I want you to protect and support your levels of stress. Stress is a major, major key part of what causes PMS, anxiety, irregular periods, and heavy periods. All of those period problems, stress is actually a really big part of the piece. If you don't know how to manage your stress levels, then you might find yourself dealing with all of those PMS symptoms, all of those hormone imbalances. The stress hormone is actually called cortisol and there are many things that we can do to keep our cortisol levels optimized and balanced.
What happens is, we spend so much of our time in this kind of foveal vision, and that puts us in a fight or flight response. When you're in a foveal vision, you are literally just looking straight ahead. You are literally just tuned into what is going on straight ahead of you and it actually changes the way that you breathe as well. You start breathing more from your chest instead of down from your belly.
Actually do this now with me. I want you to take a deep breath in from your belly, I'm going to do it with you and a long breath out through your mouth. Now to actually increase the effectiveness of this type of breathing, you can actually hold your breath or breathe in, sorry, hold your breath. Breathe in for four seconds. Hold your breath for four seconds and release it for four seconds. This is going to put your body into a parasympathetic state, it's going to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, and how you know that you are in your parasympathetic nervous system is because you feel peaceful. It's all about peace.
What can you do to protect your peace and reduce your stress?
Start by limiting the amount of news that you're taking in.
There's a lot of shit that's going on on the internet right now. A lot! Some from unreliable sources and it's spreading like wildfire. What's happening is it's creating a lot of fear and panic. What happens when you go into that fear and panic state, your stress levels go up. When your stress levels go up, it's putting you in a danger zone. You are not keeping your vitality, you are letting your river run dry. Start by limiting the amount of news you take in. What I found to be useful is not checking the news first thing in the morning, obviously, I want to stay a bit informed. I want to know what's going on. We all do but I'm not checking the news first thing in the morning because what I've found from past experience last week, was going through the news or Instagram, and checking what's going on puts them on a back foot. It just takes away too much of my mental bandwidth, that bandwidth, which is what I need to protect and respect myself. What's really helpful as well is if you give yourself time throughout the day where you give yourself blocks in the day, where you're just going to check the news. So maybe 10 minutes in the afternoon or 10 minutes at six o'clock, and maybe the last 10 minutes at eight, but giving yourself little breaks just to check and don't go over it. Don't go into that whole vortex of oh my god and then this led to this and then this led to this. There's no need, you're disrespecting your body.
2. Move your body first thing in the morning.
I actually picked this up from reading the 5 am Club by Robin Sharma. Excellent book if you haven't read this, but moving your body first thing in the morning and I'm not saying go for 45 minutes, hour and a half, whatever it is that you do. 20 minutes in your living room, keep it moving, boom, you're done. Move your body first thing in the morning because what's that actually going to do is you're going to start releasing serotonin and dopamine, which triggers those neurotransmitters that make you improve your cognitive function and also, it's going to help you with your productivity and your perspective of how you're viewing your day.
3. Have more sex.
If you have a partner, if you don't have a partner, to have more sex, have an orgasm, have an orgasm to release. That overwhelming sensation of stress. Simple but yet effective.
4. Pay attention to what it is that you're consuming.
When it comes to food and drink, you really want to make sure that you do not stress eating, and ask yourself before eating anything, is this going to sustain me or is this going to exhaust me? I know there is a situation right now where we can't get access to the regular foods that we're used to eating or there's a limited supply of the foods that we're used to eating, but get creative guys, get creative. Also, think outside of the box. If we're going to be in our houses for I don't know, for the next couple of weeks, and you want to feel energized, you don't have to eat things are going to make you feel sluggish. If you can stock up on beans, and also stock up on frozen fruits because first of all beans are a fantastic source of fiber. It also helps you to eliminate any excess hormones that might be circling around the body and that you don't need. Also just be wary if you have like a history of an insulin sensitivity that you can't overeat on these beans, but also get frozen fruits because they're little great ways to snack throughout the day. You don't have to worry about those fruits going off.
5. Be more mindful about the way that you're sanitizing your hands and what products you're using.
We do know that some personal care products, cleaning products, beauty products, makeup products contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals can actually mimic estrogen or other hormones that we've got in our body and actually block the hormones that we need. They actually lead to hormonal imbalances. I've got a video on my YouTube channel, which you can definitely check out my YouTube channels, called Status Flow Collective, and you can actually check what ingredients you want to avoid when it comes to keeping your hormones in check and when it comes to using makeup, personal care products, and cleaning products. However, I just want to preface this right, I should have prefaced this and I didn't preface, I just want to end this by saying don't obsess about it. Do what you can do with this awareness, take action with it. Don't just listen to and say, yeah, yeah, I know that I already take action with it but don't obsess over it.
6. Protect your mental health.
This is a no-brainer, guys. This is a no-brainer, but I want you to protect your mental health. You can do this by knowing your patterns, knowing your cycle, knowing the days that you know, you might feel a little bit wobbly, and also maximizing or leveraging the days that you know you are going to feel on top form. Therefore you can help people more. You can help people more and you can also help yourself more because this is really a time in our lives that we haven't experienced before. We all need to come together and the only way we can all come together is worth it if we're feeling okay in the membrane. If we're feeling okay in our minds, our bodies, and spirits, we are able to then help others. I cannot stress this enough so know your flows. Take the steps that you need to take to get to know your cycle.
7. Have a routine.
So, really have that morning routine and make it non-negotiable. Make it non-negotiable. If you're carving out at least five minutes a day. If you can carve out an hour a day if you can carve that half an hour a day, have a routine. This is the time that you're really going to get to know yourself. This is the time that you need to get to know yourself. I want you to ask yourself if you are feeling like your mental health is on the rocks or you’re feeling in a certain type of way, ask yourself and give yourself permission to ask yourself when I'm feeling a bit shit. How do I cheer myself up? What do you do? Do you go outdoors and get some fresh air? Do you make your favorite drink? Do you run yourself a bubble bath? Do you get on the phone with your best friend? Do you go and cuddle your pet? Do you put music on and vibe to all your old-school tunes that you haven't listened to in a hot minute? That's what I've been doing. Literally Jagged Edge by Usher on repeat. What do you do? What do you do to cheer yourself up? If you're not giving yourself permission to feel good again, then how do you expect yourself to feel good?
8. Practice gratitude.
Let me tell you my gratitude routine. takes two minutes. I wake up in the morning. I like to open windows. I'm a window open person. The first thing I do is get rid of that old energy and invite new energy in. I like my sage. I have white sage. I do some smudging around my flat, in the bedroom, and in the office. I light a candle. I make my favorite drink or actually I've just made a tea so let me just have a sip of this. Hope you don't mind one second. The tea that I'm drinking is actually lemongrass tea from Bali. It is so delicious. You can have it hot or cold. So you make your favorite hot drink, something a bit refreshing, something that's gonna feel like you're having a bit of a detox. You can make a green juice or hot water with lemon or with apple cider vinegar, whatever that drink is. Then I play really calm relaxing music so I like to listen to binaural beats. These are a type of music that's on a particular frequency that either activates your subconscious mind or it really allows you to relax, release negative emotions, and clear bad energy. I'll put on some binaural beats. I will journal what I'm grateful for. I'll just start by saying today I am happy and grateful for. I'll just write those five things or those six things, seven things, whatever you can. Do it for as long as you want, but start with five because you can think of five. You can think of five. If you are breathing, if you can see, if you can hear, if you can feel, if you can taste, if you got someone to pick up the phone and call, you should be grateful.
9. Journal on a goal that I've set for myself. which hasn't happened yet.
Doing this, practicing gratitude, is literally the only thing that is going to keep you feeling like you are living in an abundant world, and also keep you feeling balanced and grounded right now, feeling in alignment with your true essence, and realizing what's really important. What's really important is that you can list five things that you're happy and grateful for right now. That is going to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. It's going to put you in that peaceful mode. It's going to reduce your stress. Your hormones are going to be thanking you for the fact that you are recognizing and tapping into that soulful kind of space.
10. Carve out time each day to listen to that inner voice.
That inner voice you might call it your inner critic or your inner bully or your inner imposter or your inner bitch, you might have a name for it. A friend of mine, actually a fellow coach that I'm friends with, calls her inner imposter Rhonda, which gives me so much joke. It's just having that time to listen to that inner voice because by doing so, again, you're giving yourself permission to say it's safe for me to trust myself. It's safe for you to trust yourself and it’s also safe for you to trust your cycle and also safe for you to trust that life is happening always for you and never to you. When you're carving out this time, it's a practice. It's like building a muscle, it needs to be nurtured. You might sit down and say oh, I can't do this just like when you first start meditating you're like, I can't stop all of the thoughts. We've all had that type of feeling but listening to your guide will help you make better decisions and for what's best for you, your life, your health, and your business.
I have a free masterclass for you and you can watch it on-demand right now. Watch my free masterclass, It's called the Power of your Menstrual Cycle. It's a jam-packed free training that will take you from pain to peace and then onto a journey of unleashing your true creativity and aligned and sustainable productivity that works for you, your unique design, your unique flow, and rhythm. It's laced with so much magic and I am so excited to share this with you. Watch it instantly now and tell a friend to tell a friend. Click HERE to watch it now.
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