Resilient thinking: how do you manage stress?
Have you tried managing stress in the past? What about all the stress management techniques out there?? You know why managing your stress is important, but it can feel pretty daunting!
In the video below, I will share with you ways to become more resilient to stress vs always trying to manage your stress levels.
So many times we tend to focus on managing stress and while that’s important we need to also think longer-term! How will we become more resilient?
When we think about managing stress, often we look around at our circumstances or relationships. And while those aren’t bad places to look, those aren’t the only places bringing stress to our bodies.
When you think of becoming more resilient to stress, it needs to be a both-and, not an either-or scenario.
While you can’t neglect the outside circumstances by any means, they also can’t be the only place to look, just like addressing ‘inside stressors’ can’t be. It doesn’t work to exclude either- they must be taken into consideration together as a package deal.
There are 3 areas we overlook,
Let’s take a peek into each!
Mineral Imbalance
It is often overlooked, but we forget minerals are the very start of processes in our body.
So it only makes sense if those are off our body won’t be as responsive to stressors. When thinking about the macro minerals, we can literally look at a hair test and see what stage of stress you are in-to learn more check out this video.
Magnesium
In particular, it is so important for energy and sugar metabolism.
If a lot of stress we have a high magnesium burn rate. So if it’s high on a hair test, that doesn’t mean you have enough, it means you have a high burn rate. In general, symptoms are a side effect, not the real issue!
Sodium and Potassium
These are used up in greater quantities during the stress response. You need enough to respond appropriately.
So, what can we do?
We can be more mindful of supporting our macro minerals. The best-case scenario is that we know where those mineral statuses are- with a hair test. This is the best way because these minerals are intracellular (tissue) vs extracellular (blood).
Proper nourishment plays a big role in being resilient to stress.
If you aren’t getting enough calories, that is going to be yet another stressor on your body!
When we restrict different food groups and cut them out entirely, it’s almost guaranteed that we are missing key nutrients. What I’ve learned is that we can’t improve on what God made.
Trying to replace a food group to ‘biohack’ our system doesn’t work, highly processed foods cannot replace foods in their whole form.
Over the years this has left us exposed to those extra stressors that creep in and our bodies and health have paid the price of that. Not to mention even whole foods aren’t as nutritious b/c of the soil condition.
Going back a little to mineral imbalance, we should get most of those minerals from our foods, not supplements. Sometimes we do need to supplement, but it shouldn’t be our very first go-to.
Take a good look at what your primary diet consists of and see where you have excluded macronutrients and where you might add them back in.
We aren’t reaching for perfection, but also not throwing it all out the window b/c it might not be as convenient as the alternative.
In your journey to wellness, you may have tunnel vision… which likely has you chasing your tail. Check out this free video training to help you see the bigger picture, gain clarity, and finally move forward in your health!
Blood sugar balance is really affected when stress has been prevalent.
Calcium in particular is really important for our nervous system, we need it for insulin resistance- balanced with magnesium to balance blood sugar. Sodium also has an impact on blood sugar- it’s important for insulin response to be sensitive to it.
Potassium regulates blood pressure and fluid balance, and makes our cells sensitive to glucose and thyroid hormone.
Potassium is the most common mineral depleted.
It’s important for converting your glucose to glycogen. It could be that you’re getting the nutrients but they aren’t getting inside of the cell.
In knowing this, it’s important to look at balancing macrominerals, and eat balanced meals + snacks (protein+ carb + fat for optimal absorption.
Eating within an hour of waking and every 3-4 hours during the day is a must!
Also if you struggle with sleep add in a bedtime snack.
Underlying infections/toxicities throw off your immune system off, which make other body systems have to compensate and thus is an energy suck.
The decreased energy availability is where we move through the different stages of stress (alarm, resistance and then exhaustion). And we literally have none left to even do daily things and feel completely fatigued 24-7.
Look at underlying infections as a huge heavy rock that our body is constantly having to compensate for that leaves our body tired and fragile.
It’s important to keep asking why and identify and address them. Yes, take symptoms into account but don’t soley focus on them! Continue to dig in and ask why, then and only then will you get to the upstream issues that are the real reasons for these symptoms.
Built-up toxicity makes our drainage pathways/organ function compromised, which is why our hormones are off, gut health is compromised, minerals are off etc. it’s the reason people cannot heal even after years and years of working on these issues.
Stealth infections like borrelia bacteria(aka lyme), parasites, viruses, and heavy metal overload all affect the nervous system, immune system which are huge systems in our body that govern a lot of our functions and show up in the symptoms we experience.
The above issues are exactly what I dive into when we work together. A hair test for looking to see where minerals are and making changes appropriately. Bloodwork labs give root cause clues for underlying issues/infections that we can look to work on in a stepwise approach.
Do you struggle to have the energy you need to do all God has called you to each day? Check out the free PDF resource I put together with 3 steps to support daily detox for better energy that actually gets to the root of the issue when it comes to fatigue!