Wellness Tip from Healthy Habits Life

Hello

Welcome to your weekly wellness tip!

Are you stressed, stressing, stressed to the max, stressing non stop, stressed out.....you may feel all the above but do you know what stress actually IS and how it impacts you?

More often or not I'm educating clients about the impact of stress on their mental, physical and emotional health whilst teaching them tools and techniques to manage their stress better.

Symptoms from long term stressful episodes can vary from increased anxiety, a lack of control over your emotions, low mood, sore tummy, headaches, skin irritations, hormonal imbalance, weight gain, weight loss, digestive issues, insomnia and the list goes on.

There's no shame in feeling stressed, you may be lucky and not suffer or you may be someone who gets stressed by things others don't find stressful. You are all individual, no one's stress is the same and there's no need to compare yourself if you feel less adept at managing it.

Stress can be mental, emotional, physical or chemical. In modern day life stress surrounds you. Be it running your kids to school, being late for work, constant family demands, a busy job, caring for elderly parents, eating ultra processed foods, drinking alcohol, a lack of sleep, loneliness, being sedentary, feeling sad, angry, guilty, ashamed and the list goes on.

You see stress really is everywhere but it's your perception of stress that's important to be aware of. Because once you are aware of what your stressors are and how you perceive them, you can learn to manage your stress better for your health.

A great stress management tool to have in your back pocket is breathing. It's free, it can be done anywhere and it's scientifically proven to switch off the stress response.

Practice rectangle breathing, be mindful and really breathe from as deep as you can, pushing your belly out on the inhale and pulling it in on the exhale:

Breathe in four seconds

Hold four seconds

Breathe out seven seconds

Hold for four seconds

Repeat for four rounds minimum. The longer exhale switches your stress response off indicating the perceived threat has gone and you are safe once again. If you're in the relaxed response your body is functioning optimally, digesting food, absorbing nutrients, sleeping, resting and the beneficial list goes on.

Too simple? Yes it really is but that's the beauty. Being healthy isn't complicated, it's often lots of really small achievable actions that you repeat leading to large overall change in time. Stress can have such a detrimental impact on health and longevity, it's essential you learn to manage it.

Love

Antonia x

P.S Can you do me a favour and share this with someone you feel could benefit? They can sign up to receive this weekly wellness tip by visiting www.healthyhabitslife.co.uk. - I would be super grateful