Stress Less

Everyone feels stress, and we Americans feel it more than others around the world.  Maybe it is our work ethic, our on-demand culture, our Mc-Quick-have it your way attitude?  Whatever the reason, this is a health problem that can lead to weight gain, sleeplessness and sickness to name a few.

While we cannot eliminate stress entirely, we can manage our reaction to it.  This is where the power is.  Personal power.  For starters, consider the situations, times of day, people in your world who bring stress.  Consider how you react presently, in these circumstances.  Consider what you have ever done in the past to calm yourself down, self regulate and manage your stress. 

Many of us, including yours truly, have managed stress by eating sweets or high calorie carbs in response to stress.  Stress makes us crave junky food and retain belly fat. There's always junky snacks available, and it's socially acceptable to eat practically all the time.  Except, now that we are looking for self improvement, weight loss or maintenance and good health, this doesn't work.  We cannot continue to use food to stuff feelings, manage emotional situations or deal with loss and disappointment. 

Exercise is my favorite way to relieve stress.  It is a physical thing I can do with my body to get out of my mind.  By exercising regularly, I am automatically pre-managing my stress.  After sixteen years of doing this, I can honestly say the grouch in me comes out if I haven't been able to do my workouts and practice yoga and play qi gong. 

Meditation, as in breathe in deeply through the nose and out through the nose, is an internal switch we all have that tells the body to stop producing cortisol and adrenalin and slow down.  This is the antidote to stress, an engagement of the parasympathetic nervous system.  Traffic, hospital situations, waiting in long lines--these are all places where the power of the invisible breath can take over.

This week, really consider how you can channel your energy into a positive response to a stressor and make a plan.  See what it does for you.  See how many calories you can save yourself by not eating to cope.  See how it makes you feel, and then give yourself credit for making a change!