3 Stages of Stress

Ever wondered why stress affects us the way it does? Dive into the intriguing world of the three stages of stress, where we unravel the science of your body’s HPA Axis and sympathetic nervous system activation. Discover these stages, learn how to identify them, and equip yourself with the tools to treat stress effectively.

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How Stress Affects Our Body

Let’s start by discussing how stress affects our body. Stress can be categorized as both good and bad. Good stress, known as eustress, can be related to physical exercise or the excitement of an upcoming event, for example. Eustress plays a vital role in our performance, but today, we will focus on the three stages of stress and how acute stress can transform into chronic stress, impacting our bodies.

The HPA axis, short for the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, is the body’s stress pathway. When we encounter a psychological or physical stressor, our limbic system, the brain’s emotional center, detects a potential threat. This sets off a series of events, with signals sent from the limbic system to the pituitary gland in the brain, which, in turn, signals the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus then prompts the pituitary gland to communicate with the adrenal glands.

The adrenal glands respond by releasing cortisol. If this stress continues for an extended period, it can lead to a persistent activation of the HPA axis. It’s crucial to understand that when the HPA axis is activated, it triggers the sympathetic nervous system, putting us in a fight-or-flight mode for survival.

When the sympathetic nervous system is upregulated, or the parasympathetic nervous system is downregulated, it’s like having the gas pedal pressed down continuously. The longer the HPA axis remains activated, the more our sympathetic nervous system stays in overdrive.

In 1963, Hans Selye pioneered understanding physiological responses to stress, a concept known as General Adaptation Syndrome.

Stages of Stress

Stage 1 – Arousal

Let’s examine a typical cortisol rhythm. Around 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., we experience the highest peak of cortisol, which gradually decreases as the day progresses, particularly as bedtime approaches when melatonin takes over.

In a stage one arousal state of stress, both cortisol and DHEA levels are elevated. DHEA is a crucial hormone associated with vitality, often called the “anti-aging hormone.” Initially, this response is entirely normal, resulting in episodic increases in both hormones followed by a return to baseline. Typically, in this state, you may not experience any symptoms, but you are stimulated, and there is a rapid release of catecholamines. This is essentially a natural and expected response.

This scenario applies when we encounter episodic stress throughout our day or life. The HPA axis and sympathetic nervous system become activated temporarily, but we ultimately return to our resilient baseline state. Everything remains well within the normal range.

Stage 2 – Adaptation

Now, this is where we are adapting to a higher cortisol point. This can manifest as elevated cortisol points at various times throughout the day or even persistently high cortisol levels, particularly in the morning. It’s not uncommon to wake up at two or three o’clock in the morning due to cortisol peaking prematurely.

In this situation, cortisol remains chronically elevated while DHEA levels start to decrease. This is when you might experience stress-related symptoms such as panic attacks, anxiety, depression, or feeling both tired and wired simultaneously. Instead of winding down for sleep at night, you find yourself with the energy to keep reading, cleaning, or tackling various tasks despite feeling tired.

Stage 3 – Exhaustion

So, think of it this way: if your adrenals have been pumping out cortisol for so long, then at some point, your body’s natural homeostasis is affected. At this point, cortisol is now low, and DHEA is low.

Various things typically occur in this stage, but you are likely to experience significant chronic fatigue. You’ll also notice more depression than anxiety, although anxiety can still be a significant part of it. Low blood sugar and glucose dysregulation are common patterns here.

When looking at a cortisol graph, there will be at least two to four points that are low on the cortisol rhythm. Normally, it starts up around 6:00 a.m. and gradually decreases throughout the day. However, in this case, multiple points are low. This can lead to symptoms such as fibromyalgia, dizziness, brain fog, inflammation, allergies, and even early menopause, which is another sign of stage three stress.

Other common symptoms are cravings for salty food, dizziness, and easy bruising.

Understanding the Stage of Stress You Are In

So, as you can see, each stage is very unique in its presentation. Some individuals may present with signs of stage two or stage three, which is common. However, I believe the first step I recommend is to try to better understand where you are. Simply identifying your stage is an excellent starting point for healing your body, and knowing that you can do it is important.

Your body is designed to heal itself, so when you start providing it with the things it needs and desires, you can significantly impact your health.

Tips for Overcoming Stress

Here are a few important tips, regardless of your stage. What stage are you in right now? Simply identifying it and understanding stress a little more is a great starting point. 

Tip #1 – Focus on Your Nutrition

Focus on your nutrition! Especially if you are in stage three of stress, where you’re experiencing a lot of blood sugar dysregulation and low blood sugar in general, this is an area that you can really begin to eat every three to four hours. I would not recommend fasting in this situation. Instead, concentrate on balanced meals that include protein, healthy fats, and fiber sources, and consistently consume whole foods throughout the day. 

Even if you find yourself in a slight caloric surplus, it’s important to note that most people I encounter are actually in a caloric deficit, which can contribute to more stress on the body.

So, keep in mind that the focus here is on whole foods and consistently eating high-quality nutrients. This approach aligns with my next suggestion: to ensure you’re replenishing nutrients. If you’re consuming very few calories or fasting, all of these practices can deplete your body with the essential nutrients needed for a healthy nervous system and stress mitigation, making you more resilient.

Therefore, emphasizing the intake of optimal nutrients and whole meals is a crucial step in managing stress.

Tip #2 – Nervous System Regulation

If you’ve read any of my blogs, you can see lots of different examples of this, but this can start with simply moving your body. This can be any type of breath work, movement, authentic movement, somatics, and vagus nerve exercises I have provided you. It could be anything to consistently regulate your nervous system in a healthy way. What are your triggers, and what things really are fulfilling you?

Tip #3 – Optimizing Sleep

I’ve written a few blogs on sleep, but here are some ideas: First, you want to think about down-regulating your nervous system to be able to go to sleep. Have a ritual before you go to bed. Wear blue light blockers if you’re using your phone, TV, or tablet because, in this case, it’s actually signaling to the receptors in your retina that it is morning time. 

When you wake up, your ritual is even more important. You want to ideally try to get morning sunlight within the first 20 minutes of waking up. If that’s not possible, you can use a SAD light. It’s not as good as the sun, but it is a good backup plan so that there’s at least something in place that will help to increase your natural cortisol in the morning, and it will also help with the evening melatonin production. 

So, consider everything you can do to optimize sleep.

Tip #4 – Supplementation

With this, the biggest take-home that I want to give you here is within each stage of stress, there are many different options. This will depend on your medical history, the stage of stress you’re in, and the types of things you are sensitive to—have you tried herbs, botanicals, or adaptogens? Have you had an issue with them in the past? There are so many variables. The first step is nutraceuticals, i.e., getting the nutrients that you are not getting through food.

Beyond that, you can get more specific in looking at different adaptogens that might be appropriate for your level of stress. For example, Ashwagandha is appropriate for all three levels of stress. That may not necessarily be the right thing for you, however. You do want to check with your doctor, functional medicine provider, or dietitian to ensure it is. 

There are so many things you can do to begin to pave the way for a more resilient nervous system, a healthy body, and a healthy mind.

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To learn more about how we can assist you on your journey, please don’t hesitate to reach out for a discovery session. We look forward to helping you on your path to wellness.

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Is your anxiety or depression coming from your gut?

Is your anxiety and/or depression coming from your gut? So many people are suffering from anxiety and/or depression, so it’s important to look at the connections between the gut and the brain, and the gut’s influence on mood and behavior. This is an important aspect of looking at mental health and addressing some underlying physical causes. 

The gut-brain connection is fascinating, and it is essentially our bidirectional communication between our gut and brain. It has multiple pathways, including the hormonal, immune system, and nervous systems. For the purpose of today, let’s focus on two aspects: the hormonal and nervous systems.

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The hormonal connection is based on neurotransmitters which are essentially chemical messengers; we also refer to them as hormones. They are signaling from the gut to the brain and the brain to the gut. We have 90% of our serotonin, which is our hormone that provides feelings of happiness, located in our gut. 50% is the dopamine in our gut, which is our feel-good hormone. We also have GABA, gamma amino butyric acid, which decreases feelings of stress and anxiety. All of these are located in our gut! Therefore, gut issues, infections, inflammatory diets can influence our mood and behavior. 

Our gut bacteria form these neurotransmitters, so different strains of bacteria will influence these different neurotransmitters. For example, Streptococcus and Enterococcus produce serotonin. Escherichia produces norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin. Bacillus species also produce norepinephrine and dopamine. Bifidobacterium produces GABA. Lactobacillus species influence our acetylcholine, which is important for relaxation response, and GABA. 

The nervous system pathways of the gut-brain connection, on the other hand,  primarily exist through the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve originates from the brainstem; it’s the 10th cranial nerve, and it’s actually a pair of nerves. It innervates muscles of the face, throat, heart, respiration, digestion, and our entire elimination track. It is one of the most important nerves of our digestive system. Therefore, we are influencing this gut-to-brain connection when we are either stimulating the gut from a viscera and/or probiotics or vagus nerve stimulation exercises such as breathing. 

It is imperative that we begin to look more closely at these powerful connections and that we look beyond the genetic and environmental components to see why someone may be experiencing anxiety and depression or other mental health issues. Things such as leaky gut, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), systemic inflammation, inflammatory foods, and the standard American diet will undoubtedly influence these neurotransmitters and the vagus nerve. This attributes to changes in our serotonin, dopamine, and GABA levels, thereby impacting our mood and behavior. 

What can you do about it? Find a functional medicine provider to help you navigate the physical causes of anxiety and depression. You could also start with testing: leaky gut, SIBO, stool testing to look at your microbiome. 

You can also start by making small changes. Focus on eating an anti-inflammatory diet, optimizing your sleep, and working on stress reduction connections.

Reach out for a 15-minute FREE discovery session to see how we can help you on your journey.

For more content, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

Other things that may interest you:

WHY DO YOU HAVE CRAVINGS | 4 reasons

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How to Map Your Own Nervous System: The Polyvagal Theory

With anxiety, depression and stress on the climb, have you ever wondered how you can understand your reactions to life’s challenges and stressors? Or maybe you wondered how you can become more resilient? Did you know that you can map your own nervous system? This is such a powerful tool that can help you shift the state of your nervous system to help you feel more mindful, grounded, and joyful during the day, and more importantly during your life. Before we discuss how to map your nervous system, let’s break down the autonomic nervous system a bit more.

The terms “fight or flight” and “rest and digest” are typically what we refer to when discussing this autonomic nervous system. However, there are three different aspects of the autonomic nervous system referred to as the polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges. The vagus nerve, referred to as the wandering nerve in Latin, is one of the longest nerves that originates in the brainstem and innervates the muscles of the throat, circulation, respiration, digestion and elimination. The vagus nerve is the major constituent of the parasympathetic nervous system and 80 percent of it’s nerve fibers are sensory, which means the feedback is critical for the body’s homeostasis. This amazing vagus nerve is constantly conveying information back to our brain. For example, when we take slow deep breaths, we are stimulating the vagus nerve. This will cause the release of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, which signals back to the brain to create this relaxation response. Pretty amazing, wouldn’t you say?

When we are in this stressed state or potentially anxious state, then we cannot be curious, or be empathetic at the same time. In addition to not being able to be empathetic or curious, we are also not able to bring the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for executive function,  communicating, guiding, and coordinating the functions of the different parts of the brain, back online. This essentially means that we are not able to regulate our attention and focus. Sound familiar?

Three nervous system states

  1. First, our “fight and flight” response is our survival strategy, a response from the sympathetic nervous system. If you were going to run from tiger, for example, you want this response to save your life. When we have a fight response, we can have anger, rage, irritation, and frustration. If we are having a flight response, we can have anxiety, worry, fear, and panic. Physiologically, our blood pressure, heart rate, and adrenaline increase and it decreases digestion, pain threshold, and immune responses.
  2. Second, we have a “freeze” state, our dorsal vagal state, which is our most primitive pattern, and this is also referred to as our emergency state. This means that we are completely shut down, we can feel hopeless and feel like there’s no way out. We tend to feel depressed, conserve energy, dissociate, feel overwhelmed, and feel like we can’t move forward. Physiologically, our fuel storage and insulin activity increases and our pain thresholds increase.
  3. Lastly, our “social engagement” state is a response of the parasympathetic system, also known as a ventral vagal state. It is our state of safety and homeostasis. If we are in our ventral vagal state, we are grounded, mindful, joyful, curious, empathetic, and compassionate. This is the state of social engagement, where we are connected to ourselves and the world. Physiologically, digestion, resistance to infection, circulation, immune responses, and our ability to connect is improved.

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polyvygal chart
Adapted by Ruby Jo Walker with permission

As humans, we have and will continue to experience all of these states. We may be in a joyful, mindful state and then all of a sudden due to a trigger, be in a really frustrated, possibly angry state, worried about what may happen to then feeling completely shut down. This is human experience. We are going to naturally shift through the states.

However, when we stay in this fight or flight or this shut down/freeze state, that is when we begin to have significant physiological effects and also mental/emotional effects. As I mentioned earlier, this could be an emergency state. This can also be a suicidal state, if we are in this shut down mode for too long. If we are in a fight or flight state, we can have constant activation of our stress pathway, also known as the HPA axis, and we can really impact our stress hormones, sex hormones, our thyroid, etc. This stress will have significant inflammation effects on the body as well. All of these states can have considerable effect on our overall health, positive or negative, of course. Also, you can not get well if you are not in your “safe” state. No treatment intervention or professional will help you if you are not safe. This is why it’s really important to identify the states for each of you.

How can you map your nervous system? According to Deb Dana, there is a simple and effective approach in her book, the Polyvagal Theory in Therapy.

  1. Identify each state for you.

The first step is to think of one word that defines each one of these states for you. For example, if you are in your ventral vagal state, this is also called the rest and digest state, you could say that you feel happy, content, joyful. etc.

When you are in your fight or flight state you could use the words worried, stressed, overwhelmed, etc.

In the freeze state you could use the words shut down, numb, hopeless, etc.

The first step is identifying the word that you correlate with each of those three states. This is really important because then you’re able to recognize which state you are in and identify with it quickly. This will allow you to really tune into your body and understand how you feel in that state, so you can help yourself get out of it.

2. Identify your triggers and glimmers.

You’ll want to identify triggers for your fight/flight state as well as your freeze state. These could be things like a fight with your boss, an argument with your spouse, a death of a loved one, if someone cuts you off while driving, etc. It is whatever things that cause you to feel stressed. You want to eventually have at least one trigger, if not many, written down for each of those states.

Glimmers are the things that bring you to that optimal nervous system state. It could be something as simple as petting a dog or something bigger like going on a vacation.

For more on Deb Dana’s work and her Polyvagal resources visit: www.rhythmofregulation.com.

Summary

Once you can identify what those states are for you, then you can recognize what your triggers and glimmers are for that state. You can really begin to make a profound difference in your nervous system state. You can take ownership of what’s happening to your body, you can tune in to what’s happening, and know how to regulate your emotions and your responses to stress. Ultimately, this is how we can begin to develop resilience. This means being able to have respond appropriately to life’s challenges, go to that fight or flight state for a short period, and then return back to your state of social engagement. That should happen a few times a year not multiple times a day, or every day for that matter. To truly enjoy life, returning to your state of safety where you are mindful, grounded, and joyful, is a practice. It can start with mapping your own nervous system.  

If you need help on your journey, please reach out!

For more content, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

Other things that may interest you:

How to test your vagus nerve

How to improve your vagal tone

References:

Dana, D., & Porges, S. W. (2018). The polyvagal theory in therapy: Engaging the rhythm of regulation. W.W. Norton & Company.

Porges, S. W., Porges, S. W., & Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. First Edition ; the pocket guide to the polyvagal theory: The transformative power of feeling safe. first edition. W.W. Norton & Company.

ROSENBERG, S. T. A. N. L. E. Y. (2019). Accessing the healing power of the vagus nerve: Self-exercises for anxiety, depression, trauma, … and autism. READHOWYOUWANT COM LTD.

IS YOUR IBS ACTUALLY SIBO?

Have you been experiencing abdominal symptoms? Bloating? Cramping? Indigestion? Abdominal pain? Or maybe you are experiencing anxiety and depression? If so, you should know about small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and how it is most often under-diagnosed as a source of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Many individuals have a diagnosis of IBS that they have been given at some point in their lives by a doctor, and they are just trying to manage it on their own with no real solution to addressing the root cause. In most cases, IBS is in fact SIBO. 

SIBO is a serious condition affecting the small intestine and happens when bacteria that normally grow in other parts of the gut, grow in the small intestine.  When you are diagnosed with IBS it’s really important to make sure that you get the proper testing and determine if this is one of your root causes. Let’s now talk about how you can tell if your IBS is actually SIBO.

Symptoms:

If you’re experiencing anxiety, depression, bloating, digestive issues, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain, overall puffiness and discomfort around the abdomen, and even such symptoms as heartburn and acid reflux, it’s really important to get properly evaluated.

Testing:

You will have a breath test, which will determine if you have methane or hydrogen gas in your gut. The breath test will be over a series of a few hours.  After you ingest lactulose, depending on how it ferments in your gut, will determine what type of gas is produced and this will indicate whether or not you have SIBO.

Treatment:

If you have a diagnosis of SIBO or IBS, and you’re in the process of trying to determine how you can feel better, it’s highly recommended to go on a low FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, and polyols) diet.  These are hard to digest fibers and sugars, and therefore do not pass through the small intestine well. In the colon, the high FODMAP foods will ferment and cause gas, and in the small intestine, they will pull water causing bloating and stretch in the intestinal area.

The first part of the low FODMAP plans a complete elimination of any moderate to high FODMAP foods. After the elimination phase, which can be anywhere from two to six weeks, then you can begin a reintroduction. You would reintroduce one FODMAP food at a time and see how your body tolerates it. After you’ve done that you can personalize your plan, and determine what foods are aggravating you and contributing to some kind of bloating, flatulence, abdominal pain, etc. The first goal of the program is to decrease inflammation and symptoms and try to settle your system down. Once you do that, you can begin to transition into the personalization of the food plan.

After you’ve determined you may have SIBO and you have initiated a low FODMAP plan, you want to follow a 5R protocol for restoration. So, that would be removing the inflammatory triggers, replacing the digestive enzymes, reinoculating with good bacteria, replacing any nutrients that you may be deficient in, and also rebalancing your lifestyle factors. After you have worked through a 5R protocol, there is a chance that you may need to take an antibiotic, whether that’s herbal or conventional. The research shows that both an herbal or conventional antibiotic can be equally effective. It does depend on if your body is ready to support it, and if you are well enough to be able to handle the antibiotic.

Summary:

If you are a person that has had a diagnosis of IBS, or you’re dealing with a lot of abdominal symptoms and you really want to get to the bottom of it; it’s really important to consider SIBO as one of the possibilities. You want to make sure that you’re using this as a possible diagnostic tool to rule in or rule out, and to treat the root cause, as opposed to just treating your symptoms.

Reach out for a 15-minute FREE discovery session to see how we can help you on your journey.

For more content, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

Other things that may interest you:

What do your gut bacteria do? | 10 Functions of Gut Bacteria | Microbiome

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Understanding Your Pain

3 AREAS IN YOUR BODY YOU HOLD YOUR STRESS

Did you know that there are three primary areas of the body that typically hold tension? All of us have preferred places in our bodies where our pain, worry, and fears are most readily expressed in muscular tension. The three key areas in the body that have the potential to be most affected by emotional forces are the pelvic floor, the diaphragm, and the jaw.

Many of you have experienced tension in your neck and jaw and tightness in your low back. This can be driven primarily by emotions. If we think of it this way, pleasurable experiences typically will cause us to relax, energize, and expand. Conversely, unpleasant experiences are going to typically cause us to contract, be tenser, and possibly even depressed. We must recognize that this stress or muscular tension that we are holding in these three primary areas is subconscious and that rather than just addressing the symptom, we have to focus on what is the root cause. Is there another way for you to express your emotion? Meditation, mindfulness, yoga, journaling, and talking to a friend or talking to a psychologist are all really powerful and often necessary. I’m going to discuss some quick bio hacks that can help with addressing these tensions and hopefully make you feel great.

Jaw

Many people tend to clench their jaw or grind their teeth, whether that’s during the day or at night. This is a subconscious behavior indicating that the nervous system is in survival mode. Here are two easy things that you can do while you’re brushing your teeth and then also during your workday that are very simple to relieve jaw tension and hopefully retrain and reprogram yourself to not clenching your jaw.

  • The first thing is to make sure that you have the optimal tongue position. Make sure that the tongue is resting on the roof of the mouth and the back of the front teeth. You’ll want to make sure that your teeth are slightly apart and your lips are gently closed. If you make a humming sound, your tongue will naturally be in the ideal position. Practice this multiple times a day to make sure you are tuning in. Also, when you are breathing diaphragmatically, your tongue would be in it’s resting position.
  • Another aspect of jaw tension is when your jaw is compensating for other things. For example, if there’s a lack of core stability and tension in the abdomen, you could be clenching your jaw to create stability. You do want to be properly evaluated but if you know that your jaw is tight you can do this release. Your masseter muscle is right on the outside of the jaw. Then you have your lateral pterygoid, which points up toward the ear and then the medial pterygoid, which goes down toward the bottom of the jaw, like scissors.  You can take your toothbrush in your mouth and move it up toward your ear to release the lateral pterygoid. You do this by holding your toothbrush in your mouth in that direction on the right side and then moving your jaw down, left, up, and then to the right. Then to release the medial pterygoid you would stick your toothbrush in your mouth again but this time toward the bottom of your jaw. Then, while holding the toothbrush on the right side you will move your jaw down, left, and then close. Now, to release the masseter, you will hold your fingers against the outside of your jaw on the left and then move your jaw down, right, and then close. You can do all of these on both sides. You can also use this as an assessment to see how tight your jaw is. 

Diaphragm

This tends to be an area where we can hold a lot of emotional tension and grief. We breathe 20 to 25,000 times a day so how you breathe matters. It’s not just about if you’re breathing to stay alive, it’s how you’re breathing. With practice and conscious regulation of this muscle, we can regulate our response and our emotions. However, during times of high stress, like right now in the world, the diaphragm can become very restricted which therefore can cause one of your most common complaints which is neck tension. Many will say “I hold my tension in my neck,” but that’s because they are breathing from the neck and shoulders, as opposed to the diaphragm.

You can check out my other video on how breathing is your superpower. But, for now, try to take three diaphragmatic breaths every hour. This means that you’re breathing in through the nose, ideally out through the nose, if possible, and you’re expanding your abdomen 360 degrees. That means that your chest will not rise up and down, but your abdomen will expand. The longer the exhalation, the more of a relaxation response you will have.

You want to start with a breath that feels comfortable for you. For example, three seconds in and three seconds out. As you feel more comfortable please try to extend your inhalation, exhalation, and even your pauses at the subtle shift before your exhalation, and then before your inhalation. This can be calming for the nervous system, but it also allows you this opportunity to tune in with what’s happening in your body, to be mindful, to understand what your emotions and thoughts are, and what your physical sensations are.

Pelvic Floor

This is often considered taboo, however, is one of the primary areas for men and women, where we unconsciously store emotions. This is also based on Eastern and Western medicine as it relates to the chakras, but also science.

The pelvic floor is critical for our emotional and energetic health. Think of dogs when they are expressing their emotions or they have done something wrong and their owner is upset; the dog will tuck their tail between their legs. That is the same concept of what happens where as humans, we create this tension in the pelvic region and we don’t even know it’s there. Pelvic floor issues are very commonly present as hip pain, low back pain, and sometimes even knee pain.  It can be something that is an underlying issue that is often overlooked but very common. Here are two exercises that you can do to relax your pelvic floor.

  1. Rock on your forearms: Place your elbows outside of your shoulder, knees outside of your hip, and keep your eyes gazing towards your fingertips. Inhale as you rock back, exhale as you rock forward. Make sure you keep your spine nice and straight. Your eyes gazing forward will allow that to happen. Inhale as you go back to relax the pelvic floor, exhale as you go forward belly button will go in towards your spine.
  2. Happy baby:  Lie on your back, grab your toes, outside of your shin, or inside of your shin. Inhale all the way down to the pelvic floor to relax it and you can rock gently back and forth.

In summary, start with the tongue on the roof of the mouth and resting on the back of the teeth. When you inhale, your pelvic floor is relaxing. The deeper your diaphragmatic breath, as that intra-abdominal pressure goes down, your pelvic floor is lengthening and relaxing. When you exhale, your abdomen tightens up like a corset. Just your breath alone with the proper positioning of your tongue can address all of these areas of emotion or muscular tension. Then, you can integrate that into your movement. When you are doing the happy baby or rocking on your forearms, make sure you integrate all those aspects together. Especially during this challenging time, make sure to be kind to yourself and the emotions you are feeling right now.

If you need help on your journey to better health, contact drarianne@staging.movementparadigm.flywheelsites.com to schedule.

For more content, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

Other things that may interest you:

Vagus Nerve Hack | Auricular Ear Release

Top 5 Vagus Nerve Hacks to Help You Relax and Restore

Vagus Nerve Hack | Neck Release

HOW TO TURN YOUR CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITES | Become a Warrior

I’d like to discuss something that is very personal to me…..how you can turn your challenges or crises into opportunities. When you look at people like Michael Jordan, Rocky Balboa, and Bruce Lee, you can see that these spiritual warriors have the most unbelievable focus, attention, and tenacity.

Here are some practical tips that you can do in your life to develop this resiliency and turn your challenges into opportunities. As George Mumford highlights in his book The Mindful Athlete, when we walk the path of a spiritual warrior, we can we think about the journey as opposed to the destination. When we look at some of these incredible athletes and true warriors, we can see that it isn’t about the outcome or the results, it’s about the journey. “An ordinary man takes everything as a blessing, or as a curse, whereas a warrior is going to take everything as a challenge.”

All right, here you go! Three things that can help you turn your challenges into opportunities.

  1. Noticing what’s right

We tend to, during times of crises or challenges, focus on what’s wrong and what isn’t going right in our lives. However, rather than focusing on that, we can focus on the beauty of the moment, with all of its imperfections, and we can find this deep wisdom that we wouldn’t have found otherwise. When we can really begin to look inward at this inner critic and emotional blueprint, and ask questions and explore it with curiosity, we can inquire about this really amazing wisdom. This will allow us to be able to look from a different lens to be able to see this obstacle or this challenge as an opportunity for growth.

2. Emotional error correction

Rather than blaming someone, something, or even ourselves, we need to think about asking the question “why?”. Have wonder and curiosity about why this happened and potentially what do you have to learn from this? Whether your challenges are small or big, there’s always something to learn about yourself. There’s always an opportunity to transform your growth as a human being. When we can transform the frustration and aggravation into the joy and satisfaction of learning about ourselves, we can begin to have more teachable moments in our lives. We can begin to have these experiences or these challenges that bring us awareness and make us more focused and present in our own lives. So, essentially when we are experiencing these different emotions, we can bring this wonder and this curiosity to the forefront because when we do that, then we begin to see the experience and situation so differently. We can ask with an open heart, and we can inquire about ourselves, be inquisitive about the situation and begin to grow.

3. The right effort

 This is where we focus on the journey, not the destination. This is where we don’t necessarily think “life’s a grind and I’m just going to try to push through.” Instead, we appreciate all the moments, experiences, and people along the way and appreciate the process, not the outcome, results, or the destination. This is where we can sit, and we can simply enjoy sitting. It is when we don’t have to be on the go and running and doing a million things. We can actually just be present and pay attention. We can pay attention to our experiences and be in tune with what our body needs. This is the right effort, not pushing so hard that you just continue to get hurt in your exercise program. Instead, you just give the right amount of effort so that you see these adaptations over time, for example.

There you have it, three ways that you could help turn your challenges into opportunities. I was diagnosed with stage three liposarcoma two months before my wedding about five years ago. That was when I made this commitment to myself that I wanted to not just survive cancer, but I wanted to thrive during cancer. With that, I have taken all of these steps to optimize my mindset, nutrition, and movement to really help me achieve the life that I want to have. I hope that you can turn this current challenge into an opportunity for you.

If you need help on your journey to better health, contact drarianne@staging.movementparadigm.flywheelsites.com to schedule.

For more content, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

Check out my TEDx talk below to see my story of turning challenges into opportunities.

COULD YOUR ANXIETY and DEPRESSION BE COMING FROM YOUR GUT? | SIBO

Did you ever wonder if anxiety and/or depression was caused purely by psychological reasons or possibly from other causes? It absolutely can be caused from many different things such as systemic inflammation, leaky gut, hormonal changes, and your gut, specifically SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), which is what we’ll focus on today. Surprising I know! Let’s dive into the gut-brain connection, the bacteria and neurotransmitters in your gut, as well as what you can do to improve that neurotransmitter function in your gut and brain to really help you improve your mood, feel better, and move through your life with ease.

Other causes for anxiety and depression

Anxiety and depression can come from many other physical causes. It can come from systemic inflammation or leaky gut. Leaky gut is where we have endotoxins released into the bloodstream coming through the epithelial lining of the small intestine and that creates an immune reaction. This can also lead to leaky brain. This is where those endotoxins cross the blood brain barrier and can contribute to things like mood changes and brain fog, etc. We can also have anxiety/depression related to hormonal changes. Last but definitely not least, we can have it from small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).  In essence, the altered microbiome can be one of the biggest contributors to anxiety and/or depression.

Typical course of action in America

The typical course of action in America is that when you present with anxiety and/or depression, you are prescribed a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRRI). This can be something like Prozac, Paxil, or Lexapro. The reason these are prescribed is for low serotonin, our feel good neurotransmitter. Serotonin is one of our key chemical messenger that signals to the brain. This is formed by the bacteria in the gut, and guess what, 90 percent of our serotonin is in our gut! So, now we want to ask ourselves, why is our serotonin low? We may want to dive into what may be happening in the gut that could be contributing to this.

SIBO

SIBO, once again small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, can be one of the huge underlying factors in anxiety and/or depression. This is something that is definitely not looked at as frequently, and if you are experiencing something like bloating and other digestive symptoms, then this would be something to look into as one of the potential causes of your anxiety and/or depression. This happens when we have an overgrowth of the normal bacteria in the gut, and it creates a dysbiosis which means just an imbalance in the bacteria of the gut. This in turn will lead to things like nutrient deficiencies, malabsorption, and imbalances in the neurotransmitters. The gut-brain connection is a bidirectional communication between our gut and our brain. Our gut is our second nervous system. The bacteria in the gut is essentially what’s forming these neurotransmitters, our chemical messengers and communicators to the brain.

Testing for SIBO

Why is it so important to look at possible bacterial overgrowth in the gut and test it appropriately? When you are having any digestive issues like bloating, abdominal pain, any type of diarrhea, constipation, etc and it’s coupled with anxiety and/or depression, then you should absolutely be tested for SIBO. SIBO is tested using a breath test which is going to assess either hydrogen or methane gas. You ingest something called lactulose, and because it cannot be absorbed, it will be present in the small intestine. If it ferments with the bacteria in your gut, then you will exhale either a methane or hydrogen gas. If you’d like to order a test, click HERE.

Irritable bowel syndrome has been used as a diagnosis for many years, and now what we’re finding out is that IBS diagnosis is really SIBO in most cases. When you have this diagnosis, and you are experiencing anxiety and/or depression, it is going to be imperative that you address this as one of the potential root causes of your anxiety or depression because there’s no way that you can have the appropriate amount of serotonin, and even elements of dopamine if you are experiencing SIBO.

So what do you do about it?

1) The first thing is to make sure you get properly tested and evaluated.

2) Include a low FODMAP diet.

It is important to remove any type of inflammatory foods or triggers that could be aggravating this condition. FODMAP stands for “fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols. Low fodmap foods are easily digested carbohydrates which is a really important aspect of a SIBO protocol. Also eliminate things like gluten which is found in wheat, a high FODMAP food, a big driver in leaky gut, a common complaint or comorbidity along with SIBO.

3) Supplementation.

Typically, supplementation is going to be required because you will likely have malabsorption issues. It doesn’t mean that you definitely will, but there is a strong possibility, especially is this has been going on for quite some time. You may have to take specific highly bioavailable nutrient supplements until your body can absorb a more effectively and be able to repair the gut lining in cases of leaky gut. Glutamine is one of the most abundant amino acids in the body for immune health and intestinal health. This will be one of the very important nutrients that you will want to ingest if you are diagnosed with SIBO. The recommendation is 15 to 21 grams a day.

4) You want to reinoculate with probiotics.

It is important to recognize that not all probiotics will work for every SIBO patient. Most commonly, spore-based probiotics seem to be best as some other probiotics could make you worse.

5) Antibiotics

Antibiotics are typically used to treat the SIBO. There are different protocols and philosophies on when the appropriate time is to give the antibiotic. However, it is going to be necessary in most cases, whether it’s an herbal antibiotic or a conventional antibiotic to kill the bacteria.

In summary, hopefully you can appreciate that there’s way more to anxiety and depression, then simply only psychological reasons. We’ve only scratched the surface of just one part aspect of this, but I wanted share with you about neurotransmitters, introduce the gut-brain connection, and hopefully just have you think a little bit deeper about how can you begin to address some of the root causes of why this could be happening to you or someone you love.

If you need help on your journey to better health, contact drarianne@staging.movementparadigm.flywheelsites.com to schedule.

For more content, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

Disclaimer: This is not intended to treat or diagnose. Please check with your physican or functional medicine practitioner to determine a specific plan.

Beat anxiety with curiosity

We all know that anxiety and chronic stress are on the rise, especially with young adults, older adults, and even children. This is why it is really important to understand this powerful concept that can be possibly life-changing for someone — beat anxiety with curiosity.

When we are in a stressed state, our limbic system, our brain’s emotional center is going to detect a threat, specifically the amygdala in the brain. When this happens, we activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis). Once this axis, i.e. stress pathway is activated, it induces the pituitary gland (located in the brain) and the adrenal gland (located above the kidney). This signals a cascade of stress hormones. A little of this here and there is normal, however, it is commonly overactivated in many people.

When we are in this stressed state or potentially anxious state, then we cannot be curious, or be empathetic at the same time. In addition to not being able to be empathetic or curious, we are also not able to break the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for executive function,  communicating, guiding, and coordinating the functions of the different parts of the brain, back online. This essentially means that we are not able to regulate our attention and focus. Sound familiar?

How can you beat anxiety with curiosity?

So, how can we use curiosity to help decrease anxiety?

When we are curious that means we are also able to be empathetic, turn the prefrontal cortex back online, and able to regulate our attention. We can accomplish this in a few different ways:

Rather watch or listen than read? Click here.

1) Be curious about your anxiety

Ask yourself what sensations you feel in your body? Tension, warmth, coolness? Explore what you are feeling. You can totally flip the script by exploring how it feels in your body.

2) Seek out new knowledge

Become curious about something new. It can be finding a completely new skill, hobby, information, that can make you curious about learning.

3) Mindfulness

This is one of the best ways to regulate attention, be aware, attentive, and present. Check out Three Informal Mindfulness Practices. Also, if you are already meditating, check out Three Tips to Improve your Meditation Practice. It’s a practice that needs to be cultivated, but that practice of being aware and being attentive can assist you in exploring your own body and your own needs. Practicing this on a regular basis can be profound in once again regulating attention, which means that you’re being curious, and you cannot be anxious.

4) Improve interoception, otherwise known as self-awareness

Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs? The bottom of the pyramid is our basic physiological needs. For example, are you hungry or are you full? Do you need to go to the bathroom or did you hold it for too long?  Do you need to rest today or can you push it a little harder in your workout? Tune in to what’s happening from an internal standpoint, not necessarily just external. We want to think about what are we feeling on the inside.

Summary

Bonus! Curiosity can significantly enhance learning and retention of information over time!

Seeking out new knowledge, cultivating mindfulness, and tuning into to what is going on in your own body can have profound impact on decreasing anxiety and also preventing anxiety, and potential undue stress.

If you need help on your journey, please reach out!

Reach out for a 15-minute FREE discovery session to see how we can help you on your journey.

For more content, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

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