Stress Awareness Month: Sharing My Journey and My Practical Tips to Managing Stress

It’s Stress Awareness Month and I wanted to share an incident from 10 years ago, which was a bit of a wake-up call for me.

Manage stress, connect and live your life

Running on Adrenaline?

Back in 2014, I was working in the City, and we were about to go live with a new regulatory requirement, EMIR Transaction Reporting. Maybe some of you will remember how everyone was scrambling back then with this new European regulation. I was loving the challenge but at the same time it was a very stressful run up to the go-live.

I picked up an awful cold and like always I was soldiering on. But I woke up Saturday morning, not long before go-live, with swollen, painful hands and feet. They progressively got worse over the weekend, and I developed strange spots. The Drs were unsure what this was, and after a series of tests and consultations, the dermatologist on Monday suspected vasculitis, inflammation of the blood vessels, my immune system was attacking my blood vessels.

Later that week, my skin on my hands and feet peeled off, and not long after my nails. It took 6 months in total for the nails to grow back properly.

A Wake-Up Call

I suppose you can call this a wake-up call. I realised that I had become so used to thriving on stress, but my body had its limits.

It’s easy to pride ourselves on pushing through stress, but the long-term consequences can be severe. It can impact digestive health, sleep, the immune system, weight, blood pressure and much more. If the body is constantly in a 'fight or flight' mode, it’s never going to really be able to 'rest and digest'. Its' focus is survival so there's no point thinking about making babies or digesting food, those are nice to haves.

A Journey to Wellness

This pivotal moment and later finding out I had fibroids, eventually led me to make significant changes in my life, starting my journey to Nutrition and a more holistic lifestyle. When I look back now with my Nutrition expertise and having run some Nutrigenomics tests, I can see the patterns - genetic predisposition to inflammation, impaired ability to detoxify efficiently and clear histamine, making me more susceptible to stressors.

Practical Tips for Stress Management

As it’s Stress Awareness Month, I don’t want you to have to find out the hard way that you need to prioritise self-care and proactively manage stress. I want you to find tools that work for you, that can support you on your journey, here are a few of my tips and you don’t have to do all of these, start off small, take one. Find what works for you and add to this –

1.      Nourish your body: Fuel your body with whole, nutrient-dense foods. Think vibrant and colourful vegetables, lean proteins, fibre, and healthy fats. These will provide you the key nutrients that will support you. Remember, your body will deplete key nutrients quicker if you are stressed or are going through a stressful period at work or in life.

2.      Breath work / yoga: Incorporate some breathing exercises into your daily routine, or maybe try some yoga nidra, or yin yoga. These exercises will introduce some much needed self-care and calm and this somatic work will slowly release and unravel deep-seated stress. Through these exercises you can imagine you are inhaling positivity and exhaling stress. The breathwork I discovered via yoga, was a lifesaver for me, it was what my body was calling out for.

3.      Movement: Find activities that bring you joy, whether it's dancing, yoga, or a walk in nature. Exercise releases endorphins, those wonderful mood-boosting chemicals that combat stress. I found daily walks helped to clear my head and I could lose myself completely. There would be evenings when I remember walking from my offices in the City down to Clapham or along the river to Waterloo – I just wanted to walk.

4.      Prioritise rest: Quality sleep should be a non-negotiable for managing stress. Create a calming bedtime routine, switch off devices, maybe try some yoga nidra and aim for 7-9 hours of restorative sleep each night. I found yoga nidra was a god send.

5.      Nurture connections: Don’t forget the love and support around you. Whether it's a heart-to-heart with a friend or cuddle time with your pet or a loved one, nurturing connections are essential for combating stress. Or maybe you need to speak to a professional, there’s no shame in this and actually talking to someone you don’t know can be more productive.

BONUS Tip, which is often forgotten but is so important -

Connect with yourself: Take time to tune inwards and nurture a deeper understanding and connection with yourself, your own struggles, and imperfections. Whether through meditation, journaling, or simply quiet reflection, prioritise self-discovery and inner peace so you can be true and compassionate to yourself.

Ready to Take Control?

If any of this resonates with you, or you would like some support, maybe you want to discover how nutrition and lifestyle changes could help you, book your free 30-min call with me. Let’s see how we can work towards supporting you to take back control of your health so you can live your life.

And if you too want to explore your genetic predispositions, we can go much deeper and really personalise your nutrition and lifestyle changes.

You can book using this link.