Benefits of Reducing Stress

By Tracy Rewerts

Chronic stress can have serious effects on your health and quality of life. When you’re unable to cope with high levels of stress from work, relationships, finances, etc, your body responds by increasing blood pressure and heart rate, producing stress hormones, and disrupting sleep. These can lead to serious health problems, not to mention weight gain, depression, and many more.

When your sympathetic nervous system stays on high alert for too long, it’s more challenging to calm it down. The good news is, you can make some simple lifestyle choices that will help reduce chronic stress and lower cortisol levels.

Regular exercise helps to relieve stress and tension, thus reducing your cortisol levels.  Try to get at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise three times per week. A great way to do this is by joining my Group Fitness Classes offered Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Try to maintain a healthy diet most of the time by choosing a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy protein, plenty of fiber, and good hydration. These will provide you with the nutrients needed for your cells to run at full strength when you need it most. When you don’t have enough intake of these good nutrients, the body’s immune system is greatly affected and that’s when you end up getting sick on top of being stressed.

Make a list of your stress triggers (like being on social media, watching the news, toxic situations/people), draw a line through those that you can reduce or eliminate, and make a conscious effort to eliminate these triggers the best you can.

Inhale/Exhale – When stress is triggered, try taking a few slow, controlled, deep breaths to help calm your stress response. You can also try box breathing, which is count to 4 while breathing in, hold for the count of 4, breath out count of 4, hold for count of 4.

Incorporate activities into your daily routines like taking a daily walk with your dog, take the kids to the park, and try to get outside and enjoy some fresh air as much as possible.

Strive to get 7-8 hours of sleep per night, especially during stressful times.

Start a gratitude journal - try to list a few things each day that you’re grateful for. It will help improve your outlook on life.

By making some of these simple changes above, you can reduce your stress and receive the benefits of taking action to improve your health. For questions on my Group Fitness Classes or Mobile Personal Training, contact Tracy Rewerts, NASM Certified Personal Trainer at 303.828.2856 or visit www.BeginLifeAnew.com