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#86: How to manage and relieve stress
1.2k Plays1 year ago
In today’s episode, I dive into the big impact stress has on our health, and how it affects both our mental and physical well-being.
I also share some of the stress-relieving practices and mindset activities I teach my clients in coaching!
We talk about the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems and why finding balance between the two is so important. Plus, I give you my top tips for managing stress and breaking down the difference between everyday stress and those bigger life stressors!
Key Questions Discussed in This Episode:
- How does stress affect our health?
- What is the sympathetic nervous system?
- What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
- How to find balance between our nervous systems?
- Why is relaxation so important?
- Does meditation really help with stress?
- How does journaling help to relieve stress?
- How to balance stress with healthy habits?
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit.
For more health tips and updates, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
Music by LiQWYD Free download: hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb [http://hypeddit.com/link/xxtopb] Promoted by FreeMusicPromo [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbycji-eySnM3WD8mbxPUSQ] / @freemusicpromo1
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Transcript
Introduction to Stress and Health
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton health podcast. So this week you are stuck listening to me again. for this solo episode. So I wanna just talk all around the topic of stress.
Why is Stress a Health Issue?
00:00:24
Speaker
And I think a lot of people are surprised when they sign up to my coaching, how much emphasis I put on stress relieving practices, dealing with stress, mindset, activities around reducing stress, because stress is just the cause of so many issues in the body.
00:00:45
Speaker
in our health and if you are looking to lose weight, get fit or get healthier, you will never get to the state of health that you're looking for if you are constantly stressed. The stress that's building inside of you is going to do more damage to your health than the bit of chocolate or the burger
Impact of Modern Life on Stress
00:01:04
Speaker
that you're having. So I think it's really, really important that we address this and un firmly believe that it is the center of a lot of our problems and health issues in modern living, I suppose. We live a really fast paced life. There's a lot of pull from lots of different directions for a lot of us and we don't
00:01:28
Speaker
get the same switch off that we used to get, perhaps when, you know, anyone who's my age and older, when we were younger and when you went in and you closed your front door, there was no access to other people for the rest of the evening. We live in a very switched on world and there's a lot of pressures. There's a lot of comparison, not only for ourselves, but for our children. And I think it's really, really important that we just talk a little bit around that. So that is what I am going to do today.
Understanding Stress: Helpful or Harmful?
00:01:56
Speaker
So first thing I want to say about stress is stress is normal. So we don't need to be afraid of it. Although I do say that a lot of our problems stem from stress, that's prolonged stress. And we'll talk a little bit about that. But stress is normal and a good amount of stress is good for you.
00:02:13
Speaker
But the important fact here that needs to be noted is that stress stress is supposed
The Nervous System's Role in Stress
00:02:18
Speaker
to be temporary. In relation to talking about stress, I want to talk a little bit about the sympathetic versus the parasympathetic nervous systems, okay which basically is our fight or flight versus flow.
00:02:31
Speaker
So our sympathetic nervous system is designed to keep you alive and safe. So it's supposed to be temporary, getting us out of danger. So thinking back to the caveman era, where if we were getting chased by a bear or, you know, whatever we're getting chased by, it is that we switch on and we either fight for our lives or we ah fight or flight or we flee away to safety. So the sympathetic nervous system.
00:02:57
Speaker
is extremely important for keeping us safe. If we step out on the road and we see a car coming that we can act quickly and jump out of the way, very, very important. But chronic stress is confusing our bodies into operating from this nervous system all the time and this is where it gets.
00:03:13
Speaker
dangerous to our health. Our bodies can't tell the difference between that constant just, you know, sometimes we don't even know we're stressed. It's that constant underlying stress that we feel day in, day out about money, about our teenagers, about our children, about our jobs, about what's going on in the media, about the issues that you're having with your brother, whatever it is, this constant stress that's just niggling away under the surface.
00:03:39
Speaker
that sometimes we're not even aware of it, or we've been stressed for so many years, we don't even recognize that that's what it is. But this is confusing and our bodies into thinking that there's actual threat. So we're constantly in this sympathetic nervous system, in this fight or flight reaction, without even realizing, and it does have a lot of detrimental effects on our health. So operating from the sympathetic nervous system all of the time will lead to health issues.
00:04:06
Speaker
both mental and physical. So you know this can lead to anxiety, depression, other mental health issues, physical health and illnesses. And we're talking about obviously over a prolonged period of time. So if you're going through a stressful period right now, you don't need to be like, oh my God, making myself sick. It's like obviously there aren't certain times in life when things will be more stressful than others. But it's just to start bringing an awareness to it, I think is is a really, really important thing.
Finding Joy and Flow to Combat Stress
00:04:32
Speaker
So then in contrast, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated through relaxation techniques, doing things you enjoy, being in flow state. It does the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system. It slows things down and helps us relax. Okay, so this is really important.
00:04:52
Speaker
This is why young children, children under the age of seven, before we start ruining them through the education system, and they start you know learning from each other and you know expectations. When they are under the age of seven, and if you ever look at a small child, play, they are 100% in the moment. They're relaxed, they're happy, they're full of joy, and they only do things that they enjoy.
00:05:19
Speaker
From the about the age seven onwards, we start to lose that, partly because of the society we live in and then we grow up and we rarely see adults climbing trees or jumping up on rocks or you know sitting down on the sitting room floor and getting fully immersed in a jigsaw or colouring or Lego. Some adults do, but that is basically being in flow state.
00:05:44
Speaker
And in an ideal world, what we do every day for our jobs should be what we really love. Now, I know that in reality, that is not the case for most people. And that is life. But I think it is really, really important to introduce something into your life that brings you joy. Whether we're talking a weekly lunch with your friends whether we're talking about taking back up a sport that you used to play or or playing a musical instrument that you used to play or learning a language or doing a course that you want to do or go to a dance class or start swimming in the sea with your friends whatever it is that brings you joy
00:06:26
Speaker
I am challenging you to put something into every single day that brings you a little bit of joy, even if it's only for five minutes. It will start bringing you back to that joy, that flow state, back to your true self, who you really are.
Techniques for Relaxation and Stress Relief
00:06:41
Speaker
And it gives you a little bit of a break from the stresses that you have to deal with with grown up life. And I think this is really, really important as well as that then relaxation techniques like daily walks, meditations, guided meditations, yoga, any forms of exercise. And I would argue that
00:06:59
Speaker
doing things you enjoy is a relaxation technique, but also things like breathing exercises. And you'll see loads of different people promoting different practices, you know, breathwork, yoga, all these different types of ways to get you to slow down the mind and be in the present moment. And being in the present moment is being in flow state. You'll know what that feels like if you're fully immersed in an activity, maybe you're writing a book or an essay or something that you're really into and you lose track of time, an essay is a really bad example, or you're preparing for a race and you're doing your training that goes with it and you're really looking at your times, your movements, everything is going into that moment and time flies by and you don't notice it because you're so much in flow state.
00:07:48
Speaker
So when you spend time in these situations, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system. And it's important to know if we acted from the parasympathetic nervous system all the time, we would get nothing done. So, you know, you would not function in society. We need to be able to act from both, but we need to get better balance in place. We need to operate from both nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system, as I've said already, helps to keep us alive.
00:08:13
Speaker
And in small bursts, it'll help to improve our immune system. Okay, so it is important. So for example, we can kind of exercise this sympathetic nervous system through doing workouts. This is in short bursts, you know, whether it is doing HIIT workouts, strength workouts, running workouts, and you're putting your body under stress. This is why we need rest days from training from workouts, because you can't constantly put your body under stress.
00:08:36
Speaker
But short periods of time, it's good. It's good for your immune system. Same with heat and cold water therapies. So doing saunas, doing plunge pools, getting into the sea are really, really good for your immune system. It's putting your body under temporary stress, which makes it stronger. So you know we're not trying to avoid it altogether.
00:08:54
Speaker
but we tend to mainly operate from the sympathetic nervous system in modern society. This is why engaging activities to activate the parasympathetic nervous system are so important to gain that balance for good mental and physical health. So in general,
00:09:10
Speaker
we're already quite stressed. So it usually takes a little bit more practice of putting the parasympathetic, the relaxation techniques in place and those short bursts of sympathetic nervous system activities like workouts, heat, cold water therapies. Okay, so I'm just going to throw out a few ideas for you. So if you're like, Kate, I need to get this balance in my life.
Role of Diet and Sleep in Stress Management
00:09:32
Speaker
Here is a list. If you want to get your pen ready, you can take note. You can pause me. Here are some activities that I suggest that you could consider to help gain this balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system so that you're getting a little bit of a relief from that constant stress in your everyday life. So number one, getting enough sleep. It's literally the number one for everything. So even when we're talking fat loss or we're talking training, we're talking anything,
00:10:01
Speaker
getting enough sleep is the most important thing. For adults, seven to nine hours sleep every night. I know for some people it's out of your control with small babies or maybe going through perimenopause, so that can be difficult and challenging, but doing the best that you can to protect and support your sleep routine to get as much as is possible in your situation. Number two, eating a healthy, balanced diet.
00:10:26
Speaker
okay so When we're putting things into our bodies that are full of chemicals, and I'm not by any means demonizing foods, I think balance is the approach to take. But if we're eating a diet that's mainly based on processed foods, you're putting a lot of chemicals into your body, a lot of stuff that your body needs to break down that was like, oh, I don't like this, I need to break that down. It's putting more stress on your body. So if you're already stressed, and you have a shit diet, you're adding more stress into it. Now that doesn't mean you need to go and eat everything clean. It means healthy balanced diet. Eat a breakfast, eat a lunch, eat a dinner and in your breakfast, lunch and dinner, make sure you have some protein, healthy fats and carbohydrates for energy in every meal and plenty of vegetables. I would say for lunch and dinner and fruit with your breakfast if you don't like to have vegetables with breakfast because I don't.
00:11:14
Speaker
but getting that balance in place. If you do that, your body is going to be fueled, nourished, you're going to feel better, everything else will fall into place if you're getting enough sleep and you're eating well. And that means then there's still room to have a bit of chocolate, to have a glass of wine, to have what you want to in moderation and that it's going to make a huge difference to the physical stress on your body drinking plenty of water so important for keeping hydrated obviously but also flushing toxins out just feeling clear really really important regular walks regular walks not only to obviously keep your heart healthy keep your body moving keep your joints healthy keep you feeling strong
00:11:56
Speaker
it's also really, really important for your mental health. When you get out for a walk, sometimes when youite you at least feel like going for a walk is when you're actually going to need the walk the most, because if you have so much to do, and I often do this sitting at my laptop, I'm like, oh, I have so much to do. I don't have time to go for a walk. And when I find myself saying I don't have time to go for a walk, I'm like, Kate,
00:12:16
Speaker
close the laptop you can come back to it afterwards and you know what after my walk all the stuff I was stressed about is gone and I come back to it with a fresh head it's so so important regular walks no matter what you're stressed about and don't even you know beat yourself up that you're oh I keep thinking about all my problems while I'm on my walk I'm not supposed to be thinking like You'll start your walk, you'll start off stressed and you will be reeling all these things over in your head. I guarantee you that repetitive nature of you know foot after foot after foot on your walk, it's like rocking a baby to sleep. You will literally physically knock the stress out of you by just that one foot after another after another. If you're a runner, running will do this where you don't have to run. Walking, I don't enjoy running. I'm a walker.
Benefits of Nature for Stress Reduction
00:13:01
Speaker
walking will do just the same, but if you enjoy running, running will do this also. Spending time outdoors in nature. It's really, really important. I know not everyone has the privilege of being close to the countryside, but even spending time in a garden, just being outside, letting a little bit of sunlight on your skin in your eyes. That's also, I live in Ireland, not very possible all the time, particularly through the winter. and And I struggle sometimes in the winter. I find it difficult the lack of daylight. I really do brighten up with a bright day. I don't care how cold it is. If the sun is out, I'm happy. But getting outside, being around trees, the sea, the grass, flowers, it just brings us back to our natural state. I don't mean you need to be like, you know, hugging trees or meditating at the lawn or anything, but just a little bit of time outdoors, which ties in nicely with your regular walks.
00:13:50
Speaker
So when you go out for a walk, even if you live in a city, so just look around you, notice nice gardens or trees or try and walk somewhere that you enjoy that makes you feel good to to be around. Really, really important for calming the body. Meditation. So meditation I think is becoming much more mainstream now. It doesn't need to be anything fancy. It doesn't need to be hours and hours and hours. Meditation could be five minutes. There are so many guided meditations on YouTube. There's also apps like Cam, Headspace, the Chopra app. I know a lot of those apps you need to pay a subscription for, but definitely try some free ones on YouTube. Guided meditations are
00:14:28
Speaker
an amazing way, especially if your brain keeps racing. It's a great way to to have something to focus on doing a guided meditation and you'll get once in only five minutes long to them. I recommend doing a guided meditation first thing in the morning before you do anything else, ah as soon as you wake up or last thing at night before you go to sleep. That's when your subconscious mind is going to take it in the most right before or right after sleep. But obviously, anytime you can fit it in is ideal.
Meditation and Journaling for Self-Reflection
00:14:55
Speaker
Breathing exercises. Now this can tie you in with meditation as well. So if you're like, I don't have a guided meditation, or you're somewhere and you're feeling a little bit stressed, I quite often do breathing exercises when I'm driving or when I'm stuck in traffic, where you breathe in
00:15:09
Speaker
nice and slowly. So maybe breathe in for the count of four, breathe out for the count of four. Sometimes I do this when I'm walking as well. And runners will often do this to manage their breathing through running. And but obviously, when we're doing it for a relaxation, we want to slow down your breath. If you're new to breathing exercises, maybe don't do it while you're driving in case you get lightheaded. So sitting in the chair, you can do it anywhere, no one even needs to notice. So just breathing in, two, three, four, hold, two, three,
00:15:37
Speaker
four out two three four hold two three four and repeat that if you find that you can't do with that slow straight away then do it for three, in for three, hold for three, out for three, hold for three. But it's basically it's called box breathing. So four is better if you can, but if you you find you're quite shallow breathing, because you're quite stressed, that can be very, very difficult to just lower the number and build up to it. And that can work as your meditation. If you did that first thing in the morning before you get up, and you did like four rounds of it, and you did that last thing at night before you went to sleep,
00:16:17
Speaker
or even just either or, it's going to make a huge difference over time. Journaling. If you've had a shit day before you reach for the biscuits, get your pen to paper. Write down your feelings. I mean, you've found a negative journaling. Sometimes I think we're always trying too hard to be positive. like Sometimes you just don't want to be fucking positive. You've just had a bad day. So I like scribble down everything like that's in my brain. It's literally like you know when you have like a bitch to a friend about something.
00:16:42
Speaker
And then you just feel so much better afterwards. And then everyone tells you that you shouldn't talk negatively. Sometimes you just need to get it off your chest and getting pen to paper is amazing. And whats what's interesting is you'll write down things that you didn't think that you were going to write. so And you'll you'll actually make sense of your feelings and you'll start to learn more about yourself and understand yourself better. Another way to do journaling as well is literally like at the end of the day, writing down three things that you're grateful for.
00:17:10
Speaker
Gratitude is the opposite of fear. If you can write down three things that you're grateful for every day, it lets go of the stress and it's hugely powerful. The thing with journaling and with any of these things, breathing, exercise and meditation, it's not about intensity. Literally your journaling could take 30 seconds.
00:17:30
Speaker
It's about consistency, doing it every day, putting a slot in your day where you do this. Another powerful one that I enjoy to do is what am I proud of today? Just one thing. Sometimes it might be, I'm proud that my teenage daughter offered to babysit her niece. So you could be proud of someone else one day, you know, some days that's fine. Then you could be like, I'm proud of myself for going to the gym today. I'm proud that I got up.
00:17:58
Speaker
and did my meditation before I got going for the day. Whatever it is, you'll be proud of absolutely anything. I'm proud of the dinner that I cooked for everyone, even though they all complained. to Anything. like We spend so much time beating ourselves up, giving ourselves a pat on the back. All of these things, when we learn to just be a little bit kinder to ourselves, really helps to de-stress.
00:18:19
Speaker
I've lost the number that I'm on at this stage, so I'll just keep going. I've got three more. Relaxing baths. I'm a huge fan of getting into the bath, having but a bit of relaxation time. I lock myself in there. I put on a podcast. Do not talk to me. I'm not here. Somehow they always come looking for me anyway. If you don't enjoy a bath, it might be going for a shower and then doing your tan or doing your hair or just to do a little bit of time sitting down doing your nails or giving yourself a little pedicure or whatever.
00:18:46
Speaker
Obviously, going out to get these done much better, but that if we're not in a position for that, all these little things add up. Massage, if you're in a position to book a massage, do once a month, once every second month. It's really, really going to help just get the tension out of your body. If you can't afford to do that, get your partner or your sister or whoever to get going and give you a good massage every now and again, or get a massage gun. Massage guns are not relaxing. They're really, really painful. I really hate massage guns, but they will get the tension out of your body. So definitely massage is a great way to physically release tension and then just doing things that you enjoy. And this is going back to what what I discussed earlier. Sign up to a dance class.
00:19:33
Speaker
Start going to piano lessons. Whatever it is, do something that you enjoy. Add one thing in every day that you enjoy. even if that is getting up 10 minutes before everyone else is having a cup of coffee at peace, add one bigger thing into your week every week. Like I said, coffee with friends, lunch with friends, dance class, fitness class, whatever, something that makes you laugh. I have a lot of ladies that I coach that have like gone back to do GAA again, like go back to the mothers and others and football training and
00:20:05
Speaker
absolutely love it and have found themselves again.
The Role of Laughter and Joy
00:20:09
Speaker
So anything that's going to bring you back to you, think about it. Ask yourself, when is the last time that you laughed, like really laughed? I was only thinking about this, about myself recently. I was with my sister there last week.
00:20:24
Speaker
And something funny happened that only myself and herself would get. And we laughed so much. And I thought afterwards, after she'd left, when you laugh so much that there's tears is coming out of your eyes, I'm like, I don't remember the last time I laughed that much. And I thought, wow, we really do need to laugh more. So in relation to the types of stress in our lives, there's two types, okay? There's stress caused by specific events or issues, and then there's day-to-day stress.
00:20:51
Speaker
and they need to be dealt with differently. So stress that are caused by specific events or issues. So, you know, you might be having a stressful time with your teenager. You could be dealing with ah ah so a sick family member. You could have had a death in the family. A lot of stress and strain in your job at the moment. There are loads of specific events or issues where you are going to be stressed and you can't avoid being stressed, okay? So this is what I suggest you do to deal with this type of stress. Let it be.
00:21:20
Speaker
Sit with us and allow yourself to
Addressing Specific Stress Events
00:21:23
Speaker
feel it. This can be really uncomfortable, but we need to learn to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Sit with that stress. Sit with those uneasy feelings. Let it run through you. It's the only way to release it. Don't mask the stress with anything or try to fix it immediately. Don't be a fixer. Don't be trying to fix it or, you know, mask it. Just let it run through you. It will be uncomfortable, but let it be.
00:21:50
Speaker
Take some deep breaths and when you've felt it, let the energy begin to release itself. Cry, scream, walk, just don't suppress. Don't try and suppress it by eating, don't suppress it by drinking, don't medicate, just let it release. It is the most liberating feeling ever. And it might take, if it's a particularly difficult pain and stress, that it might take months, but that's okay, let yourself feel it.
00:22:20
Speaker
stop trying to be okay and just let it work its way through you. Then once you've done that, it's time to take action. Plan, journal, brainstorm, walk on it, sleep on it. So once you've felt it, what am I going to do to move forward? Start planning what you want to do to move forward. Start journaling on it. So journaling, coming back to the whole stress relief around journaling. Brainstorm, walk on it, sleep on it, but it nothing needs immediate action here. It has to be felt to be dealt with. Okay, set specific boundaries.
00:22:53
Speaker
When you deal with this this stress or worry. So if we're talking about a financial stress or a job stress, picking a time and like, okay, every day I will spend some time working on that between 6pm and 7pm. When you find yourself panicking about it throughout the day, breathe it away and be like, that's for 6pm today. And when you set that boundary with it's like, this is when I deal with it, it makes it much easier.
00:23:18
Speaker
to deal with because your mind is rested from it and you will come back to that problem and where that stress with a much clearer head. So then the other type of stress which is the dangerous stress. okay This is the day-to-day
Strategies for Daily Stress Management
00:23:31
Speaker
stress. Slow down. Take some deep breaths. Literally slow down your movements, your thoughts and your speech. So this happens to me a lot. If I'm stressed, suddenly I'll be like, I'll nearly be short of breath.
00:23:45
Speaker
and be rushing around, I'll be talking fast, I'll be doing things fast and suddenly I'll like, you know, literally I nearly get like a heart palpitations, I'll be getting a headache. So what I do is I physically slow my movements down, I do everything a bit slower and when I physically start to slow down and I purposely start talking a bit slower like I'm doing right now, my thoughts start to slow down and I start to feel a bit better about things.
00:24:10
Speaker
Be organized, plan ahead, make lists. So, so important. If you lead a busy life, you have to be organized. You have to plan ahead. Structure actually sets you free. Structure is not constraining. It's actually going to make you feel better and going to make everything easier. Set clear boundaries around work, around exercise time and around rest. Okay. So clear boundaries around everything. So what hours do you work?
00:24:39
Speaker
When you finish work, leave work at work. Even if you work from home, leave it to your work hours and you go back to it the next day. Exercise time. I work out between 5pm and 6pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays or whatever it is. I go for a walk every morning from 7am till 8am, whatever it is.
00:25:00
Speaker
Clear boundaries. Do not plan anything during your time for you and your rest time. What time do you sit down at the evening? What time do you go to bed at? All of that have clear boundaries. This type of structure, the organization and structure is going to give you freedom like you have never experienced. Daily movement is essential. You don't need a rest day from walking and tiredness is not an excuse here.
00:25:22
Speaker
your body needs to be moved every day. Every stress, problem, ache, pain, tiredness that you feel is going to feel better from a walk. The only time obviously is if you're injured or you're actually sick, don't push it then. But any other time, if you feel wrecked after a day, more than likely going to be mental tiredness, get out get moving, you're going to feel better for us. Food quality matters. You are what you eat. I've spoken about this already. So the day-to-day stress, you need to be fueling and nourishing your body, like I mentioned earlier, and you need time for use. So this is coming back to flow state, that joy, that children experience. We need some of that too. That's how you deal with your day-to-day stresses. So hopefully that's clear with obviously specifically stressful events. There's going to be times in life where things will be specifically stressful.
00:26:09
Speaker
And that's OK. And we have to feel it. We have to deal with it. And there's no rush with it. And don't be panicked about it. But if your day-to-day life is always stressful, with the day-to-day rushing around, being busy, being pulled in all different directions, then the advice I give around the day-to-day stress there is very important. Remember, all stress and emotion is valid.
00:26:30
Speaker
So it doesn't matter if your stress seems so much less your sister's stress or your friend's stress. So you know maybe you have a friend who's got a sick husband and she's lost her job and there's a lot of stress and you're just stressed because you're feeling really overwhelmed with all your responsibilities and you don't have any time for yourself and you're just starting to feel quite rundown and unwell. I see this with women a lot and they're like oh but you know I'm very lucky you know I have my husband here and you know Mary down the road doesn't have a husband and you know she's raising those kids by herself and you know and I really should be grateful for it's like your stress is valid no matter what situation you are in. This is where our journaling on our gratitude is important. It's important to be grateful for what we do have and to spend some time on that today but it's also important to feel our stress and feel our emotion and if you feel a certain way it's coming from somewhere and it's valid so listen to it.
00:27:24
Speaker
feel it and then start to resolve it no matter how big or small. and I think it's really important as well to to remember that no matter what situation you're in, you have the power to react to this situation in your own way. So sometimes things can feel very out of our control.
Choosing Your Attitude and Task Management
00:27:45
Speaker
And the most important thing here to remember is that you always have control over your reactions. It's the one thing you always have control of. And Viktor Frankl says it best. Viktor Frankl is a Holocaust survivor. He wrote the book Man's Search for Meaning. If you haven't read it, I highly, highly recommend. yeah He wrote this book basically on his experiences in the concentration camp. He experienced, obviously, you know what,
00:28:09
Speaker
people in this concentration camps in World War II experienced. He lost his wife and his children in the kind concentration camps. They were killed by the Nazis. So he lost everything. And one of the quotes from this book, which I just think is so, so empowering and so true. So I'm going to read it to you now.
00:28:26
Speaker
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing. The last of the human freedoms. To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. To choose one's own way. And I think that's just the most powerful thing.
00:28:41
Speaker
And how do you start? You start by journaling. You start by getting pen to paper and doing a little bit of reflection. Create that little space for yourself to reflect so you're not constantly in reaction. Start moving towards response rather than react. It's hugely empowering. Okay, so to conclude, if you're still with me, well done for listening to me ramble this long. It's important to remember that if it is your day-to-day life that's causing you the most stress rather than a particularly stressful event, you will eventually have to do something about it.
00:29:17
Speaker
If it is a case that day-to-day life is really stressful all the time and has been for a long time, something needs to change. Again, I'm not talking about the specifically stressful events of short-term issues.
00:29:32
Speaker
I'm talking about long-term. What needs to change? It's important to look at this and then taking these three things, eliminate, re-navigate or delegate. So is there anything in your life that you can eliminate that's causing you stress that you don't need to do anymore? Make a list. Is there anything that you need to re-navigate that you need to come at from a different direction?
00:29:55
Speaker
that you need to deal with differently, that your responses to needs to change, that will be done through journaling work and self-reflection. Or is there anything that you can delegate? Are you doing too much? Can you get a cleaner? Can you ask your partner to help more? Can you give your older kids some more jobs around the house in work?
00:30:14
Speaker
Do you have any colleagues that you can delegate work to? Do you need to get some childcare to give yourself a little bit more space? Do you have friends or family that you can ask for help if you need a bit of help? So you're obviously not going to be able to eliminate everything. You've got to eliminate your children or your husband. There's some things that you can eliminate that you're holding onto that you're like, maybe I don't need to be helping this person who's always putting me down anymore.
00:30:41
Speaker
Maybe I don't need to hang out with that group of friends anymore that are always bitching about everyone. And as soon as I leave, I know that that's happening about me. There's lots of different situations where it you can eliminate behaviours and not to sound harsh. so You can eliminate people from your life, especially if they're causing you pain, or you can definitely majorly reduce your contact with them. Relavigate, relook at how you are reacting to things and how you are doing things and delegate.
00:31:09
Speaker
So look I hope you found that helpful that was a very long little rant about stress but as you can see how important I think it is. So I hope you enjoyed the episode and I will chat to you
00:31:26
Speaker
I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the podcast. It really means so much to me that there are people out there actually listening to what I have to say and to the conversations that I'm having with others. So thank you so much. If you are enjoying the podcast, could you please make sure that you are subscribed? And if not, if you could hit that subscribe button, it really does make that much of a difference. Also, if you would like to leave a review on any of the episodes that you listen to that you particularly enjoy I would love to hear what you have to say and also if there's an episode that you've enjoyed please do share it on your social media in your whatsapp groups with your friends if you're sharing it on your stories please tag myself in it and whoever I'm interviewing this it would be greatly appreciated
00:32:08
Speaker
Also, if you're interested in working with me and my wonderful team, please do you contact me about applying for coaching. So you can contact me at Kate Hamilton Health at gmail dot.com or on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all Kate Hamilton Health. And you will be able to comp apply for coaching. We can organize to have a chat and see if it's a good fit for you and get you moving towards your goal.