The dramatic change in the way we live during this period of social distancing, together with worries about food supply, money, and the health of ourselves and our loved ones is very stressful. So this week, I want to look at how to improve our stress resilience, and by so doing, also support our immune function.
In this series of blogs, I aim to help you to feel more in control and have the tools you need to optimise your health.
I’d really like to know which areas you feel you’d like most help with. Please do email me with your questions and concerns and I will try to answer them or to point you to the right places if I don’t know the answers. And, of course, for more tailored nutrition and lifestyle advice, please get in touch to arrange an online consultation.
Improving stress resilience
We all know that stress is not good for us, but perhaps the exact extent of how widely and profoundly stress affects our health is not appreciated. Of particular relevance during the coronavirus pandemic is that prolonged stress affects the immune system: not only to make us more susceptible to infections but also to increase inflammation - and this inflammation in turn can affect our mood, digestion, heart health and worsen underlying health conditions.
I know that telling you that it’s important to reduce your stress for the benefit of your immune system is a lot easier to say than to do! Stress is unavoidable in life, particularly just now. Yet it’s also manageable. You can change how your body and mind responds to stress and this will have a huge impact on your resilience. You can stop the cycle of chronic stress and worry with small changes.
Things to do every day
Eat well: avoid sugary, high carbohydrate foods which make you feel good only temporarily but long-term will increase stress on your system. It’s tempting to treat yourself with biscuits, snacks and so on because of the unusual circumstances, but in reality, now is the best time to eat healthily.
Avoid relying on stimulants such as caffeine, cigarettes and alcohol to keep you going
Take some exercise, especially outside if you can, or do yoga, pilates, tai chi (there are lots of online classes available now). Avoid very intense exercise when you are under considerable stress. Exercise raises levels of feel-good hormones, reduces blood sugar and blood pressure, benefits your gut bacteria and aids good sleep.
Listen to music: and dance and/or sing along. Singing at the top of your voice really lowers stress hormones (do it in the shower if your family objects!).
Take 10 minutes to do a body scan: Sit or lie comfortably. Breathe deeply and slowly and check in with your body and notice if you are carrying tension: concentrate on relaxing tense muscles, working from the feet upwards, including especially tension in the forehead, mouth, neck and shoulders. Deep, slow breathing activates the calming systems of the body, it reassures the brain that there is no immediate danger and takes us out of fight-or-flight mode.
Be creative: drawing, painting, adult colouring, knitting or crochet, writing, crafting, building a model of the Titanic out of matches…whatever works for you.
Keep a daily journal of 3 positive things that have happened today: doing this at the end of the day before sleep is especially beneficial as we go to sleep in a positive mindset which increases the restorative functions of sleep. It doesn’t matter how small the positive things are…it is the process of thinking about what is positive in your life that brings the benefits.
Express gratitude to someone…send an unexpected email or message to someone thanking them for what they do/have done. This helps both you and them.
Laugh: find a funny movie, TV program, read a humorous book. Laughing releases natural calming brain chemicals.
Sleep well (this is big subject and I’ll be covering this in my next blog)
Things to do at least once a week
Contact friends and family by phone, zoom, skype, messenger or whatever your social platform.
Feast your eyes on something beautiful: art, landscape photography (several museums and galleries are offering free virtual tours; visit some photographers websites)
Practice visualisation of a favourite place: Imagine yourself in your favourite place, what can you see, smell, how do you feel?
Things to do when you need to
Cry. Crying and acknowledging that things are difficult is much better for our stress levels than bottling things up.
Accept that you are feeling stressed and anxious
Acknowledge that there are many things about this stressful situation that you can’t change, but that there are things you can control.
Use strategies to bring about immediate calm such as visualising your worries and concerns drifting away using the leaves on a stream exercise from my counsellor friend Isabel dos Santos, her calming voice is very soothing.
If you’re struggling with anxiety and stress at the moment and would like some help both with nutrition and counselling, Isabel and I are offering a joint package to support your physical and mental health. Get in touch to find out more.
There is also some excellent advice on looking after mental health on the NHS website here.