soothing stress

I’m stressed today.

I have been working my way up to working more post injury.

I’ve been rebuilding my business.

I’ve been starting my own workouts again.

I’ve been rebuilding my life and struggling with the uncertainty of what the rest of my life will look like.

I’m grappling with the concept of resilience (cultivating a life based on my new normal) vs recovery (being who I was before).

Stress triggers our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) to kick into high gear.

Our brains believe that we are in danger, and begin a chain reaction of responses to protect us.

Floods of hormones cause elevated heart rate, blood pressure, hyper awareness; breathing increases, and non-essential processes shut down.

The body is revved up and on high alert.

I thought through this as i lay in bed last night, wide awake, struggling.

You see, even with “knowing a lot” about the science of stress and it’s affects on body and brain, I still struggle with coping from time to time.

My phone buzzed. I checked it. It was my reminder to meditate.

Ahhh….that should help.

breathing helps to downregulate the nervous system.

Through mindfulness and breathwork, the mind can slow and the body can relax.

In times of stress, we won’t automatically think to do something to soothe our bodies/minds….that’s why I was so grateful for my reminder popping up at an opportune time.

we can all use a reminder, so I created a graphic for this simple breath practice. Try it…and I’ll talk to you soon!

Huge thanks to Morgan Harris Nichols for the beautiful artwork.