Mia’s Top Tips for Stress Relief

Alright, we’re all stressed. I did a poll recently on Instagram and 100% of the respondents clicked that they were stressed. 100%!

Let’s talk about stress for a second. Stress and worrying activates a part of the brain and nervous system that put your body in high alert mode. This served us well when we had to fend for our lives in the wilderness, but if you have a safe place to lay your head at night, and food on the table, your body is likely still activating in the same way, assuming there is a similar life-and-death level of threat.

So, in order to trick the body into deactivating the sympathetic nervous system (the part of your body that sends you into “fight or flight” mode) and activate the PARAsympathetic nervous system (the part of your body signals relaxation, digesting food properly, and restoring your body while you sleep), we need to first address how we deal with stress. AKA “cortisol".”

If we don’t manage the stress, our body’s cortisol levels rise, and tells the nervous system to be hyper vigilant. This causes all SORTS of inflammation in the body - and inflammation is at the root of every. single. ailment. If your body isn’t fighting inflammation, it can see and repair what’s not healthy. (This obviously doesn’t go for acute issues like a broken bone or bleeding cut!)

There are many ways to relieve the symptoms of stress. While it may not FEEL like it’s helping, physiologically, slow and steady deep breaths helps SO much. I won’t go into the science of it all, but let’s just say it’s like a red light for cortisol!

Here’s another quick way to alleviate stress - it’s one I use frequently, and I think it’ll become one of your favorites, too.

Mia’s Favorite Quick Stress Relief Tip:

• List everything that is stressing you out.

• Rearrange them in order of stress level, (1 being the most stressful).

• Give yourself a few minutes for each one, think about one proactive stuff you can take to alleviate that stress or get it closer to being a non-stressor.

• Add that action item to a ToDo list and set a time for when you will do it.

• Do that for each one and decide not to let it stress you out until you get through the ToDo List.

I suggest doing this in the morning - if done at night, it can often cause your mind to race around all the things you have to do.

Hope that’s helpful. Leave a comment here when you try it and let me know how it works for you!

Be well,

Mia

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