You are creating the quality of your stress management gear from the food you eat. The quality of the manufacturing of your gear is dependant on whether or not you can digest and assimilate your food properly. Next to the common cold, digestive complaints are one of the highest reasons stated for missed time from work. Food is your medicine and your fuel.  It is reliant on your body’s fluids to be digested, assimilated and transported and the natural undulations of your digestive tract are influenced by the quality of your breath as a reflection of your state off stress.

Think about how you feel and how you breathe when you are hungry thirsty and tired.  It is likely that you feel foggy in the head; sluggish in your movements, irritable in your mood and that you are easily fatigued with activity.  The medical literature has reported that many Americans are chronically dehydrated and sleep deprived. It is also well known that many of us don’t get nearly enough exercise and many of us have a dreadful diet.( 2 risk factors for heart disease)  Now imagine one of your most common stressors coming at you at high speed to push your stress button……here it comes!

Your stress management gear (and your state of mind) is created from your typical diet, rest, thought and exercise patterns. If you feel hungry, thirsty, tired, and irritable and out of shape as you meet your stressor, is your button more likely to get pushed?  Been here a few times too many?  It may not occur to us that one of the best ways we can equip ourselves with the right gear to cope with our stressors is to simply nurture ourselves with the basics: food, water, sleep, exercise and a regular practice of inducing our relaxation response. Simply stop for a few minutes each day and appreciate nature in stillness using meditation, contemplation, or prayer.

Understanding that how you nurture yourself with these basics practices influences how well you navigate your life stressors, it is relevant to also consider what you think you know about where your food comes from.  Since you literally are comprised of what you eat and drink, the quality of your food is vital to your health.  Is it truly a natural food, or has it been genetically modified?  Is genetically modified food safe?  Does it digest or assimilate differently?  Have you been consuming genetically modified foods without your knowledge? Learn more about the sources of your food and their potential influence on your health by attending a free wellness event.  Shea Richland of the not for profit organization GMO Free Prescott will talk with us on this topic Sunday June 30 at 2 pm at my Body Language Studio.  Visit the link below for a flyer.

Hello Chino Valley!
In my first two blogs, I addressed heart health and the power of thought in creating our feelings of stress.  While our stress response is necessary to alert us to escape from danger, we want to activate it only in the event of actual emergencies. Our stress response becomes problematic when it runs as a default program rather than one that is activated for emergency use only.  Chronic over-activation of our stress response increases our risk of hypertension, heart disease, type 2 Diabetes and autoimmune complaints and contributes to anxiety. Given that many of us are moving through life with our stress response in a continual state of activation, my next few blogs will address how to tame our tension.

The first “how to” tame your tension is to start noticing the connection between thoughts, breath patterns and tension levels.  When your stress button gets pushed by stress charged thoughts or actual events, your heart immediately beats faster; your breath becomes more rapid and is generated more in the upper part of our rib cage via action of your neck and chest muscles. Additionally, your throat gets tight, your mouth gets dry, your neck gets tense, your fists clench and our gut tightens up.  All this describes the baseline fight or flight aspects of your stress response. Feel familiar?  Not a very comfortable combination of muscle actions.  For some of us, a freeze occurs instead of fight or flight.

Add to this fight, flight or freeze your unique body language of expression in how you “wear” stress with your muscular system. Do your get your back up, get your shorts in a knot, scrunch up your shoulders or clench your teeth?  Are you in the habit of swallowing what you would like to say, shrinking or expanding your size and tone of voice in an angry or intimidating fashion?  Do freeze up by holding your breath, bracing and losing your voice? As a physical therapist and yoga teacher, I help people identify these common responses.  They become so habitual, we stop feeling them, but they create significant constraints to our freedom of breath and consequently to the flow of energy through the body. Tense muscles also pull on bones, which shift our spinal alignment, constrain joint movement and perpetuate many common back and neck pain complaints.

What to do to start taming your tension?  Most of us can remember three things.
1. Become an astute observer of your thoughts as they are the generators of your feelings.
Much of our stress is experienced either as instant replay of a past event or as an anticipated rehearsal of what has not yet occurred.
2. Start noticing what you are doing with your facial expression, the set of your jaw and your hands and your feet.  Soften anything that is clenching. Your brain receives a tremendous amount of sensory input from these areas, so relaxing here has a powerful effect.
3. Try a long, slow sssshhhhh sound as you breathe out.  It is best to actually make the sound, but it can be done mentally. A long exhale is a natural expression of releasing pressure and sends a strong message to the central nervous system to slow the heart and the breath because the stress threat (real or created by thoughts) has passed.

To practice inviting your breath into the lower belly, try a few quiet minutes of following the flow of your breath in this  position.

Have YOU been intending to start a Yoga practice?  Here is your opportunity!  This workshop will:

• expose you to the philosophy behind the energetics of Yoga practice
• allow you to experience principles of optimal body alignment
• teach you breath awareness
• introduce you to common yoga asana ( postures)

Sunday July 14 2-5 pm. Please pre-register with payment by F 7/12

Please note a minimum of 5 registrants are needed to convene this class.  Current students who enroll a friend in this workshop, and wish to attend with them, will receive the workshop as a gift.

http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/food_news/10_food_rules_you_should_follow

http://www.prescottfarmersmarket.org/

http://everydayhealthyeverydaydelicious.com/

http://gmofreeprescott.org/

Stress:

http://www.ornishspectrum.com/proven-program/stress-management/

http://life.gaiam.com/article/how-de-stress-1-minute

http://www.superstresssolution.com/

Meditation & Mindfulness:

http://mindfulness-yoga.blogspot.com/  ( Frank Jude Boccio, author of Mindfulness Yoga)

Wellness:

http://www.drweil.com/

http://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/about/index.aspx Center for Mindfulness in Medicine Health Care and Society.

Medicine & Research:

http://www.functionalmedicine.org/about/whatisfm/

http://www.terrywahls.com/about-Terry-Wahls

Emotional Health:

http://www.depression-primarycare.org/

 http://www.cnvc.org/Training/feelings-inventory  ( Center for Non-Violent Communication)
http://life.gaiam.com/article/how-break-through-toxic-emotions

Inspiration:

Daily Affirmations from Louise Hay http://www.louisehay.com/affirmations/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/8052.Pema_Ch_dr_n ( Pema Chodron Quotes)

Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes: http://www.uth.tmc.edu/pathology/faculty/pages/nguyen-nghia/Nguyen/TNH-Quotes-2.htm

http://www.chopra.com/dailyinspiration