May 2021 - Completing the Stress Cycle

This month's theme is inspired by the book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski.

While the entire book is fantastic and valuable, I was so impressed by the first section that I made it this month’s theme. First, a reminder that stress takes a physiological toll on us. When a stressor occurs, we might have an increased heart rate, or our blood pressure may go up -- you know what this is like.

What you may not realize is that we often physically “hold on” to our stress because we haven’t taken any action to complete the stress cycle and down-regulate to our homeostatic state. Here is the short list of ways to do this: physical activity, deep breathing, laughing or crying, physical affection, as well as creative expression.

For more information, read Burnout or hop in to my Mindfulness Membership, where we take a deeper dive into all this.