Let’s face it, we are all stressed.

Some of us more so than others.

Everything about our modern lives is stressful; from the technology we are constantly in front of, the food we eat that is devoid of nutrients, to the lighting we sit under for 23 out of 24 hours each and every day. These are all a ‘stress’ on our bodies and they lead to us feeling stressed out.

Stress is overwhelming to the body. It becomes all-consuming and it starves us from any joy we may have in our lives, as there is always that voice in the back ground saying, “but what about this, or what about that!”.

Stress is a silent killer, it sneaks up on the unsuspecting and bowls you for a six!

Some people don’t even realise they are stressed, they are so deep down the rabbit hole they are in pure survival mode and don’t see the stress as anything more than life.

For me my health played a massive part in my stress. I wasn’t taking care of myself properly, I was eating lots of sugar, refined carbs and very little vegetables. I was sleeping odd hours due to shift work and eating at all hours of the day and night, I wasn’t moving my body nearly half as much as I should have been, and I was using toxic products on my skin in the form of body washes, deodorants, and makeup.

This all would have been “manageable” had I not had a massive hormonal imbalance (read about that here) knock me down. This exasperated the inevitable end-result which was me developing Moderate Adrenal Fatigue.

In your body there are two little glands that sit above your kidneys called your adrenals. The adrenals may be small, but they are responsible for some pretty hefty work that goes down in your body. The adrenals are in charge of producing Cortisol, Adrenalin, Noradrenalin, and Aldosterone. These are all super important hormones that help to regulate your bodies response to stress.

Adrenal fatigue can develop when your body has been dealing with stress for a prolonged period of time and the adrenal glands have been over worked, to the point where they can’t keep up with the demand. Symptoms can include fatigue, depression, anxiety, low blood pressure, and an inability to fall asleep at night even though you are exhausted. An oxymoron if ever I did see one!

Everyone who develops adrenal fatigue experiences it differently, this is because we are all individuals with unique body types, unique genes, and unique stressor’s. However, the physiology is the same: fatigued adrenals, not enough/too much/wrong timing of released stress hormones leads to an inability to manage stress. 

In my case, I was constantly exhausted, especially in the mornings. I could have slept for 12 hours and still feel like I needed another 5. Yet when it was time for bed at night, I would lie there unable to fall asleep for a good hour or two. I also felt very low and was told I had clinical depression.

To turn this all around I had to literally stop, rest, change my diet, take restorative supplements and work on myself to heal.

To de-stress in a world that is constantly overloading us with information, deadlines, demands, toxins, and STRESS, we have to disconnect from it all, so we can reconnect to ourselves.

In the 1980’s the Japanese Government introduced a program called Forest Bathing. This was a preventative measure to help the people of Japan de-stress. Forest Bathing is simple and its effective.

To Forest Bath you simply take a leisurely stroll through the forest or spend some time sitting under a tree; reading, relaxing, or having a picnic. Forest bathing is nothing strenuous, you aren’t counting your steps, raising your heart rate, or actively trying to achieve anything – you are just being at one with nature.

Nature is restorative and healing for even the most stresses out of us. It helps us tune out from our to-do lists and our phones and helps us relax. Having sunshine on our skin, fresh air in our lungs and nature all around us is powerful. The healing power of nature is an important piece of the puzzle on the journey back to health when you hit rock bottom and your stress is too high and out of control.

I love being in nature, its my happy place. When I have had a bad day, week, or month, I go for a walk in the bush and it calms my soul.

You can even take it a step further and try something called grounding. Grounding is simple: you take your shoes and socks off and stand barefoot on the earth. We are built on electricity, we can see this in our bodies with the positive and negative charged molecules that make up our cells. These are the Electrons (negative), Protons (positive) and Neutrons (neutral) that each and every molecule contains, and which make up every substance in the universe.  The surface of the earth has a negative charge making it electron rich. When we stand barefoot on the earth it is thought we act as a conductor for the electrons which travel into our bodies and neutralize the Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), free radicals that develop in our stressed-out bodies. [1]

So, find a bit of grass, get those little piggy’s out and let the flow of electrons in! It only takes 10 mins for you to do, but obviously the longer you do it the higher the benefit will be! Plus, IT’S FREE!

We can’t always remove each and every stressful thing from our lives, but we can implement protective strategies to help us deal with the stress.

Eat fresh whole food, drink clean fresh water, move your body as often as you can, and get out into nature! Simple!

Listen to your body, attune your senses inwards. You know what you need, you just have to quieten down the noise and listen to your soul speak.

 

SA xxx