.
b. Avoid food sensitivities. Eating foods that your body is sensitive too (the most common foods being wheat, dairy, corn, and soy), puts extra stress on your body. Eliminate your food sensitivities and get rid of that extra stress on your body.
c. Balance blood sugar. Eating regularly helps keep your blood sugar stable so that you’re not getting those blood sugar ups and downs which can lead to ups and down in your mood. Focusing your meals on fats and protein also helps stabilize blood sugar, and avoids the blood sugar spikes that can come from meals that are more sugar and/or starch based. If you’re struggling with blood sugar, check out our blog on how to naturally balance your blood sugar.
d. Healthy Fats. Healthy fats feed our adrenals, our nervous system and our brains. Fats are also required for your body to make hormones. Contrary to what many of us were led to believe, eating fats does not make you fat! Fats are a necessary dietary component and can help keep you feeling fuller longer and help balance blood sugar. So fill up on avocados, olive oil, fish, and your other favorite fats!
3) Supplements
a. Adrenal support. Supplements that are directly aimed at supporting your adrenal glands can be helpful in nourishing your adrenals and helping them maintain stability even when you are under stress. These can include supplements that contain vitamins, minerals, herbs, and glandular adrenal gland. Many times a mix of the above is the most helpful to support all parts of your adrenals.
Some of my favorite adrenal products are Thorne’s Cortrex, Adrenal Cortex, and Phytisone, Standard Process’ Drenamin, Drenatrophin PMG, Adrenal dessicated, Adrenal complex, and Integrative Therapeutics’ Adrenal complex, HPA adapt, Cortisol Manager, or other products such as a-Drenal by RLC labs. Check out these products in our store at wellevate.me/natureshealingcenter.
b. Make sure you feed your adrenals which need B vitamins, Vitamin C and healthy fats to function. Stress depletes our bodies of essential nutrients like B vitamins, because the stress causes our bodies to use up extra nutrients than it normally would. Our adrenals also need healthy fats and vitamin C to function well. Finding a B complex to replenish B vitamins that have been depleted by stress as well as giving the adrenals what they need to function including vitamin C and fats such as fish oil is one way to help combat stress and prevent adrenal fatigue.
*Always check with your physician before beginning any nutritional supplements.
4) Lifestyle
a. Exercise. This one is about balance (but isn’t everything?). Finding the right amount of exercise for your body is key- enough exercise to get the stress-relieving (and cardiovascular) benefits, without overdoing it. Too much exercise can actually create extra stress on your body, causing your adrenal glands to become more fatigued. Typically 30-40 minutes 3-4 days per week is a good amount for most people, but of course this varies person to person.
b. Sun/Vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency has been identified to play a role in depression, autoimmune disease, fatigue, and decreased immune function. Get enough vitamin D to keep yourself energized. The best source of Vitamin D is from the sun but can also be found in some seafood and egg yolk.
c. Work-play balance. Take time out. You need time for yourself, to unwind after a stressful day, and get a break from the stress that seems to be everywhere. Pick an activity that you enjoy and find relaxing, and give yourself a much needed, and deserved, break!
d. Sleep. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your adrenals are going to suffer, and so is your health. Our bodies need sleep at night to keep us functioning at our best. You need adequate rest and sleep to keep your physical health, immune function, mood and mental health in check. Ideally, we would all be getting at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Don’t let insomnia be the reason you end up with adrenal fatigue, check out this article on Treating insomnia naturally, to get you sleeping better.
Stress can take over your life if you let it… so don’t let it! Pick your favorite ways to de-stress and start incorporating them into your life today.