Natural ways to deal with stress

Unfortunately stress is always in your life. Stress is not only induced by negative circumstances. Stress can be from happy events like getting married, moving to a new house or having a baby. The awesome news is stress does not mean you have to damage your body or ruin your relationships with others. There are natural steps you can take to manage your stress well. Nasty chemicals aren't even needed to manage stress.

Here are 5 things you can do:

1. Relax:  I know I feel stressed when I have a lot of "deadlines" happening at once. It will always be helpful to take even just a simple break from your work. Try doing some simple stretching exercises during your break is helpful.

2. Meditate: Looking inward at yourself and really noticing how you feel will help you deal with stress effectively. When you meditate you should try deep breathing. Why? Because deep breathing cues your body to RELAX.

3. Exercise Regularly:  When you use your body differently than usual, you can help to alleviate the stress that you are experiencing. Oh, and your immune system gets stronger too, so that means you have to take less real "sick" days.

4. Live A Healthy Lifestyle: Do you smoke? If so, please stop. Smoking is a unhealthy habit. Not even moderate smoking is acceptable. This lifestyle choice can actually make your stress worse.

5. Get your beauty sleep zzzz:  8 hours of sleep every day is not enough. It's the quality of your sleep that counts. Set the mood. Make sure your sleep chamber is setting your up for success. Individuals who sleep well are less prone to irritation and stress.

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Christmas Sleep + gift guide

How hard is it to wake up during the winter when it’s so much easier to stay in your warm bed? It is very common to wake up to dark and cold weather.  Research suggests that our circadian rhythms change over the winter months. This Christmas, do yourself a favor and get up early and get quality sleep.

So where does the urge to stay in bed come from?  When night falls and the light begins to fade our pineal gland starts to produce melatonin.  This triggers to the body that it is time to shut down for the night and let the cells recharge which makes us feel sleepy.  In the morning the light that comes through our eyes acts as a trigger for the pineal gland to stop producing melatonin.  This then signals to the body that it’s time to wake up and get on with the day.  However, in winter the light in the morning is often dull or non-existent so the body does not completely stop producing melatonin.  Knowing this, it makes sense that getting out of bed in the winter is harder as we do not get the same wakeup signals in winter that we do in summer.

During the Holiday season your internal clock is all messed up so getting up early without a good night sleep makes it VERY hard. A simple way to combat this is to make sure that you get enough quality sleep as much as possible over the Christmas period so that waking up is as bearable as it can be.

Making sleep happen is simple. Here are a few things you should do.  First, you need to make sure that you go to bed at a consistent time each night.  When you have decided on the time you will be going to bed start winding down about 30 minutes beforehand.  This means stop looking at your screen (ipad, phone, etc), brush your teeth, change into your pjs,  turn off the lights and get into bed.  In the morning when your alarm goes off get out of bed straight away.  Don’t press snooze.  

Getting proper sleep is difficult. If you do this you will feel more awake and alert and your body will thank you for the additional time it has to rest and recharge.

Do you have any extra tips for getting enough sleep over Christmas?

Still need ideas for the fitness lover in your life? I've got some ideas and ways to save money:

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