{HMW} Three stress-reduction tools to use today that can give you quick relief

Dear Reader,

While I don't hold the golden key to eliminating all stressors in life, I have done personal work around mitigating chronic stress and its affect on my body and on the health of my clients.

I want to share some of those strategies with you today because making stress reduction a priority along with finding ways to get in a parasympathetic response (a.k.a rest and digest) directly impacts your relationship with food and eating behaviors.

Before I go further, I'd love to hear from you.

Where on your body do you tend to experience stress? (for me it's my neck and shoulders).

Here are a few easy and accessible tools you can start using today:

1.Grounding, earthing or connecting with nature.

One thing that really helps me is to get outside, even if it's just on pavement and only for a few minutes. When my daughter was little, I had a baby whisperer come to our house during our daughter's typical "witching" hour where she wouldn't stop crying. The magic happened as soon as we stepped outside. My baby felt a cool breeze on her face her fussing stopped as soon as we changed the environment. It's amazing how simple and effective this strategy can be to turn off the stress chemistry in your body. Being in nature is ideal but even just enjoying a cup of tea on your deck can be effective.

2. Connecting to your senses

You can do this at home or while you're outside. One of the reasons we feel so "unmoored" when we're stressed or anxious is because we've dissociated a bit from ourselves and our bodies.

Try this simple strategy. Find 2 small things you can see, smell, touch, taste or hear and write them down. This will immediately get you more in the moment and deepen your mind/body connection to get to a place where you can deploy your other stress-relief strategies....such as...

3. Breathing techniques.

There are many and the good news is that these techniques work. They work because if your breath is shallow or fast, your brain sees that as the body being under a threat. Focusing on elongating the out breath in particular can let the brain know that you are safe and that you are ok.

Try the 4/7/8 breath (my favorite)

Breath in through your nose for a count of 4

Hold it for 7

Let the air out through your mouth for a count of 8.

Repeat this 4 times.

I've done this during stressful movies, when my teenager is driving (lol) and many other circumstances and it really helps!

I'd love to hear from you. What stress-reduction techniques really work for you?

Have it:

Interesting article alert: Why you need "type 2" fun for a fulfilling life

My brain has a hard time deciphering between what is important to hang on to and what is safe to let go of.

Anyone else struggle with this? 🖐

Anyway, because of this I tend to hang on to lots of things worried that I'll want to use it or will need it in the future. (pleading the fifth on whether or not I recently found a sesame oil bottle from 2019 in my pantry. 😬)

We were cleaning out some drawers and closets this weekend and I found these 12 free movie tickets and $100 gift certificate for sneakers! Neither of them has expiration dates - If you look closely, it was issued to me as a company holiday gift in..... 2009!

Maybe I'm crazy for saving all of these things but it's such a fun surprise and gift when something like this happens. It's the same dopamine hit that you get finding a $20 bill in the street.

Made it:

5-Senses Sunday

Took my first break after over 77 weeks of consistent 5-Senses Sunday articles. Posted one of my favorite poems instead.

Enjoy!

Speaking of stress....this is a vagus nerve activation toolkit that I created for a program I run. It covers some of the tools I shared at the beginning of this email. I hope you find it useful! (please make a copy of it so that you can type and interact with the document.)

Want it:

The ultimate foot rub

It's a bit pricier than what I would want to spend, but the yearly rate gives you over 160 lab tests that go beyond what would typically would be covered by medical insurance.

Ingredient Spotlight:

Smoked Paprika

Regular paprika is fine, great even. But its smoked paprika is the one that makes people ask what's in the dish.

Smoked paprika is made from peppers that are dried over smoldering oak, not just air dried, so the smoke gets into the pepper itself before it's ground. Smoked paprika brings actual depth: a little sweet, a little earthy, with a smokiness that reads as savory rather than sharp.
Paprika is made from capsicum peppers, which contain compounds studied for their effects on metabolism and inflammation.

✅ Ways to use it:

Stirred into olive oil and drizzled over roasted vegetables or hummus

Rubbed on tofu chicken before pan-searing for a smoky crust

Added to a pot of beans or lentils in the last 10 minutes of cooking

Whisked into a vinaigrette with lemon and garlic

>>>> Recipe inspiration featuring smoked paprika

Announcements & Upcoming:

August Collaboration Highlights:

What's for Dinner Summit - Opens for registration on August 3rd

Back to Calm Bundle - opens on August 21st

Crush It at Work & School Summit - Goes live on August 30th

Coming soon from me!