In my 9 Steps to Perfect Health series, I argued that stress management may be the most important of all of the steps.
Why? Because no matter what diet you follow, how much you exercise and what supplements you take, if you’re not managing your stress you will still be at risk for modern degenerative conditions like heart disease, diabetes, hypothyroidism and autoimmunity.
Many of you may feel defeated or overwhelmed by stress. I understand this. Stress management is hard. It asks a lot of us. It forces us to slow down, to step back, to disengage (if only for a brief time) from the electric current of modern life. It asks us to prioritize self-care in a culture that does not value it.
While I feel your pain, and still struggle with stress management myself, I’ve got to lay down some tough love here. If you’re not doing some form of regular stress management, you will sabotage all of your best efforts with diet, exercise and supplements. Stress management is absolutely crucial to optimal health and longevity. If most health conscious people spent even half the amount of time they spend focusing on nutrition and exercise on managing their stress, they’d be a lot better off.
Many of you have done a 30-day Paleo diet challenge, whether the Personal Paleo Code, Whole30 or maybe a program through your local gym. You’ve probably done something similar with exercise and fitness. But what about stress reduction? Why doesn’t it get the attention it deserves?
We’re going to change that. This month, let’s dedicate some of our time to taking it easy. April is Best Your Stress Month!
Here’s how it works:
From April 1 to April 30, pick one way you’ll plan on de-stressing your life. This could be something like meditation, yoga, deep breathing, or spending more time in nature. There are many possibilities here. What relaxes and calms you? (If you need some ideas, check out my article on stress management.)
Now make a specific goal.
Write your goal somewhere you’ll see it often – perhaps your fridge, your desk, your car, (your forehead?) – and then leave a comment on this post with your goal so we can share ideas and support each other. Please also post your goal on Facebook and Twitter if you use social media so others can see what you’re up to.
Use your community as a resource:
Having trouble sticking to your goal? Need some other ideas for decreasing your stress? Tackle your issue in the comments section of this post. Ask your peers for advice. What are they doing to de-stress? It’s time to make some friends! A strong community of peers is also very important in maintaining a healthy life.
I truly hope this challenge allows you to let go of some of the stress you may have been hanging on to lately and that you make lots of new friends in the comments!
I am jumping on this a bit late, but I am just starting a business so you can imagine the stress. My stomach has even gotten bigger! Probably all the cortisol. I am trying to live each day to the fullest and letting what will happen just happen without stressing. So I am practicing letting go, we hold on to way to much. Also when your used to eating all the time you don’t realize how often just thinking about your next meal can stress you out so I am eating pemmican now and other high fat foods. Lots of good fats to keep me going and I know its going to keep me full for a while so no worries.
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to check in and see how you’ve all done with the first week of the Best Your Stress challenge. Have you been able to stick with the commitments you’ve made? What have you noticed so far?
For those having trouble, I have a couple of recommendations:
– Something is better than nothing. For example, if your goal is to meditate for 30 minutes every morning but you overslept and don’t have time to do the full session, even 5 minutes is better than not doing it at all.
– Don’t beat yourself up. I’m sure you can appreciate the irony of getting really stressed out about stress reduction. It’s counterproductive.
If you didn’t get off to a great start, don’t worry. Just begin again. We have the opportunity to start fresh in each moment.
I’ll check in again next week, but I’d love to hear more about your experiences so far!
So far so good! The bird-watching has been fantastic. I’m probably doing about the same things and eating about the same things, I have been successful about worrying less about all of that.
Here’s some delicious irony for you–I have “pruned” the amount of time I spend on PaleoHacks EXCEPT I am participating on a thread about your Best Your Stress recommendations. Get it? Huh?
Anyhow, I think I have relaxed a bit mentally and it feels good.
I’ve been pretty consistent about doing my 5 minute meditation in the morning. In fact, sometimes I meditate for longer than 5 minutes. However, I’m having trouble at night. Sometimes I fall asleep while meditating! Any suggestions?
There are different perspectives on this, but if you’re using meditation to manage stress you could do worse than fall into a deep sleep.
My job involves corporate staff management with my sleeves rolled up, performing while managing. It’s extremely stressful, I’d say three days out of five each week. The other two days are a bit less stressful.
To begin to chill out for the rest of April, I’ll walk on the beach at lunch at least once each week. I’ll walk at a park at least once each week. Or I’ll run if I’m in the mood. I’ve been getting out for short walks but it’s not enough.
It is about time stress gets some headlines! I am a nutritionist and the first thing I discuss with people is stress management. I agree totally with you Chris that if the stress is not managed why institute rigid dietary guidelines? In some cases doing so will just increase the person’s stress levels and they do not get better. When stress is managed, exercise is prescribed properly, and the client follows a paleo-type diet it is amazing the results that can be achieved. I cover a lot of stress topics on my blog and absolutely love Robert Sapolsky’s books.
My goal is to go up to the mountain top twice a week. Someone was talking about the Sherpas and how they live up high. Someone talked about getting lost in the Himalayas and upon being rescued by Sherpas was given hot tea with yak butter that revived him. When I was a kid I was very taken by the story of Heidi. I reread it last week and loved the descriptions of the wind in the trees, the air quality and such. Then it occurred to me that I live within a 15 minute drive and a 15 minute tram ride to 10,000 feet. I live at 5200 feet. So on my birthday a few weeks ago I treated myself to a tram ride up to the top. It was exhilarating, glorious. It’ll take a while to adjust to the altitude but I enjoy the view, the air, going slow, not thinking about much, conversing with the tourists and as the snow melts I can go off by my self and sing Una Paloma Blanca as loud as I want. It’s a big step for me to take 90 minutes up on top twice a week just for me. I echo Michelle J about loving the flow of the week and spending time in nature.
Thank you Chris for putting this out there and also for sharing your personal goals. Seeing so many sign up and share comments is inspiring!
I love the flow of the week having committed to 30 minutes of mediation and spending time in nature.
Ciao!
Love this idea as it is something I want to work on right now anyway!
I am focusing on breath-awareness meditation in the mornings in place of checking my email and facebook.
I’m putting on my outlook calendar at work 4 alarms every day- at 10, 12, 2, and 4, an alarm will pop up on my screen and say “breathe 🙂 ” and I will stop my work and do deep diaphramatic breathing for 2-3 minutes. The smiley face is there to remind me that if I miss a breathing time, I shouldn’t stress about THAT! 🙂
Great Idea Chris!
Thanks for this-perfect timing…been trying to de-stress lately.
My goal will be to check in with myself though a daily journal, whether I feel like writing 1 word, a paragraph, or more, I will commit to focusing on how I really feel, what actions I can take from my feelings, and something I am thankful for.
Goal – 5 minutes of focused breathing and minimum 5 minutes resistance stretching per day.
It was a bit hard ot think of some things. But no electronics an hour before bed and getitng outside more are my goals.
Thank you. I will be doing a lot of deep breathing.
Thanks for posting this challenge! My goal is to take 20 minutes before bed each night to meditate or sit quietly without music.
I need to do one of two things to handle my stress better; either spend time outside and/or care for someone/something other than myself. So at the least I can sit outside for 5 minutes a day or brush a dog. On days with more time I can walk in the woods or garden. Even a few minutes helps.
Kudos Chris on this and your entire works. As an acupuncturist and fledgling functional medicine practitioner I feel really inspired seeing how you tackle all this. For me my goal is to keep at least one non-medical, non-work related book going all month.
Thanks to my friend for linking me to this article! My goal is to meditate for at least 10 minutes each day.
I love this idea and the encouragement to make it specific and doable. I will laugh for at least 5 minutes every morning when I wake up (hopefully work my way up to 10 minutes by the end of the month)! And I will play the piano every day for whatever amount of time I’m drawn to do it.
Love this and the timing is perfect. My goal is to walk slowly around my beautiful yard every evening to see what grew that day (without fixating on work to be done; just appreciate what is there). I feel a need to reconnect to the simple things in life, like life itself!
I recommend all of my clients take an MBSR class. Check out Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction designed by Jon Kabat Zinn. The classes are taught all over the world.
Great post. I’ve made great progress in my food diet over the past few years, but I always put the stress diet on the back burner. I’m committing to a daily stress reduction activity for the month of April. Thanks for the motivation Chris!