Is stress something that you wish you had less of in your life?
No freakin’ kidding – right?
Most of us would answer, “Of course!” to that question these days.
But what I’ve found is that there are two different kinds of stress, and with both of them it’s not the stress that is neccessarily the problem, but how we RESPOND to the stress.
In fact, with the right tools we can learn to eat stress for breakfast.
And digest it well.
The first type of stress, which modern science is only just starting to understand, is the chronic stress that comes from our INTERNAL world – the thinking mind and old experiences that may be still held in our body-mind.
This kind of stress can be relentless until we learn how to repattern/rewire our nervous system and release past experiences that keep our body and nervous system believing we need to be in constant struggle for survival.
We’re going to be talking more about that kind of stress in several upcoming webinars we will be offering in March.
Another kind of stress comes from the EXTERNAL world.
This is the sh*t that just happens sometimes and we can’t really do much about.
It can also be the stress we create for ourselves by making certain choices, sometimes to take on projects that we actually feel really EXCITED about, and here is where POSITIVE stress comes in.
These past few months, I’ve been organizing a series of live mini-retreats in collaboration with my beloved partner (who you’ll get to meet soon!).
It has been SUCH an exhilarating and life-affirming experience to collaborate with someone I love and respect deeply, and it’s also been FULL ON!
Organizing live events is a TON of work. From booking venues to marketing to planning – it’s been pretty much non-stop for several months and lots of late nights/early mornings.
Now I’m sitting in a beautiful little cob studio at OUR Ecovillage in Shawnigan Lake, BC, getting ready to offer our third mini-retreat tomorrow.
Today we were at Stowell Lake Farm Retreat Centre, and on our way in between our two workshops I made you this short video where I share my 5 hottest tips for how to stay at the top of your game when life is INTENSE.
Often when life amps up – when we get really busy – we start to drop our self-care practices.
The truth is that it is at these times when self-care becomes absolutely critical.
Here are my top 5 Essential Stress Busting Self-care Tips:
- Get exercise. I love running so I run or play Ultimate Frisbee 3 times per week. Getting intense cardio (whatever that means for you – it could be walking for many people) 3x per week is so critical for our bodies to release excess cortisol and boost our endorphin levels. In simpler language, it makes you feel awesome.
- Eat healthy. If you don’t have time to make yourself super healthy food, find out where you can get fast easy super healthy premade food. The Whole Foods hot bar is great if you live in a city, and many places have smaller cafes or juice bars where you can get nutrient dense, energy rich foods. Take the time to map out these resources for yourself so that when life gets crazy you know where you can go for fast fuel.
- Sit. For real. Just sitting, whether it’s in bed morning & night for 2-5 minutes (seriously – 2 minutes am&pm can be a game-changer) or out in the forest listening to the birds in the morning, just SITTING and breathing and letting your mind unwind is a powerful practice and is a big part of why my ship doesn’t sink even when things get stressful.
- Then, move your body GENTLY. Some kind of daily or 3-5 times per week practice like yoga, intuitive dance or Qi Gong that gets you into and AWARE of how your body feels is so key. Feeling is healing. Taking the time to feel our bodies and the emotions that can otherwise get STUCK in them is another game -changing regular practice.
The main thing here is that you have some kind of daily self-care practices that bring you into connection with your own body, mind & spirit. We need to touch in regularly with ourselves and see what’s going on, otherwise we can forget who is driving the ship and we can end up in what feels like an out of control downspiral into addictive habits and patterns that don’t really ultimately serve us. Plus we end up feeling like crap.
Let stress be the thing that expands you rather than takes you out of the game. Get up earlier and take care of you.
Please comment below and let me know what you are committing to this week to shift your relationship with stress.
In love & light,
Josea
