How stress impacts your life & what you can do about it

Firstly, I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year. I’m a little late in wishing you that as I took an extended break over the Christmas holidays to spend time reflecting on everything that was 2020 and how I wanted to move forward as a Yoga teacher in 2021. I hope that you were able to relax and recharge too.

2020 changed our lives in so many ways and the one thing most people I’ve spoken to experienced was heightened levels of stress mostly brought about by uncertainty and an unpredictable future. So I’d like to speak about stress and the effect it can have on our health. I’d also like to offer one of the ways in which we can help reduce our stress levels too.

We all realise that stress is part of life but in our modern world our levels of stress are at an all time high. So, what is stress. It is the body’s response to physical, mental or emotional pressure. It can be sparked by an event our by our thoughts and can make you feel upset, angry, distracted etc. When we are stressed our ‘flight or fight’ response is activated- the Hypothalmus in your brain tells the adrenal glands to release the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol that increase heart rate, elevate blood pressure and quicken the pace of breathing.

Short term stress doesn’t pose a danger, for example, when we have a deadline to meet, but long term stress can affect our daily behaviour clouding our judgement or we might find ourselves drinking more, eating or smoking more. However, it is when the stress response doesn’t stop, which is very prevalent today that it can begin to take its toll on your health and overall well being. Every area of your life can become affected by stress leading to muscular tension, fatigue, irritability, digestive issues, hypertension, possible heart attack and stroke. It can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes and a weakened immune system leaving you more susceptible to viral illnesses such as flu.

So how can we effectively deal with stress in ways that help us feel resilient and help bring a feeling of balance and harmony into our lives. Being aware of our breath and breathing deeply is one of the best ways to lower stress in the body. Our breathing occurs naturally and often we don’t pay any attention to it at all, but when we choose to it can change everything.

When we consciously take control of our breath, we are taking control of our health too.

Mindful breathing can bring about a shift into the parasympathetic nervous system which in turn benefits our health, relieving the effects of stress and fatigue as cortisol levels drop, our heart rate slows down, aiding digestion, sleep, weight loss and helping to lower blood pressure, inflammation and other auto immune diseases. It helps to reduce anxiety, and can help those suffering from COPD and asthma.

There is a saying, “When you own your own breath no one can steal your peace.” I have found using daily breathing techniques so beneficial in my life.

Diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing is a breathing technique that helps us to disengage from distracting thoughts or sensations.

Take five & try this simple technique

Lie down in a comfortable position place a pillow under your head and under your knees. Try to keep your face, neck and shoulders relaxed.

Place one hand mid chest and the other on your abdomen.

To inhale, slowly breathe in through the nose, drawing breath into the abdomen, feel the abdomen rise under your hand, the chest remains still.

To exhale, let the abdomen move back towards the spine,
slightly tighten the abdominal muscles, while exhaling through pursed lips, again the chest stays still.

Try this for five minutes allowing your focus to be on your breath.

When you feel more practised this can be done both seated and standing.

I hope that you find this helpful. I do a breathing practice every morning before I start my day. I find that it helps me to feel present and grounded and that I can return to it throughout the day when in need. I use affirmations with my breathing too, for example, “Breathing in I am calm, breathing out I smile.”

I’ll be offering more tips for stress relief in the coming weeks. In the meantime you can connect with me on my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Flow-with-Grace-840331796331244

where I will be hosting a 40 minutes ‘Get set for sleep class’, consisting of restorative yoga poses to sooth the nervous system followed by a deeply nourishing yoga nidra meditation. If you are feeling stressed, burned out or looking for some relaxing yoga come and join me at 7pm 24th January live on Facebook.

Zoom classes begin back on 6th February and I hope that you’ll be joining me. These are slow flow restorative yoga classes for deep relaxation and stress relief. They can be booked individually or in blocks of five.

Weekly drop in

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5WND5XEYUHRSC

5 week block

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Z8J8HJPF2DFU2

Blessings…

Grace