reduce stress

How Stress Affects Your Brain, And What You Can Do About It

If you find yourself regularly feeling overwhelmed by the day that’s ahead of you, believing that getting through the workday is a chore rather than an exciting challenge, or feeling completely drained by midday, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans, and many of them women, are in the same boat as you. What’s behind it all? Stress! There’s good news, though: Once you understand what stress is and how your body reacts to it, you have a powerful tool you can deploy to combat it. And that magical tool is called relaxation! Now, hold on, we know what you’re thinking: “Um, of course I’d like to relax, but that’s easier said than done.” Or is it? Read on, because we’ve got you. Stress By The Numbers Nearly 75% of Americans report experiencing varied symptoms of stress at least once a month. Anger, irritability, nervousness, fatigue, and anxiousness are symptoms reported in nearly a third of the population. Chronic fatigue syndrome, at 0.4% of the population, is a major concern for Americans. That’s a whopping 836,000 to 2.5 million individuals nationwide. However, a good 40% of working individuals feel job-related stress is the bigger concern for them, feeling stressed or extremely stressed in the workplace. The sources of stress are wide-ranging—from the economy and world events to personal relationships and finances. But stress disproportionately impacts more women than men. And that’s no surprise. Women, especially working women, simultaneously juggle responsibilities at home and in the workplace. As a result, they get busy with their daily tasks and forget to find time for themselves—a vital prerequisite to relaxing and destressing. How Stress Affects Your Brain While it’s important to realize that relaxation is the key to preventing stress before you experience it, and fighting stress once it’s upon you, it may help to understand how your body deals with stress. And the key to that understanding lies in our brain. The limbic system in our brain acts as the control center for processing stress. A closely-related subsystem, the prefrontal cortex, works to process stress signals and determine a response to them. Signals are sent to the amygdala (part of the limbic system) to trigger a fight-or-flight response to the stressful situation. The hypothalamus (another part of the limbic system) then carries out the appropriate response by opening glands and releasing adrenaline and cortisol, stress-fighting chemicals produced by the body. Our brains are excellent at perceiving stressful situations and delivering a hormonal response to them. However, here’s the problem: Unless we learn to relax and reduce stress in our lives, those chemical reactions might do more harm than good to our bodies. RELATED: The Power of Breakfast: Boost Your Brain with the Most Important Meal of the Day Why Women Are So Stressed Women tasked with playing multiple roles at home, work, and in other areas of society, experience more stress than men do. As a result, they aren’t able to pause, take a step back, and relax their way out of a stressful situation. From lack of focus and sleeplessness to nausea, upset stomach, and chest pains—it all adds up over time. Women facing acute stress—stress triggered for a short period of time—might overcome those moments without a proper stress management strategy. Stress, brought about by childbirth, anxiety over a new relationship, impending separation or divorce, or taking on a new role in the workplace, can sometimes pass without employing strategies such as stress relief mitigation. However, when left without an appropriate coping mechanism, acute stress may transform into chronic stress. If you don’t master the art of relaxation to destress, your brain’s amygdala will constantly send fight-flight signals to the hypothalamus. This will result in a continuous flood of adrenaline and cortisol in your body, which can be detrimental to your overall health. Relaxation Tips to Stress Less Relaxing—or Stress Less as we like to call it here at Nutritious Life—is a critical stress management strategy. When you find yourself overwhelmed by stress, pause, stop everything you’re doing, and listen to your body. Take a deep breath and ask yourself: What do I want right now? How am I feeling right now? Why do I feel this way? This strategy acts as a “circuit breaker” that disengages your body and mind from the ongoing (or upcoming) stressful situation. It allows your brain to think logically, and develop a more rational response to combating stress. Some other helpful relaxation strategies include: Meditation and deep breathing Practicing yoga Getting a massage or going to a spa Working out or going for walks Taking frequent work breaks Learning to take time for yourself (park your motherly or spousal responsibilities for a moment each day and do fun things instead) Practice delegation and task breakdown (deconstruct a huge project into manageable smaller tasks, which gives you more time to take it easy instead of constantly being on the go) Reach out to friends and family and chat about bucket-filling topics that don’t stress you out For women that lead a hectic work or home life (aka, all of us!), it can be challenging to take scheduled breaks to get to the gym or a spa to relax. If you’re feeling stress build up but are stuck at work or somewhere you can’t get away, try this quick stress-busting reset: inhale deeply, exhale,counting to ten as you release your breath. Do this at least five times, but as many times as you need to. Of course, lifestyle choices, diet, ensuring you get sufficient quality sleep each night, and nutrition also play an important role in staying healthy and stress-free. (This is why we’re such proponents of the 8 pillars of a Nutritious Life.) Staying up late every night, excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, smoking, or drinking too much coffee—especially near bedtime—can destabilize your relaxation routines. Embracing a more organized schedule, either at work or home, also contributes to destressing and relaxation. You may also find supplements, such as magnesium, and vitamin B12, help with managing

3 Tips to Embrace the Power of Saying “No”

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Stress Less With These High-Tech Tools

Between the hundreds of things that demand our attention (especially now), it’s no surprise we find ourselves in a ball of stress some days. That’s why we must set aside time to reset. Stimulating the senses is a simple, surefire way to realign the mind and body; in fact, sensory stimulation is a scientifically-proven way to reduce stress. By helping you shift your focus to your surroundings in the present moment and away from what’s causing you to feel anxious, you can instill a sense of control and calm. While a trip to an esthetician or acupuncturist can bring comfort and pampering, there are also some healthful gadgets that may be worth your investment. From eye-massaging masks to light projectors, we’ve rounded up ten innovative products that show healthy tech exists, and that it’s actually worth the investment. SIGHT Your Own Personal Ocean Love the ocean? So do we. Looking at water can be one of the most calming experiences. You can bring that feeling to your home with a simple light projector. Natural-like sounds and visuals such as ocean waves are proven to promote relaxation and wellbeing by reducing the “fight-or-flight” signals in the brain. We like the Jusale Ocean Wave Projector which has rotating lights you can project onto smooth walls and ceilings to create an entirely new atmosphere every time you lay down to relax. It’s so easy to use, you can share with the kiddos…or keep it all to yourself (we won’t judge). Jusale Ocean Wave Projector, $21.99 Take a Virtual Vacation Our brain can be busy—and slowing down can be hard. Have you ever just wished to be transported to a peaceful island for a moment of peace? Well, we found smart glasses that can bring you there (virtually of course)! The MindPlace Kasina glasses are named from the “Pali” term referring to an ancient system of meditation that uses visual objects to focus the mind. They can be used in a similar manner to induce positive mood-shifting effects. All you have to do is get yourself into a comfortable position, put on your earphones, choose a session, put on the frames—then your mind will naturally attune to the same frequency as the session you choose. It’s designed to be a completely interruption-free experience. A pricey purchase for sure, but who wouldn’t want to be in their own relaxing universe? Kasina DeepVision Bundle, $399.00 Sunshine in a Box Staring at Zoom all day will do a number on your vitamin D levels…and your mood. Research has proven that natural lighting helps people to be happier, healthier, and calmer. One study found that optimal amounts of daylight reduced eyestrain and headaches for office workers by 84 percent, if you don’t have the time to bask in the sun all day. The Verilux HappyLight is a luminotherapy lamp that brings daylight indoors without the harmful UV rays. It provides signals to the body to help you feel energized, focused, revitalized, and is perfect for rainy days and the upcoming winter months. Verilux HappyLight Lumi, $49.95 SOUND A New Kind of Nightcap When feeling extra stress, try sound meditation. It can help the body downshift into its natural relaxation response resulting in lower blood pressure, improved heart rate, and better breathing. Now, you can do it anywhere with your phone. We like the Atmosphere app which has 100 different sounds ranging from rain to household sounds like a running dishwasher. Set the self timer to remind you to wind down for bed. The best part…it’s completely free. Atmosphere App, $0.00 Your Personal Meditation Instructor Want to destress in a matter of minutes? Meditating has been shown to reduce anxiety in really impressive ways. But, it’s truly a skill—and most need a little help with our wandering minds. You can get your own meditation instructor at home with the Muse 2 Brain Sensing Headband. We struggle to stay focused and wonder if we are actually doing it right; so, this little gadget gives you real-time feedback on how your mind and body are reacting—helping you to recognize calm and stay there. Essentially, its technology measures your brain signals with calibrated sensors tracking your progress with each use. The Headband looks at things like heart rate, breath, and body posture. Muse 2 Brain Sensing Headband, $249.99 SMELL Make Your Home a Garden Aromatherapy is a proven (and fun) way to reduce anxiety levels—and a diffuser is a great (and pretty) way to experiment with aromatherapy. There are many to choose from depending on your style and space, but we like the Moodo Smart Aroma Diffuser. You can switch up the room fragrance through the Moodo app. Try scents like lavender and citrus, both shown to ease stress. Moodo Smart Aroma Diffuser, $119.00 Take Scents on the Road Planning a trip? Traveling right now may be a little more stressful. But, you can bring some relaxation with you (and make your car or hotel room smell amazing) with a travel aromatherapy diffuser. You probably never thought about adding scent to your packing list, but if you start getting stressed about traffic, a little whiff of lavender maybe just what you need. It’s a little luxury to make your trip a little smoother. Gaiam USB Aromatherapy Diffuser, $24.98 TOUCH Try Fashion with Function All jewelry can make you look good, but these bracelets make you feel even better. Touchpoint Bracelets use micro-vibrations that alter the body’s stress response to restore calm. Vibration therapy is helpful because it is a predictable, consistent form of sensory input that relaxes the nervous system. Throw them on (wrists, socks, tank top straps) for 15 minutes before, during or after a stressful situation to produce calm in real time. Touchpoints Bracelets, $159.99 Upgrade Your Cucumbers We are all staring at our screens more than ever before—and it’s wreaking havoc on our eyes. Maybe you’re even experiencing more headaches than before. The Breo Eye Massager (created specifically for headache sufferers) could help you ease some of that