The Big Picture of Wellness Series – Step 1 – Stress Management

This was going to be your year. It still can be. Now more than ever, health and wellness are vital to maintaining your overall wellbeing. But, how can you maintain your health when the world seems to be falling apart everywhere you look? If stress has you feeling down, read on to learn about stress management from the team of holistic professionals at Studio Figura ATL.

Health and Wellness 101
Contrary to popular belief, you cannot achieve the journey to complete health by focusing on changing one habit alone. We don’t want to be the bearers of bad news, but your life won’t stay healthy because you ran a marathon, went vegan, or finally fit into your old jeans. Optimized health is only part of a lifestyle change, after all.

Additionally, there is no one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter solution for anyone’s individual wellness needs. What works for one person may not work for you, and that’s okay.

Sure, it’s a step in the right direction if you change up your exercise routine to include weight lifting or cardio. It’s also a remarkable accomplishment if you eat clean for months on end. Did you run your first marathon? Have you dropped all the excess pounds you wanted to shed?

Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? It isn’t.

While you should be proud of any positive lifestyle changes, there’s still something missing from your health and wellness plan. So, what is it?

You need a well-rounded plan for physical, emotional, and mental health. A well-rounded approach to health includes:
Stress management
Good sleep
Water
Nutrition
Nutrients and Gut Health
Toxins
Fitness
Recovery
Aesthetics
Accountability

How Stress is Getting in Your Way
Could it be the effects of stress that are blocking your path to optimum mental and physical fitness? In this essay about stress, you’ll discover more about the stress effects on the body and what you can do to optimize your overall wellness through stress management.

Life’s pressure can stop you from accomplishing everything you need to stay healthy throughout a lifetime. Stress causes you to overeat, gain weight, and lose sleep. It is also known that stress can cause physical barriers to health, such as heart problems, obesity, autoimmune diseases, mental illness, and more.

If you can’t sleep, you’ll need more food to maintain energy throughout your daily activities. If you’re eating more, you’re not likely to lose weight while keeping your sanity.

Worse? You may eat processed, unhealthy food because you feel too exhausted to enjoy the activity of cooking a healthy meal. Consequently, exercise is not even on your schedule. As you can see, stress can lead to an endless cycle of anxiety.

Stress Causes
The world doesn’t need to be crumbling for you to feel stressed out. It’s entirely normal for stressors to vary from person to person. Some individuals are only stressed by chaotic or traumatic events, while others may find it stressful and anxiety-inducing to make a phone call.

Whatever the cause of your stress, it’s imperative to know that there is hope to help you cope. Studio Figura ATL’s whole-you solution will guide your unique journey to optimum health with personalized treatment tailored to your needs and specifications, including individualized stress management techniques.

What is Stress Management?

Are you falling short of your health and wellness goals? Do you find yourself multitasking too much and always saying yes? If you struggle to control the signs of stress, you’re far from alone.

Don’t beat yourself up over emotional stress symptoms. Instead, try to remember that emotional regulation is complicated for everyone. It takes great self-control to manage emotion no matter your age or life stage. So, what can you do to help regulate manifestations of chronic stress? The answers might surprise you.

How to Reduce Stress

You can’t reduce stress simply because you will it gone. Nor can you self-care life’s stressors away. Beyond taking a long soak in the tub as part of a self-care regimen, our holistic whole-you approach to relieving stress includes:
Nutrition
Meditation
Exercise
Emotional regulation
Hormone balance

Put Yourself First
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” It may sound cliche, but it’s true, particularly involving stress management. To fill your cup, it helps to say no to others and yes to yourself.

Of course, it can be difficult at first to understand that saying not to others is saying yes to yourself. However, with practice, it will be easier to handle the impact of psychological stress if you say yes to you above all else.

Society often trains us to put the needs of others above our own. There is a time and a place to be selfless, but your health is not compromisable. After all, without you, there is no you for anyone else to love.

We know that simply putting yourself first is far easier said than done. What if you have children? Or are you in charge of a team at work? What if you’re in the position to care for family members or if your responsibilities include managing a household?

No matter your circumstances, it can be increasingly difficult to say no more often. Doing so may cause you to feel guilty or neglectful. You may even feel as if you’re letting other people down.

The good news? If everyone’s immediate needs are taken care of, there should be no burden to carry if you put your needs on the front burner. Yes, it’s okay for you also to experience relaxing hobbies for a change. Yes, it’s perfectly okay to put the kids to bed early and sleep in late. Take that evening stroll. Lounge in your pajamas and read that novel. Your needs and desires are no less and no more important than anyone else.

What is Stress Eating?
The overall essence of stress eating is somewhat self-explanatory based upon its name; eating when stressed. It also involves eating even when not hungry or eating when feeling sluggish or tired. Sadly, social media tends to oversimplify emotional eating problems in a stress eating meme, but it is more complicated than most readily believe.

This severe and common coping mechanism of stress eating comes in different forms, including night eating syndrome or other habits that can be severe enough to border on eating disorders.

Other manifestations of stress eating may involve using food as a reward system, eating as an avoidance technique, or eating even when full. If you suspect emotional eating is part of your daily regimen, don’t feel ashamed. This common stress reaction is manageable with care and attention.

What Does Cortisol Do?
Stress hormones, like cortisol, can spike or rise depending upon the levels of cortisol stress experienced. Too much or too little cortisol hormone can put your fight or flight mode into overdrive, further causing varying glucose levels in your blood. When your glucose and cortisol levels aren’t level or within optimal range, you may experience high cortisol symptoms.

Consequently, you may feel sluggish, tired, or as if you are lost in a haze. Additional symptoms of unsteady cortisol levels involve rapid weight gain, joint pain, weakness, bruising easily, mood swings, and high blood pressure.

Lowering cortisol may take some effort, but finding ways to handle your anxiety is one way to make it happen. Other methods include better sleep habits, relaxation techniques, exercise, and improved nutrition.

Can Stress Make You Sick?
If you’re experiencing unexplained illness, stress may be the cause. Unfortunately, physical symptoms of stress can be difficult to pinpoint if there is another diagnosable basis.

Indications of stress can include Cushing syndrome, stress weight gain, headaches, heart problems, or joint pain. Stress can also cause various other physical ailments you may not immediately recognize, such as auto-immune disorders and emotional disturbances.

Anxiety often manifests itself as something else. If one doctor doesn’t link your symptoms of stress to your illness, other specialists can help figure it out. Reach out to Studio Figura ATL for a consultation if you feel strongly your ailments are stress-related.

Stress and Exercise: How Does Exercise Reduce Stress?
As part of your stress control plan, fun stress relieving activities can involve exercise. Through exercise, you’ll feel stronger and sleep better. You may even shed a few pounds or gain additional muscle, depending on your exercise regimen.

The mental benefits of exercise are also endless. Not only will you enjoy the physical benefits of exercise, but your brain will release heaps of the happy chemical dopamine to boost your mood. Dopamine can also improve your memory, capacity for learning, and motor system function. Added benefits of exercise include:
Improved circulation
Emotional management
Boosted libido
Speedier digestion
Better sleep
Weight loss

Good Nutrition: Nature’s Stress Reliever
We’ve all heard the importance of nutrition a million times over by now. However, the importance of eating stress-relieving foods and cortisol lowering foods cannot be understated.
After all, you can’t out-exercise or out-think a lousy diet. The following foods can help to lower stress and minimize high levels of cortisol.
Salmon
Avocados
Chia seeds
Flax seeds
Herring
Mackerel
Olive oil
Oysters
Nuts

Positive aspects of good nutrition don’t end there. Your skin, hair, and nails will grow faster, stronger, and healthier. Your energy will spike, and your body will have the proper nutrient-based support to handle the most challenging aspects of life. You’re likely to live longer with a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer with the proper nutrients as well.

Don’t let anxiety and fear get in the way of living your best life. Managing stress will allow you to stop your body’s fight or flight response so you can get back to doing the things you enjoy. Get started today and discover precisely how to relieve stress quickly.

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