When your shit hits the fan…
I had another blog planned for this week about what I learned in Italy, but I got back from vacation, and felt like the shit hit the fan. My mother was diagnosed with cancer, and I have been hearing about major upsets from my clients and friends, like family members being hospitalized to people getting fired, agreements being challenged and arguments erupting. It was a dramatic week for many, rocked by astrological stirrings.
“You can expect a lot of apple carts to be upset when the Sun opposes Pluto on July 6 and then squares Uranus on July 12. These are some of the most volatile planetary energies imaginable as you’ll see for yourself when agreements made one day are turned upside down the next. It’s always wise to duck and cover when the stars act out like this because you won’t have any control over how things play out.”
SheKnows.com by Christopher Renstrom
So, I want to share what has helped me the most this week. Knowing I was stressed, I immediately beefed up my self-care, and incorporated my daily stress detox protocol (videos below) immediately and made sure I worked out for 30 minutes every day. I forced myself to wake up earlier to do it, which is unlike me, but I knew if I didn’t move this stress out of my body, I would wear myself out with obsessive worry.
The worst part of any bad news is your physical reaction it. When you are stressed, your body moves into a Sympathetic Nervous System Reaction or a Fight, Flight or Freeze state. And, your body physically harnesses energy to Fight or run from danger. While this helps you in life threatening situations, it hinders your ability to function in normal life. While a cancer diagnosis could be life threatening for my mom, there was no lion, tiger or bear chasing me, and I needed to calm myself down, so I could think clearly and be effective for my family.
So, if you are feeling challenged, and even if you aren’t, I highly suggest doing these super quick exercises to de-stress throughout your day. They help your body better process and digest both chemical and emotional stress and give you a huge return for such a small time investment. And, incorporating 20-30 minutes of cardio, preferably interval training, can also help you physically release stress by giving your body an outlet for the energy built up in your Fight or Flight response. Doing these energy exercises and interval training is helping me dramatically.
These exercises work! I am so grateful for these tools! Both the Detox Massage and the Energy Boost Exercise really helped my mom; they helped clear her head and alleviated nausea from the anesthesia and pain meds in a matter of minutes.
The difference in her before and after these exercises was remarkable! While doing the Head Hold, Easiest Stress Relief Exercises and doing my Chakra Clearing with Essential Oils every day has been helping me process all the emotions that are coming with this. I will be sharing how to effectively use Essential Oils to Clear and Balance Chakras on Aug 1st in a workshop at my studio. Using the basic chakra clearing exercise, I will share in that class, was the thing that gave me incredible emotional relief after a rough day with my mom, 1st day post surgery. I was soooooo appreciative of these tools and my handy oil kit!!! I went from feeling drained, deflated and down to feeling grounded, connected and empowered in a matter of 15 minutes.
Mom is doing so much better 3 days out! She is actually walking today! But, she is not out of the woods yet, so we would so appreciate any prayers, love or healing energy you could direct our way.
We appreciate your love and support,
Lara
Daily Stress Detox Protocol
To increase your energy…
Take just 30 seconds to do one in the morning for a quick energy boost!
Do this Quick Energy Booster to feel energized! Once you learn this exercise, you can do it all day long to bring energy to your immune system and to stimulate your Kidney, Liver, and Spleen Meridians, which are the Meridians most taxed by our environments, toxins and stress. I recommend starting your day with this one. Many of my clients actually do it in the shower. Then,continue to do it throughout your day for a boost of energy anytime you need it!
To detox before you “re-tox”…
After lunch, take just 3 minutes to move your lymph system, and give yourself some natural energy instead of using caffeine in the afternoon between 3-5pm!
This lymph massage will help move toxins, like pesticides and chemical preservatives, out of your system, so your body doesn’t have to waste your precious energy processing them, giving you some extra energy!
To drop into this Chill Pill…
Do this super relaxing Stress Relief Pose at night for 3-5 minutes when you get into bed; you will most likely fall asleep in it. Doing this nightly, my clients report feeling calmer over all during their days.
This pose helps calm your body’s reaction to stress by sending the message to your body to move into a parasympathetic nervous system response, a restive state verses a stress state, so you can have a more peaceful night’s sleep.
When you have a fight or flight response to everyday stress, blood rushes from your brain to your limbs to power your escape or fight. When you hold these points, you send a signal to bring blood back to your brain. This reverses the stress response, so you can relax. You are physically conveying the message to your nervous system that, despite the stress you endured during your day, there is no lion chasing you and no gun to your head now, so you can relax and go to sleep. Doing this pose nightly helped me completely alleviate my anxiety during a stressful episode in my life.
To get stress relief anywhere…
This is awesome, instant stress relief you can do pretty much anywhere!
This is one of the easiest stress relief exercises I recommend. This exercise can be done to alleviate stress anywhere! I do it on trains, in taxicabs and standing in lines to calm myself down whenever stress strikes. We can’t always control what stressors come our way, but with this and the other exercises, we can control how we ultimately react to it. Doing all of theses exercise on a regular basis will lessen the intensity of all of our stress responses over time, and things that would normally set us off will become small irritants verses huge upsets.
This particular exercise gets our brain working bilaterally. When we are in a Sympathetic, Fight or Flight state our brain starts utilizing our more dominant side, right or left side, to conserve energy.Doing this posture forces the brain into bilateral function overriding a stress response and putting our body in a restive or Parasympathetic state. Rate your stress level on a scale of 1-10 before and after doing this exercise, so you can see how this works for you!
Repeating any one of these phrases in the above posture is a great way to start your day:
- I have plenty of time.
- I have plenty of money.
- I have plenty of help.
- I have plenty energy.
- I am safe, and prepared.
Please rate your energy level and stress level every day to see how just this 6 minutes of exercise is working for you?
