The key is to understand when this response has become disproportionate to the stimulus and therefore unhelpful.<\/p>\n
He says signs this might have happened include when stress begins to feel out of control, impinging on other aspects of your life such as sleep, eating and relationships.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther people might comment on it: \u2018Oh, you\u2019re so stressed\u2019 or \u2018you\u2019re so wound up\u2019 or \u2018you\u2019re never present\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
When this happens, he says, one of the immediate things you can do is to focus on your breathing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we go back to fight or flight, then we know when people come into that mode, their breathing does tend to change. We tend to breathe at a much more shallow and fast rate. And that in itself prolongs that stress, that fight-or-flight response. So just stopping and paying attention to your breath can be enough to create that micro-pause and be a circuit-breaker.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, breathwork has been the subject of much attention and scientific research, suggesting it can be a powerful antidote to stress. Controlled breathing helps downregulate the sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system and activate the parasympathetic (rest and digest) system.<\/p>\n
Breathwork practitioner Gemma Rose says relaxing breathing techniques can help people not only release stress but also increase their nervous system\u2019s capacity for stress. A regular practice of 20-30 minutes of focused breathwork yields the best results, Rose explains; however, a shorter practice is still beneficial. <\/p>\n
One technique she suggests is locking yourself in the toilet for five minutes: \u201cYou\u2019re locking the door, you\u2019re turning the light off and ideally you\u2019d have some noise-cancelling headphones with you, but they\u2019re not essential,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd you\u2019re going to shut your eyes so you\u2019re depriving your senses as much as possible. And then you\u2019re going to breathe in for a count of two through the nose and out for a count of two through the mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
She suggests putting a song on through the noise-cancelling headphones and breathing in that rhythm for the length of the song.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd by the end,\u201d she says, \u201cyou would have activated your parasympathetic nervous system, which signals to the body that it\u2019s safe to rest, it\u2019s safe to come out of that stress response.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naturopath Alena Winter says that after working for several years as a naturopath, she noticed stress was a factor in almost every one of her clients\u2019 health issues. Then she discovered the term \u201cnervous system regulation\u201d.<\/p>\n
For a lot of people, she says, chronic stress comes from a dysregulated nervous system, when the body perceives a threat that doesn\u2019t exist. For example, you might be checking your emails but feeling a level of stress more appropriate for escaping from a dangerous situation.<\/p>\n
Dealing with this, she says, doesn\u2019t have to take a lot of time, doesn\u2019t have to be complicated and doesn\u2019t have to cost you anything at all.<\/p>\n
It begins, she says, with noticing when it\u2019s happening so that you can identify what\u2019s contributing to it. It might be eating the wrong foods for breakfast \u2013 not enough protein is a common failing \u2013 or drinking too much coffee.<\/p>\n
But some stressors are beyond one\u2019s control \u2013 the demands of one\u2019s children, for instance. For those, she says, it\u2019s essential to slow down so you can get curious about your reaction and explore other ways of responding. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we rush through our day, our nervous system feels as if we\u2019re being chased. It doesn\u2019t know that we\u2019re not \u2013 that there\u2019s not a true threat present when we\u2019re acting like there is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to say urgency is optional. Even if we have a lot on, slowing down by 10 or 20% can be enough to just take the edge off and to help us to feel a little bit calmer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Posture is another tool, she says. By holding a tight, tense posture, you send messages of threat to your nervous system. If you notice yourself doing this, she suggests dropping your shoulders, relaxing your face and taking some deeper breaths, signalling to your body that you\u2019re safe.<\/p>\n
Another way one can soothe frayed nerves is through the stomach. The connection between gut and brain, known as the gut-brain axis, is a rapidly growing field of study, and the gut is now often referred to as the second brain, due to its influence on the body and mind. <\/p>\n
Gastroenterologist and group leader at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research Tom Mules says it\u2019s not unusual for patients with gut issues to describe a stressful event that triggered the onset of the disease or contribute to flare-ups. There is also now good evidence that stress can lead to inflammation not only in the gut but elsewhere in the body. <\/p>\n
So, if you\u2019re looking for ways to alleviate stress, it\u2019s worth considering anti-inflammatory foods that are good for the gut, like the Mediterranean diet. <\/p>\n
He says, \u201cI\u2019m a real believer that if you can improve your gut health, that\u2019s going to improve the health of your of your whole body, including your brain, and will allow you to deal with stress in a better way, and may actually help to reduce stress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alena Winter says her dietary recommendations to clients also share features of the Mediterranean diet: high-fibre, plenty of plant-based food and non-starchy vegetables, plus a high-quality protein source with every meal, starting at breakfast, which for most people, she says, is the meal in which we\u2019re most lacking protein.<\/p>\n
Diet can play a role in managing stress. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
Sleep is also vital to managing stress, she says. Not just going to sleep early but ensuring the quality of those hours is high. Winter says to prioritise a \u201cgood eight hours\u201d of sleep each night, and to do so may require you to have a wind-down period: some quiet time, having a cup of herbal tea and doing something that relaxes you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to say it\u2019s almost impossible to parallel park a car that\u2019s driving on the motorway. So, we want to slow the car down to be able to park it, to be able to fall asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Psychologist Sutherland says noticing the symptoms of stress is the first step to dealing with them. It\u2019s not really possible to block them out, he says and it\u2019s important not to try, since failing can lead to a vicious cycle in which the stress is exacerbated by the failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a level of what we call \u2018Acceptance of having uncomfortable feelings\u2019,\u201d he says, and suggests embracing it with a \u201cprescribed worry time\u201d. During a 20- or 30-minute block \u2013 not right before bed \u2013 you unpack what is on your mind. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat won\u2019t be a particularly pleasant time, so you might want to end that with something a bit more pleasant that you enjoy doing. But, during that time really sitting down and figuring out \u2018what are the elements and what I\u2019m worried about that I can control, what can I influence and what are those things that concern me but I really have no ability to influence whatsoever\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of the experts spoken to for this article agree that there is no silver bullet for stress. All use the word \u201cholistic\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sutherland says that when he trained in psychology, \u201cthe brain was at the centre of it all\u201d but today, psychology is \u201ca much more holistic discipline\u201d that considers how the mind and body interrelate and impact one another. <\/p>\n
Just as stress affects both body and mind, both body and mind must be considered as we seek a calmer, steadier 2026. Eating, sleeping and breathing might not be the most glamorous ways to deal with a life full of stress, but if you\u2019ve read this far, you\u2019re obviously not here for the glamour.<\/p>\n
Now go put on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones with some nice calming music, lock yourself in the toilet and breathe like your life depended on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The key is to understand when this response has become disproportionate to the stimulus and therefore unhelpful. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[140247,95,7972,140245,55902,18399,140246,7500,140250,4503,24749,69675,79166,140248,564,8455,228,134,58369,45501,1362,17073,111,139,69,31531,88069,135527,2751,1243,2863,3405,10115,165,210,2044,61,140249,102,1959],"class_list":["post-237672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-accompanying","tag-and","tag-beach","tag-breathwork","tag-cheating","tag-christmas","tag-deadlines","tag-december","tag-dicing","tag-dinners","tag-easing","tag-elaborate","tag-endless","tag-familial","tag-food","tag-getting","tag-guide","tag-health","tag-holistic","tag-lovely","tag-made","tag-monopoly","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pile","tag-poisoning","tag-posture","tag-sand","tag-shopping","tag-sleep","tag-stress","tag-tensions","tag-their","tag-through","tag-time","tag-to","tag-undies","tag-with","tag-your"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}