Headaches and heart palpitations and nail biting – oh my! We can’t stress enough how much we despise stress! But we’ve all been there – most of us more often than we like to. And while summertime generally brings more time for rest and relaxation for many people, traveling and traffic and altered schedules can irritate our nervous systems amongst a myriad of personal circumstances we cope with on a daily basis.

Understanding Our Bodies’ Stress Response

We are aware of stress because we know how it makes us feel:  sweaty palms, restlessness, stomach cramping, sensations of hunger or nausea, fatigue, heightened emotion, heart fluttering and general agitation.

But, to help manage these uncomfortable symptoms caused by emotional distress, we need to answer this question: What exactly IS stress?

When a physical or psychological stimuli upsets us, a part of our brain called the amygdala – which processes emotion – sends a signal to another part of our brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus functions as a sort of command center by controlling involuntary functions of our body like our heartbeat, pupil dilation, breathing and blood pressure amongst other duties.

The hypothalamus communicates with our adrenal glands – which sit atop our kidneys in our midsection – and trigger the release of epinephrine into our bloodstream. Epinephrine is a powerful hormone more commonly known as “adrenaline” that brings about a number of physiological changes immediately.  Our heart begins beating faster, increasing our pulse rate and blood pressure along with our breathing pattern.  Faster breathing leads to increased oxygen delivery to the brain, making us feel extremely alert. And all of this happens before we are even able to process what’s going on.

If the stimulus is chronic, the hypothalamus directs the adrenal glands to steadily release yet another hormone called cortisol, keeping the body in a near constant state of high alert that is not appropriate and less-than-comfortable for daily life. If untreated, it can interfere with our sleep quality, digestion, and mental cognition, negatively impacting our work or school performance, physical fitness and relationships with others.

STRESS STINKS!

Luckily, there is a lot that we can do to prevent and treat it.  So much, actually, that we could spend a whole summer (or maybe a lifetime!) covering options.  But to make the greatest impact this summer, we’ll focus on covering a lot of the basic options.

Prevention

Prevention is key, so let’s start with that. The key here is to change our mindset about stress.  Think of it this way:

• To stay in shape, we monitor our diet and exercise.
• To keep up with our hygiene, we bathe and tame our hair. 
• To maintain good oral cleanliness, we brush our teeth, floss and rinse.
• To keep stress levels in check, we need to use certain tools to care for our nervous systems.

With this in mind, here are some tools to add to your Stress-Less toolkit:

1. Eat Healthy Meals: Eating nutrient-dense, low sugar meals and snacks every few hours can keep your blood glucose levels consistent and minimize adrenal reaction that can contribute to your stress reactions. Limit alcohol and caffeine as well, as these further contribute to negative fluctuations.
2. Exercise: Exercise is critical for improving your cardiovascular health so that stress doesn’t wreak its havoc. Cardiovascular exercises (i.e. running and swimming) promote the release of feel-good brain chemicals that can counteract stress.
3. Just Say “No!”: It is important to recognize you’re overloaded BEFORE you get overloaded. Block rest and relaxation time into your schedule so that it doesn’t get skipped. Just as you would with showering and brushing your teeth, give yourself some time to quiet your mind with a good book, a refreshing nap, a soothing cup of tea or a walk with your dog.
4. Maintain a Spiritual Practice: Harvard-educated cardiologist, Dr. Herbert Benson pioneered the study of the relationship between spirituality and health. His research tells us that spiritual practices like meditation or prayer improve health. Focus on gratitude and stillness over some quiet time each day.

Management

It’s impossible to eliminate stress completely – and some may argue that some forms of stress are positive influences on our lives, keeping us on our toes – but when stress becomes overwhelming, we need some powerful reduction solutions and techniques.

1. Just Breathe: Take note of your breathing. If you’re experiencing stress, your breathing could be more shallow or more rapid than normal. Try Dr. Weil’s suggested breathing exercise for support, 4-7-8 Breathing.
2. Seek Social Support: Friends, family, mental health practitioners, support groups and community groups can all provide a simple but powerful solution to stress.  Releasing tension by talking through conflicts is very effective.
3. Journal It Out: It can also be helpful to jot down your worries, concerns and negative emotion regularly to release the weight of those feelings that you are carrying around. Save your entries in a bound diary or rip each one up after writing it, to symbolically “release” the stress.
4. Take a Technology Time-Out: Many of us spend a considerable amount of time on our phones, our computers and watching our televisions every day.  While much of this time is spent doing work, a lot of it is also recreational. These devices can overstimulate our brains and contribute to our feelings of burn-out. Try spending one day a week or one weekend a month without using technology. 
5. Get Quality sleep: We’ve all heard it before: 7-8 hours of sleep minimum per night. It is so critical for our emotional resiliency. Sleep gives our brains a chance to repair themselves and gives our bodies the much needed rejuvenation from any physical stress we’ve endured during the day. If falling or staying asleep is a problem for you, seek out natural support (we’ve got plenty of options at Basil Bandwagon – just ask a team member!).
6. Turn to Alternative Therapies: Massage, reiki, acupuncture, reflexology, aromatherapy – these are just some of the options out there in the world of alternative therapies for stress management. Different therapies work better for different people. Find out what works for you and schedule appointments regularly for prevention and reactively in times of high stress.
7. Supplement Wisely:  There are SO many different products available to help manage stress. A few of our favorites include:

• Omega 3’s:  These play an important role in brain function and mood.
• B Vitamins: Deficiency of B Vitamins can cause impaired brain function and mood.
• Magnesium:  Lack of magnesium may cause irregular overexcited nervous system function.
• Curcumin: The active constituent of our beloved spice, turmeric,  has been found to reverse negative behavioral patterns and reduce  elevated cortisol levels.
• Herbs: passionflower, chamomile, hops, skullcap, St. John’s Wort, valerian root, kava, astragalus, rhodiola, ashwaghanda, holy basil – there are so many herbal solutions for managing stress, depending on your specific symptoms. Some help address sleeplessness, others promote positive mood along with stress reduction, and yet others focus on adrenal support for healthy stress reactions.
• GABA: Gamma aminobutyric acid is our nervous system’s most important inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning it helps to calm the brain’s activity. Other amino acids like L-theanine, l-tryptophan and l-tyrosine can help our bodies better cope with stress as well.

If you haven’t joined our Online Summer Camp yet, then you are missing out on Coupons, printable lists, recipes, etc! Where can you sign up? Well, right HERE, of course!

References

www.health.harvard.edu – Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School

www.drweil.com – Dr. Andrew Weil

www.kripalu.com – Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health

www.bensonhenryinstitute.org – Dr. Herbert Benson, MD

www.psychologytoday.com – Psychology Today’s Evolutionary Psychiatry Blog

www.huffingtonpost.ca – “Six Ways Curcumin Can Help You Sleep More and Stress Less”