How to Expand the Calm - Emma Hickey, Naturopath
The Christmas Period can be busy, stressful, fun, enjoyable, or even a sad time for some. Resident Naturopath, Emma Hickey provides some pointers on managing the silly season and expanding your calm…
Your yoga practice might be your way of leaving the chaos and worries of your life for a while so that you can return to feeling relaxed, grounded and whole. By the end of each class, you feel buoyant, serene and able to handle just about everything. Then you are thrown back into regular life – the bustle of cars and people outside on the street, an overflowing email inbox, a stressful message from a friend, a crying toddler. How can we hold onto that feeling of calm and allow it to permeate more of our day?
1. Keep breathing!
Breathing is integral to the practice of yoga, but try to be mindful of your breathing throughout the rest of the day too. Linda Stone, a former executive at Apple, coined the term “email apnea” which describes our tendency to stop breathing or to take very shallow breaths while reading emails or while completing other work on our devices. Shallow breathing can happen when we feel overwhelmed or even if we are just concentrating really hard. When we are breathing shallowly, we are communicating to our nervous system that we are under threat, and regardless of whether we are in danger or not, our body starts to coordinate some level of a stress response.
Anytime you find yourself feeling stressed, or whenever you think of it, check in with your breath – lengthen and deepen it if you need to. To lift my spirits, I really like to visualise sending my breath into my heart as I inhale; to enhance this, you can put your hand over your heart, and maybe close your eyes. After a few breaths like this, I always feel more at peace. It takes you out of your head, where all of the worries live, and into your body, which is steady and stable and always there for you.
2. Have a tea ritual
A ritual around preparing and drinking a cup of tea can be very therapeutic. Make this time all about nourishing you, not just physically but also at the level of your soul too. During the time it takes for the water to boil and for your teabag or loose herbs to steep: put on some music you enjoy; take some deeeep belly breaths; do some gentle stretching; write down some thoughts in a journal. Keep this newfound peaceful state of being while you curl up in a comfy chair and savour each sip of your tea.
Teas such as chamomile, lavender, holy basil, rose, passionflower and skullcap are great for helping to calm our nervous system, relax our muscles and ease tension throughout our body.
3. Get out in nature
Most of us notice that we feel better after being outside. Focus on the sensations of the fresh air, the sun on your skin, the sound of birds singing. Research has shown that being in nature significantly reduces stress hormones and improves our mood. For best results, I recommend aiming for chunks of time outside throughout each day. Plus, if you exercise while you are outdoors, your body produces feel-good chemicals called endorphins which further improve mood and help keep stress levels down even after your stint of exercise is over.
4. Prioritise sleep
Even one night of poor sleep will result in more stress hormones in our system the next day. This will then play havoc with our mood, antioxidant status, inflammation, hunger cues, blood sugar and much more. Over time, chronic poor sleep will affect all of our body’s functions. Give yourself the best possible chance of feeling centred, strong and ready to take on the day by setting aside 9 hours to unwind, rest, sleep and slowly awake in the morning.
5. Stabilise your blood sugar
When we consume large amounts of sugars and refined carbohydrates, our blood sugar level spikes rapidly and then plummets rapidly. Our body releases cortisol, one of our stress hormones, both when our blood sugar is too high and when it is too low. This cortisol in our bloodstream is in addition to the cortisol we release when we feel stressed. This means that keeping your blood sugar at a steady medium reduces the extra cortisol output and thus reduces your body’s overall exposure to this stress hormone.
So how can you keep your blood sugar stable? Minimise your intake of refined carbohydrates like white breads, pastas and sweet treats; ensure that each meal contains a good amount of protein, fat and fibre; and don’t let yourself feel famished between meals – a bit of hunger is good and healthy, but your body likes predictability, and going too long without sustenance is seen as stressful and will start you on that blood sugar rollercoaster.
6. Set boundaries
Minimise overwhelm and therefore stress by setting boundaries around the amount of work you take on, the people you spend your time with and the type of behaviour you are willing to accept from others. Say no to things that will make you feel stressed. Ask for help when you need it. In our society we have been conditioned to believe that we always need to be doing more and achieving more – when really, we need to ensure we carve out enough time to rest, relax and rejuvenate. Do not feel bad for saying no when you already feel overstretched.
7. Clean the clutter
Living in a cluttered environment has been identified as a source of stress, and is associated with higher cortisol levels. For some of us, the feeling is palpable: our mounds of belongings and stacks of papers cause us frustration, or remind us of unfinished projects and other things we need to do, yet may be avoiding because they are unpleasant or time-consuming. Do yourself a favour and prioritise getting things in order! Ensure your home and workspace are places that you enjoy spending time rather than making you cringe when you lay eyes on them.
8. An acceptance mindset
The advice to “just be positive” or “stay calm” is not usually helpful. What can be helpful, albeit difficult to take on board, is the advice to accept what you cannot change. We spend so much energy resisting situations in our life, trying to force them to be different, and then we feel stressed when they are not as we would like them to be. Instead, we can acknowledge what it is we are feeling, what we are scared of, what we are nervous about … and then focus on what we can control – our own beliefs and responses to situations. If we choose to look for the lessons within our challenges, they instantly become less scary, and actually provide us with a feeling of empowerment.
Everyone’s experience of life is different and stress affects us in different ways, so we will each benefit from cultivating calm in different ways. Work on integrating one tip at a time to better withstand the daily situations you experience, and know that there are many other options too. A naturopath can help uncover your body’s own specific needs and assist in recovering your wellbeing by using personalised dietary advice, nutritional supplementation, herbal medicine and lifestyle guidance to support the health of your nervous system and bolster your ability to respond to stress. Get in touch if this is something you would like assistance with.
Emma is hosting appointments online until the end of January and will join us face to face from February 2024.