Stress

I don’t like to spend lots of time thinking about what to eat.  Yet, this summer I had to do just that, almost every meal.  We had some family members from Taiwan visiting us, some staying for 2 weeks, some, 2 months.  At one point, we had a total of 11 people in our house.  During this whole time, I still needed to maintain my daily 4 hours of work and started preparing for the volunteer work I did at my girls’ school.  I was stressed out most of the time.  Sometimes if the caffeine in my morning tea was a bit higher than usual, I would start to feel panic.  Whenever I thought about having 11 people in my house and I have to figure out what to eat, my heart raced and I felt a heavy weight in my stomach.

 

One day after a particularly hectic morning, when I finally got everything done, sitting in front of the computer with my lunch (so I can finish my work), I was flustered and feeling frustrated.  I didn’t feel hungry at all.  I knew that if I didn’t deal with my emotions, I would have headache and indigestion later.  Then I remember something I heard from one of Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo’s webinars.  I made a cup of Holy Basil (Tulsi) tea and while sipping it, I talked to myself, “I’m eating this food that will help me, it will calm my mind.  It’s beneficial to my health and I am grateful to drink it”.  Little by little, my heart rate went down and the knot in my stomach loosened.  I felt calm and peaceful.

 

Stress is a silent killer.  It will gradually increase your waistline (yes, believe it or not) and make you more susceptible to all kinds of illness.  When you are stressed out, your body responds by releasing the adrenal and cortisol, which will result in increasing the sugar circulating in your blood.  It was to prepare your body to physically run away from the danger but nowadays there is no physical danger for us to run away.  Instead of moving around, we tend to sit down and worry ourselves sick.  The only things that are racing are our heart and the sugar in our blood.  So here is the action plan that I have when I’m stressed out,

 

(1) Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also called tapping—whenever I feel restless or panicky, I would do some tapping.  This is a technique combining the knowledge of Chinese acupuncture and modern psychology.  It’s easy, free, and you can do it any time and anywhere.  I love the quietness and the crisp smell of nighttime so at the end of a stressful day, I usually go to our backyard, take several deep breaths, do a few rounds of tapping and some positive self talk.  If you are interested in learning EFT, please click here for more information, http://www.thetappingsolution.com/

(2) Moving around or exercise—If I start to feel the effect of stress, I get up, move around, or do some quick exercise, such as, running in place, yoga stretching, or simple body weight exercise.  All I need is a yoga mat and some short breaks.  After that, not only do I feel better (because exercise releases serotonin, the feel good hormone), I probably wouldn’t feel much headache or indigestion, my usual symptoms of being stressed out.

(3) Drinking the Holy basil tea—Holy basil is a type of adaptogens, which work with your body to bring it back to balance, http://renegadehealth.com/blog/2011/05/20/holy-basil-my-number-one-ace-in-the-hand-herb.  There are many brands of Holy basil or Tulsi extract but my favorite is from Renegade Health website, http://store.renegadehealth.com/Raw-Foods-Superfoods/Kev-s-Super-Nutritious-Holy-Basil-Tulsi-4oz-p480.html

(4) The power of appreciation—The happiest person on earth is the person who is grateful and appreciates what he/she has at the moment.  I wasn’t born a “bubbly person” but I tried to stay positive and count my blessings every day.  Not only does this help brighten my days but it also brings positive energy from outside, which is what the law of attraction talks about.  At times of stress, I would sip Holy Basil tea, taking deep breath, while thinking about how the tea is calming my mind and how grateful I am to have the knowledge to deal with stress and to experience this calming effect.

(5) Yoga—I love doing yoga and it’s the only sports that I’m good at (if you can count it as sports).  Because of yoga, my back pain disappeared and my belly no longer looks like 6-month pregnant.  After practicing with several teachers in a variety of studios for 5 years, I bought a few Yoga DVDs and started doing it at home regularly.  These are the DVDs that have 20-minute sets of yoga practice so I can do it every other day or everyday.  If you are new to yoga, it’s better to start your practice with a teacher.  There are some nuances in yoga poses that a beginner can’t pick up from just watching the DVD.

 

What are your strategies in dealing with stress?  Please share down below.

P.S. Please note that I don’t receive any financial incentive by referring you to any of the websites mentioned above.  The reason that I refer you to their sites is simply that they are where I got my information.