9 Strategies for Dealing with Stress

Max Sturdivant/Dr. Fitness  0:02  
So practically practicing self care is not normal for us. So it's a learned behavior for for me. And what I mean is really taking time for myself besides my workout to either take a bath, take your time, take time to read a book, you know, I do prepare healthy meals. And that's really relaxing. For me doing food prep, it's probably not really relaxing for everybody. But doing food prep is really relaxing. For me. The chopping, the whole thing is kind of meditative. Stretching, when I get in and out of bed, taking a little bit of time they're getting massages. 

Hey, there! Welcome to Your Health Moment with Dr. Fitness. On this podcast, I want to give you the tools to start, continue and never give up on your journey towards health. Whether you struggle with your weight, eating the right food, drinking enough water, exercise, or even time management, you are you in the right place. And I'm here for you. If you want to take the next step on your health journey, I'd invite you to reach out to me, and we'll put together a plan that starts right where you are. So get in touch with me directly at www.iamdrfitness.com or my Instagram @iamdrfitness. And it's spelled I A M D R fitness. My name, Dr. Fitness. And this is Your Health Moment. 

All right, let the shenanigans begin. Hey, hey, hey, welcome back, we are on part two, one of our stress episodes. And if you missed part one, you can definitely go back last week and pick it up. Part one was really good it was the symptoms and signs of to help you to determine whether or not stress is a challenge for you, that you may not even realize that you have. So if you think hey, I'm great, everything is good, go back and listen to that, just to make sure that some of those underlying symptoms that you could be having, if you, they may seriously be stress related. So go back, get that information. So then come back to this because this is about how to deal with the stress that you're having. And even the stress you may not even realize you're having. So that's what we're talking about, we're talking about my nine, my nine to what am I gonna call them my nine tips for dealing with stress that have rarely been proven, because I've had the opportunity to use these with a lot of people in the last five years, because that's when I started using them about five years ago, where I got really laser, with how I'm introducing these to help people. So number one, really, I'm gonna go quick in the beginning, I'll go back. Number one, it really comes down to physical activity, you got to get out, you got to move, you got to exercise, and you got to move in a way that you like, okay? Because moving in a way you don't like, doesn't alleviate stress, it gives you stress. So initially, when people are in a mode where they're dealing with stress, that's a really important part of it, don't start some kind of physical activity that you just hate gives you stress, because it's going to do nothing but exacerbate the stress that you're having. Okay, so I've seen this time and time and time again, you know, start where you are, where it comes to this, it may not be your where you end up, because once your stress comes down, you can really pump up that activity level. So that it's much more effective to reaching the fitness and health goals that you have. But initially, you just want to prepare space for you to be doing activity. Okay? So it's creating that environment in that space for you to do this because, and most of our lives, we don't provide enough space for the things that are important for us. And we fill our lives with all these things that create great stress. And we never take the time to fill our lives with the things that are great for us for reducing stress. Okay, hey, number two I was gonna go through them fast. But look, I got in there and I couldn't help myself. Okay, so number two, some people find that meditation really helps them to relax and handle stress. That's really true for me. I mean, I love meditation. And which is, the craziest thing about this is I'm one of those people that used to hate it. And meditation is one of those practices that the, if you're built like me kind of Taipei and you're going all the time and your vacation, you even work, okay? Then it's really hard to sit down quiet and quiet your mind. And so meditation for me over the years has been something that I have learned to be better at. And so if once you give yourself 10 minutes of silence, no phone, close your eyes, no distractions, and see how you do with it. Okay? If you come out of that experience, like thinking it was the worst 10 minutes you have ever spent in your entire life, okay. 10 minutes was too long for you. And to introduce you to meditation, it's going to take like, one minute at a time, really. But it's okay. You got to start where you are. So you sit for a period of time in silence, that you come out of it, you set a timer, and you come out of it, and you go, Okay, that wasn't so bad. Because like any training, you can't just run a marathon in one day, you really do have to build yourself up to it. And when it comes to meditation, it's one of them things that you build yourself up for. So don't get discouraged. If 10 minutes is too long for you initially. Just know that it's that meditation muscle needs time to really grow and develop and it's okay to not panic. Okay. And so many people panic, so I'm always telling them, don't panic with your meditation, and which is funny, it's designed to genuinely help you to relax, and, and, you know, Type A's go, Oh, my God, I didn't do it. Right. I'm failing at meditation. And which is kind of funny to me. But also, I do see the I see the challenge, and I can see, you know, failing at anything is not is never good for Taipei. You know, so everything is personal. And it's just tough. So, but I want to take the pressure off you. Okay, one minute, and your good, two minutes and see if it's good for you and do it that way. Okay, so the next one is going to be follow a healthy diet. Now, we don't want you to help the diet again, to stress you out. But you do want to reduce complex carbohydrates because they are going to add to your stress whether you realize it or not, you are them you are going to win want to reduce our alcohol, or quit. You want to quit smoking. Those things feel Mekhi give you the impression and doing drugs. So if there are drugs that you do to relax, and we're I'm not talking about a prescription that your psychologist has given you, or your psychiatrist. I'm talking about self medication, like getting a pill somewhere or you know some unsanctioned kind of medication that will make you feel better. So definitely, if you're taking that approach, you want to not do it because you're going to feel good maybe in that moment, but it's going to set you up for more stress later, even alcohol. So don't look at alcohol as a de stressor. It's only going to relieve whatever you're going through temporarily and all that stress is still going to be there. Alcohol just makes you less equipped to deal with it. The stress does not go away. The next one, consider supplements. There are certain vitamins like vitamin B's, and magnesium that play a real role in helping you to man Need your stress because when you're going through stress, there are certain minerals that your body uses to help with the process. So you want to find out for you where you are deficient in and minerals and, and find no supplements and begin taking them.

I definitely have a program that can support you with that so and point you in the right direction to make sure that you get the right supplements to help reduce your stress. The big one, practice self care. Now, being able to practice self care is huge. Because most of us we get stuck and being cared being caretakers for everyone else. And I raised my hand because I'm in that I'm in that category. And so I can speak to it. And everyone in my family actually, when I look at it, I think we get it from our mother, my mother was a nurse. And she spent so much time taking care of everyone else. And that I think we all kind of pick the trade up of like my sisters and brothers who are always caring for other people and have had jobs where we are taking care of other people in some way. So it's really kind of neat that it's kind of a trait that we've gotten. So practically practicing self care is not normal for us. So it's a learned behavior for for me. And what I mean is really taking time for myself besides my workout to either take a bath, take a time, take time to read a book, you know, I do prepare healthy meals. And that's really relaxing. For me doing food prep, it's probably not really relaxing for everybody. But do some food prep is really relaxing. For me, the chopping, the whole thing is kind of meditative. I'm stretching, when I get in and out of bed, taking a little bit of time there getting massages, you know, and find out if you have a hobby. And find people that have hobbies do really well with reducing their stress. And it's really cool, there are those people that find these really great hobbies. When I look at myself, I don't see a really great hobbies and most of my friends, I don't really know what their what their hobbies are, but some are golf. So that's one that comes up pretty regularly. You know, I'm not much of a golfer, but a few fish. So we need you to do that. But I'm probably the bad guy. Look, though. Look, I'm not fishing or golfing. I'm taking a bath, that's that's the thing that I'm doing or being out in nature is really kind of nice. Um, practice practicing yoga. You know, I, I strongly recommend yoga. I wouldn't recommend Bikram. Because it's so hot, and it puts so much stress on Well, I can speak for myself. It's hot. And I'm stressed out because I'm not as flexible in that dark room. I'm falling all over the place. So that type of Yoga does it relax me. It's like that type a thing. It's not like an hour class. It's 90 minutes. So a mean for people that do yoga and you've had the experience and it's good for you, of course, did Bikram your heart out. But if you are just beginning your yoga, I don't think I would personally recommend like Bikram but definitely find like a nice easy yoga class and enjoy your time. Oh, one thing I really love is in the next one I really love is is spending time with family. And indefinitely. You know, we all have friends. It's a really great way to reduce your stress. Now, I'm going to preface this with not all your family is going to be the people you want to be around to help you to reduce stress. Now all your friends are the kind of friends that are the ones to be around when you want to reduce stress. But find that core group of friends and family that you can be around, that will energize you, and reduce your stress. And be able to acknowledge that not all of your friends and family are going to be good for you to be around when it's stress reduction that you're going for. Because most people are, are stressed, because they have a difficult time to differentiating between the friends and family that are good for helping them to reduce stress. And the friends and family that are the primary drivers of of a lot of their stress. So being able to differentiate between those friends and family is really an important skill. So that would be definitely one that I would encourage you to work on. So creating boundaries, and learning how to say no, is really important. And it's going to help you to reduce your overall stress. And so when I'm working with people, these are topics that we talk about during our sessions. So we go right through it, we keep little journals on, on these topics of family and friends that are good family and friends to be around. If you want to reduce stress, it's really good to start writing this stuff down. And so the more that I encourage clients and patients to write this information down, the better that they do with reducing their overall stress levels, I've seen blood pressures go down. I've seen their commitment to exercise their ability to function better when it comes to the gym, their weight over Wow, under control, I've seen belly fat go down. And I've seen their exercise really improve improved to the way where they're much more motivated. They're much more excited about it, they're sleeping better, they have more energy. And and and really, what they did was just start practicing these tools to reduce stress. And bam, like magic happens. And it's it's pretty amazing when you start practicing mindfulness. And you're able to reduce stress. And if you're not familiar with mindfulness, that's next, practice mindfulness. And that's really taking the time to really think about things as you're doing them in and being in the moment. So if you're sitting down, and you're eating, you want to be in the moment, do you want to taste your food, you want to chew it. And you want to really have the experience. So I ask people all the time, when was the last time you sat down, you had a meal. You took your time to eat? You had really great conversation. And, you know, like uplifting, really wonderful conversation about great things that are happening in the world. And had that wonderful time to just have a incredible relaxing experience. When was the last time and is in a not too many people go? Oh yeah, I do that regularly. Now, people are busy that we live in a world where we're rushing all the time. We're eating our food without really chewing it. And we're swallowing big hunks of food and we have a really difficult time digestion in our stomach. So really be mindful when you eat, chew the food. Each bite you should chew at least 50 times. How many of us do that on a regular basis. You know, I can raise my hand now to have because I have really improved. But it's something that I have to be mindful about because I'm one of those people that can easily be in a hurry regularly and it's Taking the time to really chew my food, and we're talking 50 times, you should have arise that whatever's on your mouth, it should be virtually liquid, because your mouth is where your digestion begins. You know, also human touch. So it can either be through massage or cuddle time, hugs, it also reduces cortisol. So, you have your hug buddies, have your friends that you can, you know, have that kind of time with, and touches great. So even making sure that you're having massage appointments, do those things to take care of yourself, it's really important to, to add that type of time in.

The next one is deep breathing. practice breathing. Most of us when we breathe, we don't even use our lungs. I noticed that even when people are working out, you know, they're doing high intensity workouts without even breathing. So they're passing out, they're falling on the ground. Because they haven't taken the time to breathe. They're holding their breath, their heart has to beat even harder, faster, even quicker, because their body is trying to get oxygen. So I always recommend practice deep, deep breathing. Now, don't practice deep breathing in a way where you aren't tracking it. I think when you're doing deep breathing, pay attention to it, to take notes about it. Keep a notebook for all the things that you're doing for yourself care, all the things that you're doing on a daily basis to reduce your stress. Make no mistake, doing these things on a daily basis will reduce your stress. We'll say that again. Doing these things on a daily basis will reduce your stress. Nice and deep, deep breaths, bring it all the way into the bottom of your lungs, you want to fill your entire lung up with air. No more shallow breathing. If you have a dog or a pet, oh my gosh, they're really great at reducing stress. So definitely, I wish I could have a pet and lost my dog but about four or five years ago, but unfortunately, I'm not home enough. Mmm spouse is not home enough to take care of a dog anymore. We kind of travel and we're doing a bit too much to have a dog. And it's one of the things I really miss having a pet. Because your pet you can cuddle with and you pet them and you're always with them and it releases oxytocin or oxytocin, which is a great hormone that impacts your mood. And so I really miss that. So the joy I get now, when it comes to pet time, is watching other people do it. And I do think there is a release. When we watch those pet videos. We do get some kind of release watching the funny cat videos. You know, I don't know I've haven't heard any studies yet. But, but hey, there may be an effect there. So don't hold me to that one. But I do realize too much social media time and too much screen time is contributing to our stress. So be careful what you're watching and what you're looking at on social media. Because that does impact your stress. If you're constantly in maybe political chat or watching our sometimes very polarizing news broadcast. That definitely is something you'd kind of want to do in moderation. So find things that when you watch them you feel really uplifted, your spirit feels uplifted. And that's The kind of thing that you want to watch and I can recommend a great show. Sunday mornings on CBS with Jane Polly. What's her name Jane Pauley Sunday mornings on seive on CBS, what I want to recommend you do is put it in your DVR and watch that show. I'm telling you, it is great for your spirit. Oh, and Oprah Show soul when is it so Sunday's another really great show that just takes all your energy of anxiety and stress and just kind of wipes it out. So those are really great shows, those shows where people are getting shot and killed all the time. Not really great for your spirit. You know, I noticed when I watch something like The Walking Dead, I finished that stuff really on a stress level, I feel the stress rise up inside of me and I'm like, oh, no, this I can't watch. I do enjoy it. But I realize it's going to impact my blood pressure, it's going to have me developing belly fat, it's going to have my cortisol, cortisol levels high and I understand now it could impact my teeth, my immune system and what COVID and all the it seems like new diseases coming onto the scene every day. The last thing we want to do is intentionally do things to impact your immune system. I like walking dead, but not quite that much. I don't want to be one of The Walking Dead. So thank you for listening to part two of how to deal with stress so that you can continue to be very successful with your workouts and your meal plan and getting the rest that you need and getting rid of that belly fat. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Your Health Moment. I'm Dr. Fitness and we will see you next week. 

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Your Health Moment. Learning what tools will help you to live a life you love is so important. And I encourage you to check out some of the other episodes. If you're ready to take the next step for your health. I'd love to have that conversation. Head over to wwwiamdrfitness.com or go to my Instagram @iamdrfitness and that spelled I am Dr. Fitness to get in touch with me and we will put together a plan that starts right where you are today. My name is Dr. Fitness. And I will see you next time on Your Health Moment.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai