Feeling like you need a little LIFT after the holidays?
To deal with the everyday stressors of life in a balanced way we need to maintain a healthy lifestyle that will release more feel-good chemicals such as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. These chemicals help us to relax and enable us to deal with difficult people, challenges at work, conflicts in relationships, traffic jams, etc.
Ongoing stress activates the fight-or-flight response in our nervous system. This produces cortisol and other stress hormones. That's great if you are being chased by a cougar and need a quick burst of adrenaline to leap over a fence and escape. But, on a day-to-day basis, it is not good to continually overproduce high levels of cortisol. Too much cortisol can disrupt our body's processes and systems. It can make us moody, agitated, depressed, or short-tempered, among other things.
The Mayo Clinic explains it like this: "Your brain comes hardwired with an alarm system for your protection. When your brain perceives a threat, your body releases a burst of hormones to fuel your fight-or-flight response. When the threat is gone, your body returns to normal. Unfortunately, the nonstop stress of modern life means your alarm system rarely shuts off."
So how do we compensate?
10 WAYS TO ELEVATE
• Get plenty of sleep - at least 7 hours each night.
• Decrease processed foods and refined sugars, increase plants and probiotics.
• Exercise 30 minutes/day to get the heart rate up.
• Practice relaxation techniques such as breathwork, mindfulness, & meditation.
• Unplug and spend time in nature.
• Cultivate your faith and renew your mind.
• Take time for hobbies such as reading a book or listening to music.
• Spend time with good friends and in healthy community.
• Smile and laugh - - even when there are no jokes!
• Give, serve, & volunteer.
The rewards for ELEVATING your nervous system's chemistry are increased peace, added patience, better health, and a longer, happier, more JOY filled life!
Need help integrating some of these healthy habits into your daily routine? The 2020 Vision Planner is chock full of science-backed prompts to help you cast a vision and stay on track all year. You can grab it on Amazon.
• Decrease processed foods and refined sugars, increase plants and probiotics.
• Exercise 30 minutes/day to get the heart rate up.
• Practice relaxation techniques such as breathwork, mindfulness, & meditation.
• Unplug and spend time in nature.
• Cultivate your faith and renew your mind.
• Take time for hobbies such as reading a book or listening to music.
• Spend time with good friends and in healthy community.
• Smile and laugh - - even when there are no jokes!
• Give, serve, & volunteer.
The rewards for ELEVATING your nervous system's chemistry are increased peace, added patience, better health, and a longer, happier, more JOY filled life!
Need help integrating some of these healthy habits into your daily routine? The 2020 Vision Planner is chock full of science-backed prompts to help you cast a vision and stay on track all year. You can grab it on Amazon.
Wishing you much joy, health, and happiness!
XO
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