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Stress is inevitable, right? It's true, we all have stress. Whether it's daily chores to keep your house in order, work pressure, health issues, or a number of other reasons. Life will never be perfect, so it's important to provide our bodies and minds with whole foods and healthy ways to cope with stress.
Dealing with stress is half the solution.
Most of us try to deal with it by using unhealthy habits such as smoking, drinking, eating, or having a sedentary lifestyle. These habits might temporarily make you feel better, but they only worsen the problem in the long run.
Why Do You Need to Manage Your Stress?
If you don’t manage your stress in a healthy way, it can cause many others things to be out of whack as well. For example, stress can affect our cortisol levels, Your cortisol helps with our immune function, maintaining our blood pressure, anti-inflammatory responses, and much more.
If you have too much stress in your life and don’t know how to manage it, your cortisol gets messed up which can also affect your melatonin. This can cause fatigue in the morning, mid-day slumps, and the wired but tired feeling at night.
Do you feel like you have a hard time falling asleep or waking up throughout the night? This could be caused by stress.
I could go and on about how stress affects our health but the biggest overarching theme is this:
STRESS = DISEASE
That sounds harsh, but unfortunately, it’s true.
Foods to Eat For Stress
That’s right, there are foods to eat for stress. This doesn’t particularly mean foods to eat WHEN you’re stressed (although you can), these are foods to eat to help manage your stress responses.
Healthy fats: extra virgin olive oil, nuts & seeds, avocados, salmon, coconut
Leafy greens: spinach, arugula, chard, kale
Vitamin B foods: grass-fed meat, lentils, asparagus, brussels sprouts
Magnesium-rich foods: dark chocolate/cacao, pumpkin seeds, bananas, whole grains
You might be thinking, how can these foods help me manage my stress response? It’s because these foods help balance your hormones, which in turn helps your body respond to stressors better.
Healthy Ways to Manage Stress
- Go for a walk or any kind of movement - this will help you relax your mind and focus on something else
- Nature - go hiking, swimming, paddle boarding, anything that can connect you to the earth. The negative ions in the earth connect us to nature's natural healing energy. I know, this sounds crazy, but it’s true. But it will help you reduce your stress.
- Journaling - writing out what you're stressed about can help release its power over you. This can help you to slow down and organize your thoughts to give you more clarity on what’s stressing you out.
- Praying - one of my favorite ways to reduce stress is praying and giving all my worries and anxieties to God. This releases control and reminds you that God is greater than my problems.
- Talk to a friend, family member, or therapist - sometimes all we need is to vent a little to someone else. This allows us to get feedback from someone else about the situation and can allow you to 1) feel better from getting it off your chest and 2) see your situation from a different point of view.
Changing your Mindset Around Stress
Believe it or not, there is such a thing as "healthy stress." Healthy stress is when you feel excited, which can also look like adrenaline. It can help motivate you to perform better.
Yes, there are foods you can eat and healthy ways you can manage your stress, but changing your mindset around stress can be the ultimate game-changer. For me, this is where faith comes into the picture. When you’re feeling stressed, you need to ask yourself “does this really matter?”
There is definitely a time and a place where real stress is present. It’s the daily “stressors” in life that get us. But, let’s not let those little stressors ruin your health.
My biggest tip for changing your mindset around stress is: MEDITATION
You’re probably thinking “absolutely not.” I know, I know. The first time I tried to meditate, it was an absolute joke and I did not like it.
I tried it again a couple of months later with a little bit more determination, and have finally found a routine that works for me. Notice how I said, “works for me.” That’s because your meditation practice will be YOURS.
There were so many books, articles, you name it that talked about meditating for 40 minutes. 40 MiNuTeS! I thought, yeah this might not be for me. But then I did some more research and realized you can do it for however long you like.
This I liked. So I started off with 2 minutes, then went to 5 minutes, and now strive for 5-10 minutes. And let me tell you, it’s great. This is probably the number one thing that has helped me take back control of my nervous system, helping with stress and so many other things as well.
I know it seems like a really scary thing at first, but there are so many YouTube videos, meditation apps, books, etc. that you can use as resources. I love the book Total Meditation by Deepak Chopra and the Calm app.
Want to know what the best part about all these tips is?
THEY’RE FREE! So don’t come at me saying living a healthy lifestyle is expensive because this just proves that it is not.
All of these tips will help make you healthier, happier, and better equipped to manage your stress when it comes along because it will. There is no reason to look to unhealthy habits to help us cope with our stress.
Find what works for you!
