An Integrated Approach to Stress
Stress… something we, unfortunately, are all far too familiar with. I’m sure a lot of us experienced stress over this holiday season! Stress is a leading cause of weight gain, mood disorders, chronic illness and disease. There are many types of stressors that our body can experience: environmental stressors, dietary stressors, physical stressors, and emotional stressors. Toxins, high-fat or sugary foods, relationships, exercise, overworking, and parenting can all contribute to stress. There is no way we can get away from stress, but we can learn to manage it and tame it so it does not go rampant in our bodies. There is not enough space on this one little blog post to go through ALL stress management techniques, but my goal is to give you doable, manageable techniques to try out. Stress requires an integrated approach, because stress affects us on all levels: mind, body, and soul. Here, I will give you some interventions to try for an integrated approach to stress management.
Decrease stress in your mind
An integrated approach to stress includes working on your mental load. Our mind is the road to our emotions. We feel what we tell ourselves. If we are telling ourselves critical or negative thoughts, and believing them, we are probably going to feel pretty crappy. As they say, it is not the fact that we have negative thoughts, it’s our attachment to the negative thoughts.
Using mindfulness to detach from negative thoughts
My #1 tip for changing your thoughts is to utilize mindfulness techniques. As you remember the discussion above, it’s not the thoughts in themselves, but the attachment to the negative thoughts that brings us down. Here’s an example:
You feel stress upon needing to study for a test
Your mind says: I’m going to fail!
You feel anxious and overwhelmed
You don’t study because you are too overwhelmed and you say “what’s the point if I’m just going to fail?”
On the contrary:
You feel stress upon needing to study for a test
Your mind says: I can do this, I will study and do my best
You put in the work to study because you believe it will help you
What if you could see your negative thoughts for what they are: just thoughts! You can work on building the mental muscles to shift your focus to the thoughts that benefit you. If you observed your negative thoughts without attachment to them they wouldn’t give you such a stressful and emotional reaction. My main tips for utilizing mindfulness comes from Acceptance & Commitment Therapy.
Mindfulness Intervention #1: Junk Mail
When you collect your mail, you put it in piles: junk/throw away or keep. You can do the same with your thoughts to detach from them. As you observe your thoughts, do you need to throw any out with junk mail? What thoughts are not serving you?
I’m not good enough
I’ll never get that promotion
No one likes me
Throw those thoughts away like junk mail! Vizualize your thoughts as mail. Throw away the thoughts that no longer serve you. When they pop up again, remember that they belong in the trash! I know this is much easier said than done. But the more you practice, the easier it gets. Observing your thoughts will become easier as well.
Mindfulness Intervention #2: Meditation
I know I know, another person advocating for boring meditation, but hear me out! The guidelines for meditation are simple: sit still for 5 minutes and focus on your breath. If you notice your mind wander, just simply notice it, and return to your breath. This teaches us 3 main points:
To be the observer of our thoughts and just notice them
Detach from our thoughts- noticing your thoughts allows for separation
Be kind, not critical of ourselves- practice non judgement with your thoughts.
When you practice these rules of meditation, and you find yourself in “regular life” distracted by thoughts and emotions or ruminating on negative thoughts, you can simply notice, and resume focus on the activities you need to focus on.
I recommend participating in a meditation practice for 5 min/day to help reduce your mental load and stress.
Decrease stress in your body
Bodily interventions are essential to an integrated approach to stress. We hold emotions and stress in our body. Think back to a very stressful time: were your shoulders tense? Did you have an upset stomach? Everybody reacts differently to stress, but we all have some type of bodily reactions, especially if we are trying to ignore our stress. Some typical bodily reactions are:
Headaches
Fatigue
Autoimmune diagnoses
Body Aches/Pains
Digestive issues
Skin issues
Inflammation
Sometimes mental interventions don’t fully cut it. We hold our emotions and stress in our body so moving our body, working on our digestion, skin care, and massage can be very effective for reducing our stress levels.
Body Intervention #1: Whole Foods Centered Diet
There are so many things in our diet that cause stress in our body. Artificial ingredients, sugars, trans fats, preservatives, chemicals, and toxins are all put in our food to make them taste better and last longer. Consuming foods in their whole form helps reduce the stress load and bring your body back to balance. This can bring more peace to your body which also helps you process your emotions. The gut and brain are closely connected. Just like we want to feed our mind healthy, rational, true thoughts, we want to feed our body real food.
But where to start? Here are a couple of guidelines to get you started. Remember, small changes lead to big changes.
80% of the time try to eat whole foods. Does it come from the ground? Eat it. Some of the best whole foods for our mood are:
Omega 3 Fats: flax seeds, chia seeds, wild-caught fatty fish, Walnuts
Leafy Green Vegetables
Cruciferous Vegetables- cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, onions, garlic
Low glycemic fruits: cherries, berries, apples
Root vegetables: squash, sweet potato, pumpkin
Resistant starch- cooked and cooled rice and potatoes
Probiotic-rich foods- yogurt, kimchi, sauerraut
20% of the time, packaged, processed foods that may not be in their whole form. These might include:
Popcorn
Chips
Eating out at restaurants
Sweets and treats
Feel free to reach out to me for some personalized steps you can take to make these changes. And stay tuned for more information on this topic!
Body Intervention #2: Exercise
Moving our body helps us manage stress. It has endless benefits including:
Moving excess stress or adrenaline out of your body
Balancing blood sugar (balanced blood sugar = balanced mood)
Moving stuck emotions
Creating energy
Turning off “shut down” response
Increasing positive emotions and feelings of confidence
Recent studies have found exercise as a major treatment for type 2 diabetes. A simple 10-20 minute walk after a meal or weight lifting session can be beneficial to insulin levels. Blood sugar fluctuations are a major stressor to our body. When we have a balanced blood sugar, we are more likely to experience a balanced mood. Further, exercise is the best medicine to flip your mood. Tired? Go for a walk. Depressed? Go to the gym. The benefits of any kind of movement are endless. If you have experienced significant trauma in your life and feel like you are still carrying that load, somatic exercises will serve you well.
No need to be overwhelmed in wondering which exercise is right for you. Which type of exercise are you likely to do? Which one sounds the best? Do that! There are so many to choose from:
Weight lifting
Aerobic exercise (walking, running, swimming, biking)
HIIT
Boxing
Yoga
Somatic exercise
Decrease Stress in your Soul
Working on soul stressors in an essential part of an integrated approach to stress. When we don’t feel connected with ourselves, it can increase stress. It’s hard to truly know what our spirit and our soul are asking for without finding quiet & stillness. We are so connected to external distractions it pulls us away from ourselves. Finding quiet time to look inward, contemplate, reflect, and listen can connect us more to ourselves and God.
Soul Intervention #1: Nature
Go into nature, sit next to a tree, or sit outside in the quiet. You will likely notice an instant reduction in stress. Nature has many, many healing benefits including:
Decreasing depression
Lowering anxiety
Lowering blood pressure
Increasing connection with self and God
A 2021 analysis reviewed multiple studies done on nature therapy in Japan. They found that after a short time in nature, salivary cortisol was reduced. Cortisol is the hormone excreted by our adrenal glands in response to stress. Cortisol should only be excreted occasionally when a major stressor occurs. However, these days, our body perceives stress in so many places: traffic, work, family, through diet, physical exertion, lack of sleep, etc. We are using way too much cortisol, which leads to adrenal fatigue, burnout, weight gain, and hormone disruptions.
Get into nature and take a deep breath. It can help you lower stress and find more balance. As little as 5 minutes in nature makes a difference.
Soul Intervention #2: Music
I can’t tell you how many clients tell me that music is their number one coping skill. Music speaks not only to our mind but to our body and our soul. It hits us on a deeper level and helps create shifts in perspective, mood, and stress levels. Scientific studies are currently lacking evidence for this intervention, but in my opinion, having spoken to hundreds of people who report music as an effective coping skill, I have as much evidence as I need!
Different music might enhance or soothe different emotions. It could be beneficial to have a playlist for every mood. A happy playlist, sad playlist, overwhelmed playlist, angry playlist, etc. Or a playlist from childhood, teenage years, and college. There’s no right or wrong way to use music. Find what speaks to you on a soul level and immerse yourself in it. Notice the effect it has on your body.
Summary of an Integrated Approach to Stress
I hope you now have some helpful tools to address stress. Especially as we reset from the holidays and prepare for a new year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions on this or want to discuss it further!