The Extraordinary Everyday
The Extraordinary Everyday
Five Natural Ways to Alleviate Stress and Invite Calm into Your Life
Have you ever had one of those weekends where your zeal for productivity leaves you utterly exhausted? That's exactly where I found myself after a marathon of household chores in the beautiful weather, reminding me that sometimes, our bodies scream for a timeout. As your guide through the path of life's challenges, I, Wendy Johnson, am here to share the top five natural ways to tackle stress and anxiety, which I've personally found to be lifesavers.
This episode isn't just about listing techniques; it's about understanding the deep-seated connection between our mental stressors and their physical manifestations. From disrupted sleep to a sudden craving for that extra chocolate chip cookie, we explore how stress sneaks into our lives and what we can do to show it the door. You'll learn how to turn exercise into a stress-busting ally, why reaching for the fruit bowl instead of the cookie jar can make all the difference, and the surprising power of simply taking deep breaths. Join me on this journey to transform the way we confront our anxieties and cultivate a life of balance and calm.
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About Wendy Johnson:
I'm a certified life coach for women who want to take their 'good' lives and make them extraordinary with personal development and life coaching tools. If you are going to find your passion, increase your self-confidence, make more money, strengthen your relationships, build your business, and do it with less struggle and frustration then you're in the right place. My programs are for busy women who want to feel better and live well in their everyday lives.
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Hello, you're listening to the Extraordinary Every Day Podcast with Wendy Johnson, episode number 42.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Extraordinary Every Day Podcast, where women come to be inspired and motivated to become the best version of themselves and elevate the quality of their every day. Now here's your host, certified life coach, wendy Johnson.
Speaker 1:Hello, beautiful friends. How are you? I am doing so good, although I'm feeling a little bit of stress because we are having the most gorgeous weather in the high 70s and I spent the weekend outside and I got a little carried away with cleaning windows and doing work, and my body is so physically tired and I've been to the gym the last two days and I'm dragging and I realize today I need to just relax and let my body heal. So in this episode I want to talk to you about the top five natural ways to manage stress and anxiety at home. If you're experiencing stress, you're not alone. There are people all around the world feeling stress. With all the uncertainty in the world, you may be worried about your health, your financial stability, family circumstances, and stress and anxiety make it difficult to enjoy life. That's why I think it's important to discuss different ways of managing stress.
Speaker 1:It's important now more than ever to manage worry, stress and anxiety. There's a mind-body connection between the powerful thoughts we think when we're stressed and how they show up as physical symptoms in the body, physical responses to stress we should be aware of. We're having difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite or overeating and upset stomach, headaches, loss of libido, chest tightness and heart palpitations. There's more sweating or shaking, infections, illnesses, skin rashes or dental symptoms such as grinding your teeth when you're sleeping at night. Also, we can experience feelings of being impatient and on edge, angry, lethargic, moody, lack of focus and concentration. So for a better understanding, I want to talk about the definition of worry, stress and anxiety. Worry this is when you have repeating thoughts about something you're concerned about. For example, did I shut the garage when I left the house? Did I lock the door? And stress is a natural response to a concern when we're feeling troubled or threatened from life. When there's constant stress or overload stresses, it can overload the body's immune system and it settles in as disease. And then anxiety Anxiety is a prolonged feelings of worry and stress, and anxiety causes sleeplessness and exasperation of physical symptoms in the body that come from anxiety. We all harbor different areas of the body where we may pick up disease first, whether it's a sinus infection or chest congestion, problems with the tummy, we all have our trigger areas where we are holding on to our stress, and you may be able to manage the anxious feelings themselves with some simple lifestyle changes. So these are things you can do right in your own home and they're great for handling stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1:And the first one is exercise. Exercise allows the body to naturally deal with the chemical release of adrenaline and cortisol. When you exercise, you're stimulating dopamine, estrogen, serotonin and endorphins, and this can be a mild exercise. If you know anything about power zone training, it would be in power zone one and two, where we're just getting the body moving. Taking a walk, swimming in the pool, moving our body on a yoga mat these are all examples of exercise that you can do while your body is stressed.
Speaker 1:And the second method is to nourish your body instead of eating your feelings. Maintain a healthy diet, eating fruits, vegetables, proteins, complex carbs, because often when you're stressed, you gravitate to stimulants such as coffee or sweets, such as pastries, cookies or candy. What you wanna do is regulate your blood sugar with healthy snacks to keep your blood sugar level even, and you can eat nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. I know when I'm feeling stressed, I eat. I don't under eat. I turn to things that are my comfort foods.
Speaker 1:Method number three for handling stress is to just breathe. Slowing and calming your breath when you're stressed will ease the tension in the body and move your focus away from your thoughts. Try a four by four breath cycle where you're taking a deep breath from your abdominal area and you're bringing it up all the way up to the throat and you can hold it and then you slowly exhale for four counts, pushing the belly in, breathe in for a count of four, hold the breath, if you can, for a count of four and then exhale the breath for a count of four and you can exhale with your mouth open and when you're breathing in, you're breathing in through your nose. And the fourth method for handling stress is to stop and smell the roses, to move away from a cycle of stressful thoughts. Focus on your surroundings, go outside, if you can, and take a look at what you can see, hear, touch, taste and smell around you. Pay attention with curiosity to what is in front of you. Smell a rose, take in a view, look at the clouds, the sunset, the sunrise those are all perfect times to stop and pause in the middle of your day or to begin your day or end your day. And I was around roses this last weekend, but all I was doing was strenuous and physical and I never sat down because when I was finishing up it was already dark. I just had an over abundance of energy to be outdoors, but now I'm paying for it.
Speaker 1:And the fifth method for handling stress is to listen to soothing sounds. Play soothing music. This can ease the stress from your mind and body. Rather than listening to top 40 or rock. Change the pace up. Listen to symphony or jazz or relaxing sounds without words. Listen to soothing spa music or sounds from the ocean. So let's recap.
Speaker 1:I shared with you five natural ways you can manage stress and anxiety at home. These aren't the cure-all, but they will give you some relief with stressful thoughts, feelings and physical ailments you might be experiencing. And, like anything, with practice and persistence you'll get better at noticing when you're worrying, if you have repetitive thoughts that aren't serving you and that are being harbored in your body. You're going to learn how to notice when you have your thoughts and feelings and if you're experiencing symptoms of stress in the body. I hope this helps you.
Speaker 1:I am doing this personally for myself as well, because I need to slow down and let my body recover and remember that I can't do what I did when I was in my teens and twenties and spend all day outside working. My body is paying the price now. If you know someone or have an audience who would benefit from learning about the five natural ways to manage stress and anxiety, be sure to share with a friend and have them follow the podcast. I appreciate you being here. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your week and I look forward to being with you next week. Take care, friends. Bye-bye.
Speaker 3:Hey, if you enjoy listening to this podcast, you have to come check out More. You, my community of like-minded women. We show up to create the highest version of ourselves and elevate the quality of our everyday. Along the way, head over to ontracklifecoachingcom forward, slash, join. That's O-N-T-R-A-C lifecoachingcom forward, slash, join. I'd love to see you in there. And if you haven't grabbed your copy of the Mindset Makeover, head over to ontracklifecoachingcom forward slash makeover and get a copy that teaches and inspires you to show up as your most extraordinary self.