If you’re suffering the effects of stress, there are two systems that need to be dealt with to ditch the stress and get you back in charge or your life. They consist of surface work (mitigating the damages of the symptoms) and deep work (getting to the root of the stressors).
The first thing to focus on is to get you feeling better and healthy enough to consider doing the deeper work.
Feeling Good
You must have the basic building blocks to regain your personal power, so starting with nutrition will equip your body and mind with the necessary components to get you feeling good enough to find joy and the wherewithal to tackle even more to increase your happiness by reducing your stress exponentially.
Battle Stress with Nutrition
To start, review your diet. Are you eating balanced meals (three meals a day or five smaller meals throughout the day), taking vitamins and/or supplements?
If not, start here. Get to eating better and more often; usually a correlation is found between diet (which can throw your system out of whack) and stress indicators. Eat healthy food.
30 minutes prior to eating, drink a glass of water. Make sure your meal includes some fruit and vegetables. Think about adding fruits like oranges, strawberries, and grapefruit, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cranberries, apples, avocados, cherries, pears, plums, pineapple, prunes and kiwifruit, which are also helpful in stress reduction.
Other stress-fighting foods include avocados and fatty fish like tuna, salmon, herring, and sardines; also red peppers, green peppers, baked potatoes, tomatoes, artichokes, broccoli, red cabbage and white and sweet potatoes, small red beans, black, kidney beans, pinto beans, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, green tea, coffee, red wine, pomegranate juice, oats, flaxseeds or flaxseed oil and chia seeds.
I’ve been a fan of dark chocolate for years. You might be surprised to discover that it has valuable nutritional value (if not magical medicinal value) especially if it’s 65% or more cacao and the less processed, the better for battling stress. Remember to partake in moderation, 1 oz. After each balanced meal.
Add the minimum of a multivitamin taken daily can help get your biological system back on track.
Restful Sleep
Giving your body the restful sleep it needs is essential for winning the stress battle. Even if you feel like you don’t have time, you need to create a stringent schedule for getting the zees you need. Set specific times to go to sleep and get up as you put yourself back in the driver’s seat of your life.
How to wind down for sleep
You will sleep better if you prepare your mind and body for restful sleep a half-hour to an hour before turning in. Things you can do to get ready for a good night’s sleep include taking a nice, warm bath, dimming the lights, reading a relaxing book, playing some relaxing music, relaxation stretching exercises, focused breathing,
Things to avoid before going to sleep include eating, watching television, computer, social media, texting, processing paperwork, journaling (do that before preparing for bedtime), alcohol, coffee, tea and chocolate.
What’s Next?
Now, that you’re body and mind are ready, it might be time to consider