Micro Doses of Stress

You may know that alongside owning a school of massage, I also taught stress management in industry for 20 years and still provide self care advice to the families I work with, who engage me to help them via www.stressedparent.co.uk I am a massive fan of the podcast and newsletters provided by Zoe the brain child of Dr Tim Spector who coincidently was on desert island discs recently on radio 4! (note to self:am I showing my age by my listening choices- a massjve yes!!) 

 Dr Rangan Chatterjee a tv doctor and author was recently  interviewed on the Zoe Podcast and spoke about micro doses of stress. 

Apparently it is not necessarily the big stressors that will affect our health, it is the zillions of little ones that add up day in day out. 

It is therefore vitally important that we do a stress detox to relieve ourselves from these micro doses, just a few minutes a day can really help. 

In a great book called Atomic Habits the author suggests attaching new habits to old ones. So for example we all wake up 365 days of the year, so attach a new habit like some breathing exercises to the habit of waking up or going to sleep. 

4,7.8 breathing is a good one: slowly breathe in from the abdomen in for 4, hold for 7, and breathe out for 8. Do this several times to calm the mind, reset the body and  release those micro doses of stress

Release those emotions

Life can wind up up and make out blood boil and then we take it out on loved ones. Instead, Scream into a pillow or whilst out driving with the windows closed or in the woods. Similarly life can be upsetting, so have a good cry and let the sadness out. 

Then play some uplifting music and have a dance. Movement engages both hemispheres of the brain, making us more rational and releases good uplifitng endorphins. Move in nature and you'll get a dose of phytocides too. natures antidepressants released by trees.

Enjoy!! 

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