Managing Stress Shouldn't Be Stressful: A practical guide to better living

Ever wonder why stress has become one of the leading causes of illness, disease, and mental exhaustion in our modern world? Despite having more conveniences than ever before, we seem to be more stressed than our ancestors. Let's explore some holistic approaches to managing stress that can transform your daily life.

The Four Pillars of Stress Management

1. Quality Sleep: Your Body's Natural Reset Button

Sleep is the most anabolic (rebuilding/recharging) function of all, and it’s free! Sleep is a necessity as one of its primary roles is growth and repair both physically and psychologically. Poor sleep can elevate cortisol levels and disrupt these repair cycles creating a vicious cycle of stress and sleeplessness.

• 10pm - 2am is Physical repair

• 2am- 6am is Psychological repair

• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule including weekends

• Create a calming bedtime routine; mellow background music, dim lights, stretch or yoga

• Limit screen time before bed to regulate melatonin production

• Take naps no more than 20 minutes ideally 11am and 3pm

2. Mindful Nutrition: Fueling Your Stress Response

What you eat directly impacts your body's ability to handle stress. Poor nutrition can trigger inflammatory responses and hormonal imbalances, making you more susceptible to stress.

• Focus on whole, unprocessed foods and include protein with each meal

• Avoid The 4 white devils: refined sugar, table salt, flour, dairy

• Stay hydrated - half your body weight in ounces per day. Dehydration can increase cortisol levels

3. Balanced Movement: Moving Without Overwhelming

While exercise is crucial for stress management, over-training can actually increase stress hormones. Balance is key:

• Combine both high and low intensity exercises throughout the week

• Listen to your body - some days require active recovery that is different from your normal workouts ie. walk, swim, hike

• Include relaxation practices like yoga or tai chi

• Allow adequate recovery time between workouts

4. Happiness: Finding Joy Through Balance

The happiness pillar form the foundation for the other three pillars (sleep, nutrition, exercise) and helps establish what brings us joy. In other words, when we optimize sleep, nutrition, and movement, we gain the tools to create our own happiness rather than depending on others to create happiness for us.

Removing elements that don't support our happiness is crucial—this includes processed foods, excessive social media and news consumption, alcohol, smoking, games and excessive TV watching. While these all may provide a moment of instant gratification, overtime it creates more and more stress.

• Addiction: any repeated behavior that doesn't produce desired results. It's essential to identify these patterns and replace them with habits that contribute to our health and wellbeing.

• Clearly define what creates happiness in your life based on the above pillars.

Taking Action: Your Next Steps

Start small. Choose one area to focus on this week - whether it's improving your sleep routine, adding stress-reducing foods to your diet, or incorporating gentle movement into your day. Remember, stress management is a journey, not a destination.

What's one small change you can make today to better manage your stress? What does happiness mean to you?

Stay tuned next week where I’ll go over stress response and how it affects our bodies.