Five habits to continue even when you’re stressed and busy
We’re all guilty of letting habits we know are good for us to slip when life is busy, stressful or overwhelming. It’s perfectly normal. Everything else feels more pressing and more important than being healthy at that moment. But the truth is, making a little time for self-care when you’re busy and stressed makes dealing with everything one hundred times easier.
Here are a few simple habits you should try to maintain no matter how busy and stressful life gets
Eating (or drinking) green veg every day
Green veg are rich in b-vitamins and magnesium which our body requires more of when we’re feeling stressed. B-vitamins are essential for energy production while magnesium helps the body relax. So whether you’re having a green smoothie every morning or adding a side of steamed greens at dinner - keep topping up your levels every day.
Eating regular meals and snacks
This helps prevent blood sugar dips which can add stress to your body and deplete the essential stress hormones which will help you cope with being so busy.
Moving your body
This doesn’t have to be a hard-core workout at the gym - in fact, if you’re feeling stressed I would suggest that’s not the best option as again it adds stress to your body. But something more gentle like a walk or swim or yoga can be really helpful. Movement helps to complete the fight-and-flight cycle in our bodies and lowers stress hormones back to a balanced level.
Sleeping
When life gets busy we can all fall into the trap of staying up late or getting up early to ‘get things done. But the reality is without sufficient sleep (research suggests we should be getting between seven and nine hours), our body will start to struggle. It’s thought that losing just 30-mins of sleep a night negatively affects your metabolism and blood sugar regulation, raises blood pressure and affects memory and cognitive function - none of which will help you function more optimally in the face of stress. And I’m sorry to say but you can’t store up sleep on the weekend to get you through the working week!
Having fun
We all know that when we’re busy and stressed having fun defiantly falls to the bottom of the list, we think we either don’t have time or we can’t possibly indulge in something fun while something so stressful is going on. The truth is that having some fun and living in the moment, is the best way to reset your body ready to face another stressful day. So at the end of a long hard day what could you do that will make you smile? It doesn’t have to be big or complicated. Think small, to begin with - the key is being consistent with fun in the face of stressful times.