“You Can’t Stop The Waves But You Can Learn To Surf”- A Guide To Managing Your Stress
Nobody likes being stressed, but in midlife, learning to manage your stress becomes significantly more important. Why? Stress affects the whole hormonal cascade and if our stress response is pinging constantly then this has a major effect on our hormonal health.
None of us wants to be poking the hormonal bear very often – so if every thought we have produces a reaction let’s try and manage our thought processes a bit better. Whilst it is impossible to eliminate stress in today’s world here are some ways we can build our resilience to it and manage it.
What goes on between your ears and how you talk to yourself is critical when it comes to managing our emotions. Being able to question our thought processes is a skill. Ask yourself does this thought contribute to my stress? Where did I learn this thought? Is this thought logical? Is this thought true? The ability to take a breath before the cortisol gets released and the stress reaction is in full flow will often stop it before it gets out of the starting blocks.
Delete stressors – people, places and things that trigger your stress response don’t deserve your precious time. Well, family aside, but you can choose your friends, so choose them wisely.
Go softly and gently and give your body what it needs to be happy and healthy. If you are crash dieting your body thinks there is a famine and gets stressed. Stop dieting but make better food choices. Eat little and often. Don’t skip breakfast. Eliminate added sugar and refined carbs. Add protein and good fats to each meal. Stop drinking your calories. All things we know to be true. If only there was an update we could install on ourselves.
Focus on improving peace, calm, joy and pleasure. Start with where you are and boot self-care up the to-do list. Prioritise it and decide on what is most important to you. Exercise works! Movement is medicine. It needs to be a non-negotiable now.
In short, you want to learn to manage the machine. Are you able to reframe stress into what is real and what is perceived? Once you’ve managed that can you get rid of known sources of vexation and in their place add in sources of joy and calm. Learning to eat, speak, think and move like you love yourself is great advice. As is practising consistency.
Good luck.