💆♀️ Unstress Yourself 💆♂️
👋 Hello friend,
What do You do when feeling stressed or overwhelmed?
The best thing is not to get into a situation where personal stress tolerance is exceeded. This I try to accomplish by asking myself one question every day:
"What value have I placed on sleep, diet, exercise, light, and relationships in the last 24 hours?"
However, sometimes life happens, and I forget about self-care. 💅
My sometimes not-ideal stress response: Do more, do it faster, do everything at the same time, and run around in my room like a crazy Rumpelstiltskin. 🏃♂️🔥
"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it." - Lou Holtz
🧘♂️ This is why I decided to write down things I do to prevent getting stressed or getting "unstressed" when stressed:
- Use my slow juicer to get fresh vegetable and fruit juice first thing in the morning. Copying MMA fighter #StephanPütz
- Leave my normal environment and go somewhere completely different. For example, hiking on a mountain.
- Go running without google maps. If there is a path that separates, I push myself to choose the one I don't feel like taking. This helps me to train the "doing uncomfortable things muscle".
- Leave my headphones at home.
- Non-Sleep-Deep-Rest to reduce daytime fatigue and increase focus.
- The Minimalist Phone App reduces distractions on my phone to a minimum. No colorful apps. Opening and reaching the app I actually want to use.
- Braindump: Writing everything down that I think.
- Try to purposely be bored.
- Drink less or no caffeinated drinks.
- Eating one meal a day without watching Netflix, YouTube, etc.
- Meeting a good friend in person.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Put dark green vegetables on my plate.
"The dark greens supply a significant amount of folate, a B vitamin that promotes heart health and helps prevent certain birth defects. Folate is also necessary for DNA duplication and repair which protects against the development of cancer." - Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center: Grand Forks, ND - Go outside within the first hour of waking for at least 10 minutes to get a natural boost of cortisol. Cortisol helps us to feel focused and alert. This early cortisol boost will trigger a melatonin release after 16h which helps us to fall asleep faster. - How to Feel Energized and Sleep Better With One Morning Activity | Dr. Andrew Huberman
- Start working on paper, not a device that is connected to the internet.
- I have a preset 5-minute timer on my phone. When I feel stressed, I press it and just sit still until the timer rings. A perfect reset.
📚 2 beautiful books on dopamine and its effects:
- Dopamine Nation by Lembke Anna
- The Molecule of More by Daniel Z. Lieberman and Michael E. Long
🛀 This week's ice baths were pretty cold again.
When I go running I always try to find a lake or river to jump into. Two months ago it was uncomfortable because I thought about what people walking by would think.
Nowadays I just do it and don't really care much anymore. People even come, and start talking and laughing with me.
Mountain river (left) and swamp (right)
🌞 Have a great week! Thank you all for your great feedback.
xx Luke