how to make stress your friend
we are living through a global pandemic…on top of the stressors of regular life, we have added stressors stemming from an emergency which is completely out of our control.
I find I have to remind myself of this fact daily. As human beings, we need stress to survive. Stress serves an important function for our brains, bodies, and can be beneficial and even motivating. Our brains are incredibly resilient and adapt to stress. Often, we don’t even realize how stressed we are — until the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
For many of us, its this outbreak of coronavirus uprooting our lives and routines.
All signs point to this disruption lasting longer than any of us would prefer. Therefore, we need to adapt in order to become stress resilient.
Stress can affect the body, mind, soul, and ultimately our behavior as humans.
Common signs of stress can include:
Body
Headache
Muscle tension or pain
Chest pain
Fatigue
Change in sex drive
Upset stomach/indigestion
Sleep problems
Mind / mood
Anxiety
Restlessness
Lack of motivation/focus
Feeling overwhelmed
Irritability or anger
Sadness or depression
Behavior
Overeating or undereating
Angry outbursts
Drug or alcohol misuse
Tobacco use
Social withdrawal
Exercising less often
If any of these symptoms ring a bell for you, you are not alone!
While longterm, unchecked stress can have damaging affects on health, we have tools to become stress 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵.
And I’d love to practice them together!!
That’s why I am committed to giving tools to help make stress your friend.
practice mindfulness
Even a minute a day, a few times a day, can help you to become stress resilient. A couple of weeks ago, I asked all of you how best I can help you. The request for daily 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 was overwhelming!
I am committed to going live on instagram every evening for the next week at 7pm PST. Since I understand that tuning in to social media at a specific time may not be helpful for you, I am saving the exercise to my instagram profile for 24 hours.
Also, because I know how difficult it is to make time for even one more thing, I’m offering an incentive: 𝗜’𝗺 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗹𝘂𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿!
Learn more about my mindfulness course (delivered completely online) here.
How to enter:
Watch my daily mindful minute (I’ll save for 24 hours if you miss it)
Tag me @drfoxyfit on your story, doing the mindful minute (or a takeaway from your experience
Use #befoxyfit2020
Enter daily through Wednesday 4/29!
I will announce our winner Thursday 4/30 on Instagram live at 7pm PST.
2. cultivate routines to help you unwind, connect to your body, and recharge.
Its no secret that our brains crave routine, structure, and predictability. In fact, routines can help us to become more stress resilient. That is why I dedicated an entire course to creating routines through mindfulness and movement. In my continuing journey with healing from traumatic brain injury, creating routines helped me to learn how to adapt so that I could survive a situation over which I had zero control.
3. dress for the job you want
Bear with me for a moment: dressing for the job you want can mean anything. At certain points in my recovery from TBI, I chose clothing or jewelry with affirmations to remind me to practice mindfulness. I have a lululemon tote that says “Breathe” that I carted around for months as a simple reminder to take a deep breath.
As I have had the opportunity to learn more and more about the brain, its become even more clear to me how much our environment influences how we feel. How we feel influences our choices…and our choices create our lives.
I make an effort to put my “workout clothes” on first thing in the morning so I am ready to hit my spin bike. I force myself to pick out a cute outfit so I can film, do instagram things, or take client video calls (just like I would if I was going to my office to see humans in real life). At night, I put on something cozy after soaking in the bathtub.
I also use clothing to motivate me — for whatever reason, if I get to put on a cute new camouflage legging or a cozy new wrap, I am MUCH more likely to WANT to do things that are good for me, rather than HAVE to do the same things.
Here are a couple of my favorite new lululemon items I’m eyeing (and if you end up purchasing them, please let me know how you love them!). As always, I appreciate you supporting me by purchasing through my links if you do indulge in some activewear; as a member of the lululemon collective I receive a commission for purchases made through my links.
Adorable special edition Earth day leggings from lululemon, with a new eco-friendly dye technique!
The Wunder Under is a staple in my closet. They are my “wear anywhere” bottoms of choice. I highly recommend them! The Earth Day edition also comes in a 10” inseam short.