Do your healthy habits go out the window when you’re stressed? 🥴

Are you struggling to maintain healthy habits when you get stressed?

If your healthy habits aren’t feeling good for you, or you struggle to maintain consistency with them, it could be that you are approaching them from the wrong angle. 😜

It can be really easy to ‘start and stick to a healthy habit’ when you are feeling motivated and inspired (this isn’t new information), but what about when you are overwhelmed and stressed in your work life or family life for instance, and you suddenly start second guessing the value that this so called ‘healthy habit’ is going to have on your life? 🥲

When you are stressed, it can be natural to disconnect from your body, from your values, from those things that ground you. In these moments of disconnect, you aren’t tuned in to what your body actually NEEDS to feel better, to regulate, to come back to centre. 🧘🏻‍♀️🌀

So what should your priority be then? Re-connecting with your body!

In the moments that you are feeling frazzled and have so much going on, this can be as simple as:

Taking some time to ground in nature - Points if you can remove your shoes and feel the earth beneath your feet. There is so much science supporting just how beneficial this is to your health and energy;

  • Take some slow, conscious, deep breaths - A calming breath is the box breath - Breathe in for a count of 4 or 5 (whatever feels good), hold for a count of 4 or 5, release for a count of 4 or 5, and hold at the bottom for a count of 4 or 5;

  • Stretching - This can be done while you are at work seated at a computer, or over 2 minutes before you get into bed at night;

  • Connecting to your heart space and your womb space - Place one hand over your heart space and the other over your womb space. Take as long as you can here, just focusing on taking slow, deep, conscious breaths into these areas of your body. Take the opportunity to feel into whatever energy/emotion you are carrying within your body. You don’t need to be here for too long, but this is one of THE most amazing tools you can do to reconnect with your body in the moment;

  • Active meditation - I have to add this in here, although I get how hard it can feel to totally shut off and relax your mind while you are in a panicked state. What I recommend here is that you take the time while you are doing something e.g. driving, washing the dishes, walking to work, to remove all noise (that means no podcast, audio book, or music in your ears) and focus 100% on the task and/or on your breathing. I call this active meditation because you are not completely still, and you get to connect with your internal world without feeling like you are ‘wasting time’.

From THIS place - you are able to approach your healthy habits (and the thing that is making you stressed, too) from a place of ‘yes, this is what I need, and I can honour that need.’ 🧡🧡

Let me know in the comments if this resonates with you, or if there is something else that you do in moments of stress to reconnect with your body.

Mon xx

Previous
Previous

Are your gut issues actually IBS?

Next
Next

Women’s nutritional needs vary week-to-week