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Helping You Create Your Extraordinary Life

Reduce the Effects of Stress on Digestion

It’s well-known that stress affects the digestive system. That’s because when your body is in flight or fight mode due to chronic stress, immediate stress, or even worrying about your day, your body, your body’s processes are disrupted. When it comes to digestion, oxygen and blood are diverted away from the gut, and the body produces less saliva, stomach acid, and digestive enzymes. So, if you can form a habit of eating in a more relaxed state, your digestion can improve - even before making any changes to what you’re eating.

Try one or all of the suggestions below to make mealtimes a little more “zen” and your tummy happier. 

Make Meals a Problem-Free Zone

It can be tough to leave problems behind at mealtime. I know that as my kids have become older and all of our lives busier, mealtimes are often when we spend the most time together. That means we often use mealtimes to discuss what went well or not so well during the day, make plans around...

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How Stress is Affecting Your Physical Well-Being

Stress is an inevitable part of our lives, and we all experience it in different ways. Whether it's due to work pressure, personal relationships, or financial issues, stress can take a toll on your physical and mental health. While occasional stress is a normal part of life, chronic stress can have severe consequences on your physical well-being. 

Stress originates when your body/mind experiences a threat. The threat could be real (being chased by a bear or losing your job), or it could be a perceived threat (i.e. lying awake worrying “what if” every night). No matter the threat,  your nervous system responds by sounding an alarm and preparing the body to respond quickly. The reactions include increased heart rate and breathing, surges of hormones, and increased blood pressure to name a few. 

These responses are meant to help in short-term “fight or flight” situations to increase your chances of survival. Unfortunately, in the modern world full...

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Clean Up Your Mental Clutter

 

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Back when the pandemic really hit and the kids were stuck in their rooms every day doing schoolwork, my daughter’s mental health took a hit. Her room got very little natural light, so we switched my brighter office with her bedroom and it helped a lot. Now that she is gone to college, though, it’s time for me to switch back. The back and forth has involved a fair bit of physical decluttering, and I feel so much lighter with less “stuff” to manage. The same principle works in your brain, too. When you clean up your mental clutter, your mind has more space to work and play in. 

Some signs that your mental clutter is bogging you down are feelings of overwhelm or being over-stimulated, confused, and even disoriented when it comes to everyday life and decisions. Our modern world moves quickly, and with quick access to the internet and social media, it’s easy to become over-stimulated. Just as we need to...

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Reduce Stress With Adaptogens

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I'm back from my road trip and was all ready to get my son off to his first day of school and get to work on my next podcast on motivation, when he tested positive for Covid. Not a great way to start out, but suddenly his previous congestion and my own headache and fatigue made sense. I’m still testing negative but am not overly energetic, certainly not enough to record a podcast on motivation! 

My go-to when I’m not feeling well is to focus on my health, which makes sense because physical health is an important part of motivation. I've been making sure to get plenty of sleep, drink lots of water, and eat an abundance of fresh local fruits and veggies. Another tool I use to increase my energy is adaptogens.

Adaptogens are plants and mushrooms that help your body respond to stress, anxiety, fatigue, and enhance overall wellbeing. Not a bad thing for anyone to have in their toolbox, especially (in my opinion) women....

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You Need to Relax. Here's How.

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Every year, I look forward to summer. Long, lazy days spent outdoors and enjoying time with friends and family (finally!). Yet when the season arrives, inevitably I am just as busy as usual, if not more so! Trying to fit in all that “summer fun” while maintaining work and household responsibilities. If this sounds all too familiar to you, then you need to make time to relax. In fact, we all need to relax every day to stay healthy, happy, and productive. Yes, you read that right - you need to take time to chill out so you can do more. 

Why Relaxation is So Important

Relaxation is vital for a healthy mind and is required to maintain motivation and interest in our lives and careers. Taking time to rest is also important to achieving optimal performance and health. Think about it; if you’re in a constant state of hurriedness and always on the go, you will end up exhausted. Everything will become a struggle!...

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Strategies to Overcome Your Fears

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We all have fears in life that sneak in and hold us back; sometimes it’s an annoyance while other times it affects our personal growth and goals. The latter comes up with each and every coaching client, some of whom come to me specifically to work on facing their fears while others uncover them during our time together. Whether your fear is of heights (like me), or you want to work through your fear of change, failure, or even success, there are many strategies to help. 

10 Strategies to Overcome Your Fears

Working with a coach is a great way to get an external perspective on your fears and help you work through them, but there are lots of things you can do on your own as well. Some of the ideas below will help you lessen your fears over time, while others may help you in those fearful moments. I encourage you to try one or two that speak to you, be consistent, and be open to the possibility of releasing your fears (because...

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Find Relief From Acute Stress

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There is daily stress, and then there is STRESS. Recently I’ve had several friends experience the loss of loved ones and the acute stress that comes with that, but it can happen if you’re going through a relationship breakup, been laid off from work, have a diagnosis, or any of those other heavy things that happen in life. Last week I shared ways to cope with daily stress, and I want to take it a step further and share specific tools for dealing with acute emotional stress. 

Use These Tips as Tools, Not Cures

When you are going through a crisis, the constant state of stress takes its toll on you mentally, physically, and emotionally. These tools will help you take a break from those feelings, but are by no means the solution to finding your way through whatever is stressing you. Note that I’m not a therapist, and these tools should be used alongside other professional recommended help.

6 Tips to Relieve Acute...

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5 Ways to Cope With Stress

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Have you noticed when you feel stressed in one area of your life, it seems to attract other stressors? Like when your alarm doesn’t go off and the day starts out hectic, you forget your keys, then traffic is bad, the coffee shop messes up your order, and on it goes until you burn dinner and the dog pukes on the rug?

Life has a way of throwing us curveballs, challenges, and changes, so it’s important to know how to cope with stress so each incident doesn’t snowball like that! Not to mention the impact that stress has on our health, mood, and relationships.

To equip yourself to respond to stress better, I’ve got five simple tips to keep in your toolbelt the next time your boss comes to you with a big project or your kids come down with the stomach flu. You’ve got this. 

1. Know Yourself. By now, you probably have a pretty good understanding of what stresses you out, and how you respond to it....

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