How To: Stress-Less!

This month, our "Half-Hour to Health" was on "Freedom From Stress" and we have the following tips to help you cope with stress naturally:

What causes stress to the body & why are we talking about it?

1) Environment- Pollution, weather, toxins from the genetically modified foods, chemicals in foods/products

2) Social- Finances, jobs, demands for your time and attention, loss of loved ones

3) Physiological- Aging, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, inadequate sleep

4) Thoughts- Your brain interprets changes in your environment/body and determines when to turn on the “EMERGENCY” response. Your thoughts determine your reality! Change your thoughts change your world!

The great news is Chiropractic helps to switch off the stress response and allows relaxation to occur! As soon as the interference is gone the brain stops sending those emergency messages to your nervous system.  3 minutes after you shut off these signals the fight or flight response burns out.  All of these functions will return to normal levels.

We came up with THE BEST TECHNIQUE of managing stress!

B – Breathing – Deep breathing kicks in the healing part of the Nervous System (parasympathetic)

The 5 second breathing technique – breathe in through the nose for five sec, hold for five sec, out through the mouth for five sec, hold the breath out for five and repeat process 2-3x.

E- Exercise – One of the simplest most effective stress reducers is exercise.  Studies show that exercise alone helps reduce stress – Goal: walk 20 minutes a day three to five days a week.

S-Sleep – Most Americans do not get enough sleep, compounding stress in the body – this means going to bed before 10 pm and stopping the use of all electronics before bedtime. One of the most common themes that we have seen with our practice members today is not getting good restful peaceful sleep.  Example – “The nothing box.”  Tips for improving sleep include: Dark rooms, as quiet as possible and eight or more hours when possible. 

T – Talk – Self talk is huge when it comes to stress.  Most people talk worse to themselves then they would ever let anyone talk to them.  Having the right kind of self-talk is important – we create our world by our words.  In every situation look for the positive that can come out of it and don’t jump to the conclusion that it is bad or negative. For example Car mechanic – Someone comes in after they had their brakes repaired and says that they still don’t work – The mechanic can jump to conclusions like they don’t like me or I am a bad mechanic and neither of those may be true. 

T- Time – All processes take time – small changes today result in large changes over time , Your problem is not your problem it is your attitude about your problem that’s the problem.  If there are stressors in your life identify them and do not sweep them under the rug because over time they can get worse if they are not addressed.  Once you have identified the stressor come up with several ways in order to deal with the issue.  Not having a plan is a plan to fail.

Action Steps: 1) Get Adjusted 2) Practice the BEST technique 3) Share this with as many people as possible so that everyone can have the freedom!

Here is our video recap, enjoy!