What Can I Do If I’m Feeling Stressed Out? Can Exercise, Movement, And Breathing Help? The Benefits of Exercise, Yoga, And Breathwork For Stress And Mental Health.

Many of us are encountering stress and challenges from multiple directions each day.

As we juggle the balance between work life, personal time, family, and friends it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and burnt out.

Fortunately there are some very useful practices that can help with this.

Understanding Stress

Stress can be seen as a form of effort, work, or exertion that pushes the body or mind to the limits.

It can also be seen as as a perception of overwhelm, feeling unable to meet our unique demands and life responsibilities.

There are two major types of stress: distress and eustress. Distress is a type of stress that wears down the mind and body. Eustress is a type of stress that actually improves, develops, or fortifies the mind and body.

The right amount of exercise is a great example of eustress, you challenge the body and mind and as it recovers the activity or task becomes easier and more efficient.

However if you overdo exercise on an ongoing basis, often called overtraining, it can be seen as a form of distress because the body is not getting sufficient time to repair.

Eustress is related to the principle of adaptation or plasticity in the mind and body.

The more you practice something with focus and intention the body and mind become more proficient at this endeavor.

It’s distress that we want to be cognizant of.

On the level of the mind, distress can be experienced from excess cerebral work.

It can also relate to our individual perception of an event.

Not all events are inherently negative but we can perceive them as such and in doing so create distress.

Say for example two people at work are each assigned to a group to complete a project.

Perhaps one of the workers thrives on group work while the other does not.

The event of getting put into a group at work is not inherently negative but it can be perceived as such on a personal level.

If we experience excess levels of distress it can start to negatively impact our quality of life.

Our ability to handle and respond to stressful circumstances is so important that new definitions of the term “health” are evolving.

Current understandings of “health” are increasingly placing more focus upon our daily ability to cope, adapt, and self manage the various challenges and stressors in our life.

Self-Care

Health is a dynamic and ongoing process of moving towards balance.

The term “self-care” is becoming very mainstream.

Self-care encompasses the unique ways in which we take time to help foster balance in our life.

It can be seen as self nurturance.

Taking a walk, exercising, cooking, listening to music, practicing yoga, taking a scented bubble bath can all be seen as self-care practices.

It is easy to neglect self-care when the daily hustle seems to leave minimal time to cook, exercise, and relax.

Yet self-care practices may be the very thing that can help to effectively manage our daily responsibilities, work, and demands.

The Nervous System: Fight/Flight and Rest/Digest

One part of the body that faces disruption amidst stress is the nervous system.

It is easy to stay in a constant state of agitation with no way to dissipate this energy.

In doing so, relaxation can become increasingly difficult.

This can overwhelm the nervous system.

One part of the nervous system in our body is called the autonomic nervous system, it helps to regulate our vital functions like breathing, heart rate, and digestion.

It has two branches, one branch is the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for “rest and digest”. This branch also helps with repair, regeneration, and processing of gathered information.

The other branch is the sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for “fight, flight, and freeze”. This branch also helps us function at high levels of performance in our daily activities whether we are presenting at a work engagement, meeting a deadline, in the midst of a heated debate, or driving around town.

The two branches of the autonomic nervous system work together to regulate energy levels throughout the day, helping the body to perform at high levels during the day and relax when preparing for bed.

Fight or Flight

“Fight or flight” is a built in emergency response system that developed millions of years ago.

It helps us to defend amidst attack or to flee from predation or danger.

The idea is that this system is meant to quiet down when the danger or threat is over and your body then returns to a calm rest and digest state.

The fight or flight system is like a superpower, similar to the nitrous oxide tanks on a racing car.

It can give you a short term boost of energy but the supply is limited and not mean to be abused or on at full power all the time.

In modern life, especially in major cities, predatorial animal threats no longer pose a danger, they have been replaced by the stress of daily life.

We are no longer fleeing from animals, yet for many people who feel stressed out, their  “fight or flight” response is chronically activated.

Often times it is activated due to hypothetical or anticipated fears and anxieties of the future.

In order for us to sustain our health it is essential to have ways to work with the stressors we experience.

Tools to address stress

There are a variety of ways to address stress.

Psychotherapy is one method which can be very helpful to get to root causes of what is causing stress.

Meditation is another practice.

Both of these methods can be very effective long term solutions.

In the short term, physical exercise and breathwork can be amazing strategies to help cope with anxiety and stress.

One of the reasons why is that they help to align and create coherence between the mind and body.

To note, the aforementioned pratices are merely the tip of the iceberg as there are multitudes of ways that someone can address their stress on a personal level from formalized methods to individually crafted habits and lifestyle choices.

Exercise

When the mind perceives a threat the body mobilizes for movement and action.

When our stress system is activated, the body is designed to move.

If we are sitting in a chair feeling irritable, stressed out, fidgety, and anxious, there is discord between the mind and body.

The body wants to move yet our mind is not allowing this to happen.

Movement helps to balance this out.

Exercise makes use of the stress compounds when we are in a state of agitation, stress, tension, and anxiety.

Some of these chemical compounds are adrenaline, cortisol, and epinephrine.

These all help to activate and mobilize the body during physical demands.

When we feel triggered or threatened these stress chemicals cause our heart rate to elevate, our breathing to quicken, our muscles to tense, and our alertness to elevate.

During exercise, the mind and body tend to synchronize; The intention to exercise and the physiological chemistry come into alignment.

Exercising when we’re feeling stressed out helps us take some agency over the agitation and excitation in the body.

We are using these stress chemicals in a constructive and empowered way.

Rather than letting these chemicals overwhelm our mental state, we are using them to power our intention to move and exercise.

In doing so, when we finally slow down and cool off from exercise, the mind and body both have a greater chance of decompressing and switching over to a relaxed state.

If you’re feeling stressed out at work a great practice is to take a short walk anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes during your lunch break.

Awareness of feeling stressed

Feeling stressed and anxious can be extremely uncomfortable. Something that can further compound this is having an awareness of feeling the stress response.

When stress chemicals are flooding the body it can cause an elevated heart rate, faster breathing, irritability and tension in the muscles.

Being aware of this can exacerbate anxiety and stress even further because it may feel discordant.

Maybe you’ve though “Oh no what is happening to my body?”.

From there it’s not a far leap to start conjuring up all kinds of stories behind what’s causing these sensations.

It can feel very uncomfortable trying to sit still while the body is fully mobilized and primed to flee.

This is another reason why movement is a great response to stress and anxiety.

Exercise can help take the mind off of a fixation over body sensations and the act of building amplified stories around them.

Coming into the Present Moment

Exercise can be helpful for mental stress because it helps to redirect our focus to the present moment, giving a break from worrisome thinking.

The mind is great at mental gymnastics; it is able to create elaborate and intricate hypothetical scenarios of worst case outcomes of the future.

However when you’re exercising, especially at an intense levels, it’s hard to sustain long trains of thought.

This can be very helpful for breaking the stress cycle.

For example, it’s hard to imagine various negative outcomes for Tomorrow’s meeting when you are sprinting at top speed.

To date, exercise continues to be one of the best methods to cope with and regulate anxiety and depression.

A caveat to this rule of using exercise to suppress complex trains of thought or repetitive thinking, is that at a more mild pace exercise can actually help with thinking and cognition.

Some of the iconic figures in history did some of their best thinking while taking walks.

Flow States

Many athletes talk about entering into “flow state” during exercise and performance.

The athlete becomes so concentrated that they enter an altered state of consciousness.

The perception of time shifts.

They are completely absorbed in the present moment.

This can be a wonderful experience.

Fully immersed in the here and now, the stress and worries of the day are cast aside.

Outside of athletics, with enough practice and intention you can enter into flow states in arguably any pursuit or activity such as playing music or making art.

This is also the basis of mindfulness meditation, brining awareness into the present moment.

Thought leaders in the field of consciousness such as Ram Das, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Eckhart Tolle have based their work upon the benefits and ways of connecting into the here and now.

Mind-Body Connection

The mind-body connection is an understanding that the mind and body are not separate but rather inter-twined and enmeshed at every conceivable level.

What happens to the mind affects the body and vise versa.

On a fundamental level, it’s clear that our bodies are designed to move and our brains are designed to coordinate and facilitate all the complex ways that we can use our body.

The understanding that exercise so powerfully improves cognitive function and mental health is representative of this mind-body connection.

As our lifestyles become increasingly more sedentary, the necessity to keep our bodies moving becomes paramount to our wellbeing physically and mentally.

As cheesy as this axiom may be, the “use it or loose it” adage holds true. The mind and body connection is very complex and integrated.

Our entire system is most balanced when we are spending sufficient time using both our mind and our bodies. If most of our days are spent sitting down doing lots of cerebral work the mind-body integration and balance can be disrupted.

Endorphins

Exercise helps to release endorphins which are compounds in the brain that can help elevate our mood, improve self-esteem, and reduce pain in the body.

This is one explanation behind the phenomenon known as the “runner’s high”.

However this effect is not restricted to running, as athletes in many different disciplines report elevated positive moods during the activities they do.

Endorphins can also be produced during activities such as deep breathing, meditation, and relaxation.

Some other benefits of endorphins are sharpening memory and concentration.

Enhanced Energy Production and Confidence

Consistent exercise will help improve efficiency of energy production in the body.

This can improve our energy levels during the day.

A overgeneralized but perhaps useful understanding of stress or anxiety is an overwhelming feeling of being unable to meet particular expectations, demands, and responsibilities.

Exercise can be useful with this as it can help to improve confidence in our health, strength, and energy levels.

This can help us feel empowered that we can meet the day with whatever we set ourselves out to accomplish.

Types of Exercise

In terms of finding a type of exercise to improve mood, the most important things is to find a type of exercise that you enjoy doing.

Gardening is a two in one; it is great exercise and spending time in nature in itself can be very relaxing.

Most research has traditionally demonstrated that cardio-respiratory exercise can be very beneficial for stress and anxiety. This can include walking, running, hiking, swimming, dance, recreational sports, rowing, and many others.

More recent studies are also finding strength and resistance training to help improve mood and mental health. You can experiment with resistance bands, machines, free weights, calisthenics, rock climbing, surfing, wrestling, and yoga.

All types of dance are wonderful with social/partner dance ranking at the top as it also incorporates a strong social and interactive component on top of the exercise benefits.

Improved Sleep

Stress, overwhelm, and anxiety can interfere with sufficient sleep and relaxation.

And this can loop onto itself in that insufficient sleep and rest can cause more stress and overwhelm.

Good new is that exercise can help break this loop and offer a solution.

There is a significant correlation between regular exercise and improved sleep.

And when we feel well rested we have more clarity and energy to bring into our day.

Rest, Digest, and Relaxation

Relaxation, sleep, and digestion govern the other half of our autonomic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system. This part of the nervous systems tends to be hypo-tonic, subpar, and inactive if we are experiencing chronic stress. Insomnia, digestive complaints, agitations, and hyperactivity can occur when the rest and digest system is not being switched on enough.

Yoga, Meditation, and Deep Breathing

One of the reasons why yoga and meditation are becoming increasingly popular is that they help to restore and improve function of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Deep and slow breathing are common features in yoga and meditation. Deep breathing is a way to help activate the rest and digest phase.

Just think, on the opposite end of the spectrum, during fight and flight, we are panting, taking quick breaths, and at extreme levels, may be gasping for air. Deep slow breathing, yoga, and meditation help to calm the mind and body to allow for rest and relaxation. It can also be very helpful for insomnia.

Slowing down and deepening the breath is a great way to help switch the nervous system over to a relaxed state.

Conclusion

Conclusively, exercise, deep breathing, yoga, and meditation can be very beneficial for helping to address the stresses of daily life.

Remember, our bodies are designed to move.

Regular exercising can help improve our energy, lower our stress levels, and improve our sleep. Deep breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation can help calm the body and mind for clarity during the day and to prepare for a good dinner and good sleep.

Get in some movement during the day and find some quiet time to decompress, meditate, and breathe.

May you continue to cultivate balance and energy to lighten your day!!

For any questions on where to get started with execise, yoga, breathwork, and meditation contact me at www.KaiBodyMindWellness.com

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