From coping to thriving: How to combat chronic stress

Everyone deals with internal and external stressors in some way, everyday. It’s very healthy for our bodies to learn how to keep us in balance throughout our busy days and weeks. We have systems in place, like the Endocannabinoid System (ECS), whose sole purpose is to keep our bodies in homeostasis, to help with acute stress. When these systems are working properly, our bodies do a wonderful job of moving us through moments of stress (sympathetic nervous system) and back to recovery mode (parasympathetic nervous system). The more efficiently we are able to go from stress to recovery, the better it is for our long-term health. 

However, when stress becomes something you can’t simply ‘shake off’ or recover quickly from, this is known as chronic stress; experiencing stress over an extended period of time. Chronic stress can take a serious toll on your mind and body. It can cause ailments such as migraine, insomnia, high blood pressure, health disease, anxiety and more. Fortunately, there are tactics you can do to create a healthier regimen in order to combat chronic stress, feed your ECS and get on a brighter path towards mental and physical wellbeing. 

This article is meant to provide a few helpful tips to go from coping to thriving! While to many of us stress seems like a bad thing, it’s actually not always the case. The body’s stress response (fight or flight– sympathetic nervous system) is a natural system that helps our bodies gear up for action. When we feel threatened, our bodies release hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that can boost mental clarity, muscles and heart rate. Instances of acute stress throughout our days and weeks are helpful for our body to keep our reaction and signaling systems sharp. 

However, chronic stress is not healthy for us because it can often negatively impact our long term health. Prolonged periods of stress keep our cortisol levels high, which increase cravings for sweets and other unhealthy foods. Chronic stress also affects our mental and emotional health, often resulting in anxiety, depression, mood imbalances and more. 

Some helpful tips to manage chronic stress, and go from coping to thriving are: 

• Exercising and movement: physical activity is a critical component of maintaining a healthy mood, hormone balance, blood pressure, metabolism and being able to get quality sleep. Our bodies are meant to move, multiple days per week. We don’t have to go crazy in the gym everyday, but it is important to get a couple days of increased heart rate activities (such as jogging, walking, hiking, cycling, etc.) and a couple days of strength training. Especially for women, since it’s more difficult to build muscle as we get older, and muscle protects our bones and joints. 
• Eating healthy foods: A simple rule of thumb is to eat whole foods and as much of the rainbow as you can. Here are Mendi, we are firm believers in moderation versus scarcity. So, try to incorporate lean, high protein rich foods, lots of colorful vegetables (which are also anti-inflammatory foods) and grains into your diet.
• Getting quality sleep: We have written many articles about the  incredible benefits of quality sleep, which are all backed by rich research and data. Sleep is one of the best gifts you can give your mind and body. Quality sleep, for adults 8-10 hours, helps with almost every system in our bodies and is a natural anti-aging remedy. Here are  5 tips for better sleep, if you want to learn more about building healthy sleep habits in your nighttime routine. 
• Making time to play: For many adults, play may seem silly and unproductive in our fast-faced, productivity focused society, however according to this  NY Times article that is precisely the point. According to  Brene’ Brown’s research, play is as critical to our health and wellbeing, as rest. It is essential in keeping our creative juices flowing, and challenges us to connect with key parts of ourselves, the most vulnerable parts, which then open up things like courage, compassion and connection. 
• Building a mindfulness practice: Building a mindfulness practice is very important to help us stay present and grounded. Oftentimes, our anxiety-brains take off when we start thinking and living about future events that we can’t control and can’t predict in the present time. We recommend practices such as deep breathing, meditation, journaling and daily self-check-ins as a starting point in building a weekly mindfulness practice. We recently wrote an article about  combating emotional burnout, which has a few helpful tips to consider. 
• Using plant-powered medicine: Oftentimes we don’t get enough nutrients (vitamins, minerals, proteins, cannabinoids, etc.) from our current foods and food systems, so it becomes important to supplement with all-natural remedies to help with discomforts such as stress, pain, sleep and fatigue. Our formulations are designed to go above and beyond in helping you feel your best, everyday. Especially, our  Stress Relief blends that are all-natural, third party tested, Oregon sourced and made.We have several products designed to help with  acute and chronic stress, feeding your Endocannabinoid System, activating the parasympathetic nervous system and getting you from stress to recovery quickly. 

Chronic stress is a real ailment and is detrimental to long-term health. However, there are many tactics you can employ today to help you go from coping to thriving in your everyday life! We are here to help you recover quicker and get back to doing all the things you love with the people who bring you joy.