You hear it all the time “I am so stressed” or “This is stressing me out” but did you know that high levels of stress can have lasting effects on your body. Even though we live in a “civilized” environment on a daily basis, we are still animals in our basic form. And as such, our response to stress can be physical even if the stressor is mental or emotional.

Simply put your physical response to stress is the same whether you are faced with a lioness protecting her cubs or your boss threatening your job if you can’t complete a task in time. Your body kicks into fight or flight, pumping you full of adrenaline so that you can either stand your ground or run for the hills.

The problem is that when your stress is mental or emotional, the adrenaline just courses through your veins with nothing to do but increase your heart rate. When this happens frequently you can actually start to cause lasting damage to your blood vessels.

Now, I am realistic, and know that it’s impossible to have zero stress as a mother. If you aren’t simply worrying about their welfare, you are stressing about getting from football practice to music lessons to that parent teacher conference – which are all over town and at some point you have to feed them.  And actually one of the first steps to de-stressing is to understand that some stress is normal.

Here are some more tips to de-stress:

1. Don’t take on more than you can effectively handle. It is best to take on three things that you can give your full effort than ten things that you can just do the bare minimum on. Studies have shown that waking up to a packed schedule is often more stressful to a person than any one of the items on the list.
2. Make “Me Time” a priority. You need to take at least one evening a week that is just for you – when you are just being Pam and not mom or chef or nurse or coach. If you don’t have time or funds to get a massage consider taking a nice long soak in the tub, maybe use some lavender soap to calm your nerves and help you relax.
3. It might sound overly simple but smelling pretty can actually de-stress you. Your sense of smell is directly connected to your hormonal response to stress because it can actually put you in a better mood. So pick out your favorite eau de toilette and spritz yourself daily.
4. Exercising can be a great de-stressing technique. Exerting physical energy is an effective way to release your stress. Find some sort of contact activity – whether it be kickboxing or maybe joining a softball or volleyball team – that you can actually “hit” something. It might sound aggressive but being able to take out your frustrations on inanimate objects can do wonders for a weary mind.
5. Stop counting every calorie and switch to moderation as your rule of thumb. If your weight is constantly on your mind, you might be defeating yourself right from the start. Creating stress will actually cause your body to go into survival mode – which means it will not burn the fat it has stored for fear of not getting enough in the hours to come.

Stress is a normal part of motherhood. Some people would even say that the ones that never stress are not trying hard enough. The real key is to learn to manage that stress by minimizing, adapting and releasing it as you move through your day.

What do you do to de-stress?

Disclosure: This was a sponsored post however all opinions are my own