7 Steps for Self-Care during Stressful Times
Having routines and rituals that soothe and calm the nervous system are essential. Having routines and rituals during a time of uncertainty is imperative for survival. Over the last 8 months, I have called upon all the training I have ever taken (yoga and its many facets of philosophy, meditation, mind based stress reduction, myofascial release, Reiki and Ayurveda) to induce a sense of calm in my world when the world around me has never been more unrestful. I have learned that long-term planning is truly a thing of the past for right now. Planning just a week in advance sometimes is sabotaged by the world events and those around me affected by this virus. News and world events can hijack each day and consume me if I allow it. Putting boundaries on the dose of news and social media one can handle has become the new form of self-care. It’s good to go day by day. It truly sets the tone for living in the here and now.
Self-care routines that renew my energy field have served me well during this time. I hope these tips help you create habits that equip you better to respond to stress in a healthy way. We all have stressors in our life, and there will always be new ones presenting themselves. No one lives a stress free life. Learning how to manage our stress response is key.
Breath work (pranayama) and mindfulness meditation are two tools that help start my day.
1) Upon waking, acknowledge your breath. Give thanks to a higher Being. Recognizing the importance of another day on this earth to do something good should begin with a moment of thanks.
2) Lay supine (on your back) practice somatic movement in bed with hands, fingers, wrists, ankles and toes. Gently start to move, pump, pulse (open and close palms, point and flex - feet) spiral your wrists and ankle joints. Rock your head side to side.
3) Have a glass of water before doing anything else. I prep this the night before. Place a carafe of water on your night table and drink at least 8-16oz upon getting up.
YL Vitality drops makes a glass of water turn into a boost of calm without chemicals, additives or harmful ingredients + electrolytes.
· Pro-tip: Try hydrating to a higher level by adding Vitality Drops to your water. Electrolytes aide in optimal body function increasing your body’s ability to absorb more nutrients, minerals and help with digestion. I use Young Living Lavender Lemonade Vitality Drops for a fresh exhilarating lemon and contrasting calming lavender flavor to my water each day. I look forward to drinking half my body weight in ounces the rest of the day with this beneficial formulation of naturally occurring electrolytes from the Great Salt Lake and lavender and lemon essential oils.
4) Sit on the edge of your bed, near the headboard or slide down the mattress to sit on the ground cross-legged. I wish I could remember who taught me this to give proper credit, but I think it’s a great tip for those who need to begin their day with a meditation and also happen to be one to hit the snooze button on their alarm or smartphone several times.
· Pro-tip: Go ahead and hit the snooze on your alarm, but instead of staying in bed, get up and utilize the snooze timer as your time spent in meditation. It is the perfect amount of time for a beginner to start a mindfulness practice and enough time for a seasoned meditator to begin the day with calm intention. Of course, the goal is to add time to the practice as you become more accustomed to sitting and learn the art of meditation by observing your mind and breath.
Bring awareness to your breath for several seconds. Do not try to change anything about this, just breathe, feel and notice.
5) Grab an essential oil to begin your meditation practice. Not all essential oils are created equal. In fact, regulation of this industry is not refined at all and many companies are getting away with selling products with very little of the essential oil in the bottle by adding fillers, additives, polymers and water to their products to make a greater profit. Do your research and select a company you trust. The research behind essential oil products is worth mentioning for the start of a meditation practice because of its ability to trigger memory in the limbic part of the brain. The olfactory nerve attached to our sense of smell is located in the brain that is in charge of our emotions. The mood changing ability these oils have can up-level our body frequency or help ground you when you are feeling out of control.
· Pro-tip: I reach for Young Living Essential Oil blends like Valor, KidPower, Stress Away, Peace & Calming, Magnify Your Purpose, Clarity, Abundance, Envision, Acceptance, Motivation along with Thieves for immune support when I need a mood alignment. Single oils like Frankincense or Lavender make a great choice to start off my breath practice as well. This practice has become even more important to me each day as a check - in since many of my family members have lost their sense of smell from contracting coronavirus. Allow 3 drops to fall from the bottle to the palm of your left hand. Rub your hands together in a circle to create friction and warmth, cup your hands over your nose without touching your face. Visualize a “scent tent” over your nose and with every breath you take, begin a journey noticing what mood boosting properties it employs.
Set intention for how you want your day to look and feel. Mantra (word, phrase or sound meant to be repeated to aid in concentration) like these can be powerful affirmations— I am ready, I feel good, I am calm, I am love. I am powerful. I am renewing my energetic field. I am functioning optimally. I have the power to shape my ideal reality. I create the life I desire with my good feelings. I am willing to be happy now.
Longer affirmation to try: Little by little, I can feel more and more throughout my day. Little by little, I can connect my head and my heart to attract more situations I desire.
Take 3 rounds of breath – inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your nose with your hands still cupped over your face. I invite you to explore how you like to do this practice --with your eyes closed or open. I currently like meditating with my eyes open because it helps me transition the practice into how I respond to situations in real life. Closing your eyes may help you feel the other senses of smell, sound, touch and taste takeover and may feel more grounding to you. Explore both ways.
Next couple of minutes: scan your body from feet to crown of the head. Notice where tension resides in the body and make a note of it.
6) Dive deeper into 3 part Yogic Breathing technique:
First, place a hand over your belly and slowly breathe into the belly. You should feel the belly expand with each breath in, deflate with each breath out. Practice this a few times breathing in through your nose and out through the nose. Next, place both hands a few inches up on each side of the bottom of rib cage. Focus the breath to go where both of your hands meet your ribs and feel the rib cage expand and contract on each breath cycle. Practice this for 3-5 rounds. Move the hands to just below the collarbones. Breathe deeply into this area of the body and imagine the chest expanding on inhale and contracting on exhale. Do this for 3-5 rounds.
Lastly, connect all three of these motions into one breath. Allow the hands to rest gently in your lap or on knees. Start the breath cycle by exhaling everything out. Inhale through the nose to fill the belly first, then lower rib cage and finally chest. Exhale the opposite direction, first emptying the chest, then the ribcage, and last the belly. Try lengthening the exhale with each round and expelling any remaining carbon dioxide before the next inhale. Practice several rounds until you feel the breath move freely and become fluid throughout the body. The goal is to reach 15-30 min daily. Make the time because the outcome of your day depends on how we attach intention and meaning to our life. Recheck-in to the areas of the body you felt tension in and observe what has changed.
My self- care routine includes making my bed next every day! I love the research surrounding this one daily habit and how its effect on productivity is worth noting. Writer Charles Duhigg explains in his best-selling book, The Power of Habit: “Making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget.” If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. Not to mention when we return to the bedroom to decompress at the end of a busy day, it is refreshing yet comforting at same time to walk into an orderly neat space. An instant calm. More on breath for sleep later.*
Get your body moving. As a Yoga Tune Up® teacher and Roll Model® Practitioner, I experience improved range of motion, neuromuscular benefits, self-myofascial release that maximize performance and reduces the risk of injury for myself and my clients. Breath has direct control over our nervous system which in turn affects the way our body responds to load under tension whether that be in a yoga class, weight-training, giving a presentation or cleaning and moving furniture around our home. (Admit it: you have spent more time in your living space than normal and cleaning, clearing your space by moving furniture in your home over the last several months has made a profound effect on your happiness…not to mention un-cluttered spaces to broadcast zoom calls from ;)
Choose a physical activity that can be sustained on a daily basis throughout a lifetime – yoga, walking and swimming are examples of sustainable exercise activities that can be done at any age. For general health, 150 minutes of exercise/week is suggested while 300 minutes at a moderate to high intensity 5 days/week is suggested for advanced health. Think 30-60 minutes/day of aerobic exercise 5-7 days/week and 30-60 minutes/day of strength and resistance training 3-5days/week.
If you are unsure where to start, visit my website to set up a complementary health and wellness consultation.
Sleep is often affected during stress filled times and no matter how hard we try for restful shut-eye, the thoughts racing through our mind keep us up at night. When it comes to mental health disorders most would agree there is a genetic component, but research by the National Institute of Health determined that these disorders may also develop from trauma. Let’s face it, this time has created trauma in the history of the world like no other in our lifetime. Sleep is the first thing to be disrupted due to this global pandemic infiltrating how every process we have had, come un-done. These turbulent times have left us examining our conscious and a repeated self-contemplative mood may be adding up to sleep deprivation. Along with many more hours of added Netflix binging. Some of us may have already been accustomed to this lifestyle before a global pandemic hit. ;) ;)
For optimal self-care to take place, as you start to curate a routine around waking up with mindfulness in mind, I suggest doing the same in preparing for a good night sleep.
Use these tips to create relaxation in your space. It will improve the quality of your sleep. The cycles of sleep control different functions of the body.
Deep sleep improves the function of all of your hormones -especially release of growth hormone which keeps us looking young (that saying “get your beauty rest” is real) and progesterone. During sleep cortisol, the stress hormone is normalized. Deep sleep helps in overall learning, tissue and muscle repair, inflammation reduction and building a strong immune system. T cells peak during sleep. Inadequate sleep is often associated with mood changes and depression. Sleep restocks cellular energy (glucose and glycogen stores).
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is noted as dream state. In this stage the regulation of pain perception (pain tolerance), memory integration, processing emotions, PTSD recovery and creative and problem solving is enhanced.
Creating a sleep schedule and staying consistent with it even on the weekends helps regulate the body’s natural ability to wake and sleep in a circadian rhythm that becomes an internal alarm clock.
Many of us have heard about how sleep is affected by blue light absorption. It delays our body’s natural ability to release melatonin. The eyes are taking in greater amounts of blue light as many school and work functions even our personal social lives have switch to additional screen time. The need for blue blocker eye-glasses and taking Vitamin A has never been more justified. This increase in screen time wreaks havoc on the nervous system and down-regulating may become increasingly difficult. Performance detriments to lack of sleep (6 hours of less) attributes to physical exhaustion, reduced aerobic output, strength, faster rates of lactic-acid buildup, reduced blood oxygen saturation and impairment in temperature regulation (cool down).
Your circadian rhythm can be managed more efficiently by trying these steps:
Environmental cues:
· Start dimming the lights around your living quarters 1-3 hours before bedtime.
· Reduce or eliminate screen time 1-3 hours before bed, try reading an old-fashioned book, not a kindle, tablet or device.
· Take a warm bath filled with Epsom salt and essential oils. Lavender , Palo Santo and Frankincense are three of my favorite bedtime choices.
· Make your room cold, set your thermostat between 62-68 degrees Fahrenheit.
· Sleep in a darken room.
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Emotional cues:
· Keep a journal next to your bed table along with that glass of water. Write down everything that is weighing heavily on your mind- ‘a brain dump’ so to speak onto the piece of paper. This habit creates a place for you to unload what is on your mind for the sole purpose of de-cluttering the brain so you can rest peacefully and have a fresh perspective to deal with difficult tasks in the morning.
· Take a moment to reflect on what you are grateful for. Start a gratitude practice and journal about blessings in your life (little or big. Research has shown that practicing this habit increases happiness and does not need to be done on the daily. Study shown just a few times a week journaling gratitude has a greater impact than every day.* The Science of Well-Being- Yale University
Nutritional cues:
· Talk to your health care practitioner about magnesium glycinate dosage level for you
· Reduce or eliminate caffeine consumption
· Stop using alcohol and marijuana which also cause fragmented sleep and blocks REM
· Lack of sleep effects weight loss/gain decreases hormonal concentrations of leptin (satiety) and increases hormonal concentrations of ghrelin (hunger)
· Reduces the activity in the prefrontal cortex that impairs judgment and decision making and increases the activity linked to deep brain structures like motivation and desire.
· Continual lack of sleep decreased fat loss and increased loss of lean body mass.
7) As you wind down for the evening here’s a breathing technique that is a wonderful choice for decompressing and sleep. It was introduced by Dr. Andrew Weil after his studied concluded that after 4 weeks participants noticed significant changes in sleep. The changes in physiology that occurred were heart rate lowers, elevated blood pressure returns to normal range, digestion improved and of course, sleep was less interrupted and for longer duration. It has been noted, this breathing technique is more powerful than prescribed anti-anxiety drugs. Discuss with your medical provider before discontinuing any medication. Breathing techniques are time and cost effective, can be used as a powerful normalizer before start of pre-training, pre-competition (game, exam or presentation).
Inhale for count of 4
Hold for count of 7
Exhale for count of 8 -- for no more than 4 rounds
After practicing for 2-3 months, increase to no more than 8 rounds. Concentrate on expelling as much carbon dioxide as you can during each exhale. Notice changes in fluxuation of the breath. Ask yourself these questions.
Is my breath jagged or shallow? Can I practice to achieve a full SELF (Slow, Even, Long, Full) breath cycle?
I hope this has been helpful and you can find yourself more at ease during these trying times.
Remember to love yourself first, then others. Taking care of you and your well-being is work. Do the best you can, be gracious with yourself. Provide opportunity and space for positive self-talk. Become your own expert and then share this with others and those you love!