Mindful Matters: Mindfulness Activities for Adults Coping With Stress

by Ingredia USA | Aug 11, 2022 | Stress Management

Modern life is stressful for everyone but did you know that stress wreaks havoc on our bodies? Stress does more than emotional harm, it also contributes to health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. 

Because of the mental and physical health implications, it’s important to reduce your stress levels. Thankfully, there are some easy and inexpensive ways of reducing your stress. 

One of the best ways of reducing stress is through mindfulness. In this article, we’ll discuss some mindfulness activities for adults. Most of them are easy and many of them are free!

Intentional Breathing Reduces Stress

Mindful breathing is a great way to reduce stress because it activates your parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). More than 10,000 fibers (the vagus nerve system) extend from your brain to most of your body’s organs.

A few of the areas the PSNS acts on include:

• Stomach and trunk nerves
• Eyes
• Tear-producing lacrimal glands
• Saliva-producing salivary glands
• Bladder nerves

Engaging the PSNS with intentional breathing initiates relaxation which allows your body to repair and restore balanced bodily functions. 

You may not experience immediate relaxation but try intentional breathing on a regular basis and you should notice a difference in your stress levels. Follow these steps. 

1. Find a Comfortable Spot

Sit in a comfortable and quiet spot. You can sit in a chair or lie on your back. As you get comfortable, observe your breath. 

Pay attention to where your breath flows. Notice it in your nostrils, chest, belly, back, front, and sides. Avoid any thoughts of judgment and just observe your breath. 

Observing your breath may slow down your breathing rate but breathe normally. Try not to deepen or change your normal breathing pattern. 

2. Put Your Hands on Your Belly and Chest

Now, place one hand in the center of your chest. Put the other hand with your thumb below your belly button. Continue breathing in your normal way. 

Observe some more. Are you breathing more into your left or right hand? Continue to breathe normally and observe how you feel and what you notice. 

Continue breathing for ten breaths or more.

3. Alternate Breathing Into Your Left and Right Hands

Where is your left hand? Is it over your chest or under your belly button? Breathe into the space under your left hand. 

Mentally observe what you feel as you breathe into your left hand for about 10-20 breaths. Take some deep inhalations and exhalations after 20 breaths. 

Now switch to your right hand and repeat the process. Breathe into your right hand and observe what you feel. Observe for 10-20 breaths. 

4. Try Half Breaths

Now breathe half a breath into your left hand and pause for 1-2 seconds. Concentrate on taking the rest of the breath into your other hand. Exhale from whichever hand is on the bottom and let the exhalation travel to your other hand and up and out. 

Repeat the process again for 10-20 breaths and then take several deep inhalations and exhalations. Then resume normal breathing. 

5. Take Some Full Breaths

For the last step, take deep, full breaths from the top to the bottom on the inhalation and from the bottom to the top on the exhalation. Don’t pause but see if you can exhale slower than you inhale. 

After another 10-20 breaths, take a few deep inhalations and exhalations and then resume your normal breathing. 

6. Observe Your Feelings

When you’re done, take a few minutes to observe your feelings. Stay in the moment and avoid judging yourself or worrying about what’s next on your agenda. Once you’re familiar with this exercise, try it once a day to reduce stress. 

Go for a Walk

When it comes to managing stress, walking is underrated and a great activity for coping with stress. Our bodies weren’t meant to sit at a computer all day, and prolonged sitting isn’t healthy.

Some people go all day without physical activity other than walking to and from their car in a parking lot or walking through the grocery store. A 30-minute walk strengthens bones, improves cardiovascular health, and helps balance your blood sugar, reducing your likelihood of developing type-2 diabetes. 

Walking is one of the best mindfulness-based stress and anxiety tools that are simple, free, and available to almost everyone. Even adding a 10-minute walk a couple of times a day into your routine reduces stress. Next time you walk, quiet your mind and observe everything you see around you. 

Mindful Eating

In today’s fast-food world, mindful eating is beneficial in several ways. 

• Increases awareness of fullness
• Reduces stress
• Reduces overeating
• Helps with weight loss

Next time you eat, turn off the TV, put down your phone, and pay attention only to eating. Focus on the food – the flavors, smells, and texture of the food. 

Over time, you’ll enjoy your food more and eat less as you observe your body’s response to food. For many people, mindful eating helps them lose weight which also reduces emotional stress. Mindful eating also helps reduce the chances of developing type-2 diabetes. 

Yoga and Meditation

The regular practice of yoga reduces stress and benefits your body. Yoga is a mind-body practice that includes breathing techniques combined with meditation and physical poses. There are so many different types and levels of yoga that there’s something for almost everyone. 

As with other mindfulness and stress techniques, yoga quiets the mind, encourages non-judgment, and improves your health. If you’re new to yoga, it’s best to find a yoga studio with an experienced teacher. You can also find yoga classes on the internet and some local studios now offer online classes due to the pandemic. 

Try These Mindfulness Activities for Adults

Try these mindfulness activities for adults to reduce stress and improve health. Make mindfulness a habit for coping with stress, and you’ll see improvements in your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. 

Try these mindfulness activities for adults to reduce stress and improve health. Make mindfulness a habit for coping with stress, and you’ll see improvements in your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Are you looking for more great health, wellness, and fitness advice? Find more articles, information, and helpful insights on our blog.

Cortisol and Weight Gain: What’s the Connection?

by Ingredia USA | Jun 1, 2022 | Stress Management

If you’re feeling tired, can’t concentrate, or just can’t seem to lose that pesky belly fat, you may want to check your cortisol levels.

Cortisol is a hormone that is key to the body’s stress response. While a little cortisol is beneficial—even essential—as a motivator and energy booster, too much of it can be detrimental to your health. 

Keep reading to learn more about the relationship between cortisol and weight gain, so you can better manage your weight and have a healthier lifestyle.

What is Cortisol?

Cortisol is one of the main stress hormones the body releases when faced with a stressor.

Back in the days of hunter-gatherers, these stressors typically consisted of wild animals and other similar dangers. Cortisol would give a boost of speed, focus, and strength to help overcome these dangers. This is what we know as our fight-or-flight response.

What Causes Abnormal Cortisol Levels

In modern times, the body reacts in the same way to the consistent barrage of stressors found in most people’s packed schedules. These include:

• Constant email and text notifications
• Rush-hour traffic
• Work schedule change
• Mental or physical overworking
• Financial concerns
• Medical issues
• Overexercising
• Too much caffeine
• Too much sugar and carbohydrates
• Too little sleep
• Frequently skipping or delaying meals

The issue is a person’s body cannot tell the difference between actual danger and a stressor. That is why a person’s body may react the same way to giving a presentation at work as it would to getting attacked by a wild animal.

Cortisol and the Sleep Cycle

The release of cortisol is closely related to the body’s circadian rhythm.

Within the first 30 to 40 minutes of waking up, about half of your daily cortisol is released by your body. It then gradually falls throughout the day under the control of the pituitary gland and hypothalamus.

Ideally, a person’s cortisol levels will be lowest around midnight, but this is unlikely to occur if they are still awake. For this reason, many recommend going to sleep before midnight and getting around seven to nine hours of sleep per night.

The Connection Between Cortisol and Weight Gain

Of all the stress hormones, cortisol and weight gain are especially linked.

The body has more cortisol receptors in the abdominal tissue than other areas of fat storage. Because of this, cortisol acts more on our fat cells in this area.

Blood Sugar Levels

To increase energy during the body’s fight-or-flight response, cortisol temporarily boosts blood sugar levels.

This rise in blood sugar levels is quickly followed by a drop that leaves people tired, hungry, stressed, and craving sugar and salt.

In this state, a person is more likely to reach for sweet, unhealthy snacks than balanced, high-protein foods. This can lead to a vicious cycle, as unhealthy snacks like donuts and cookies will just lead to another sudden rise and drop in blood sugar levels.

Plus, the increase in blood sugar levels also increases the body’s resistance to insulin. The higher the body’s insulin resistance is, the more likely it is for blood sugar to go up, weight gain to occur, and Type 2 Diabetes to develop.

Thyroid Function

Cortisol levels also impact the thyroid, a gland that helps maintain a healthy metabolism.

An impaired thyroid can cause weight gain and low metabolism symptoms, such as fatigue and feelings of depression. Other symptoms of a low metabolism include feeling cold, memory problems, and poor concentration.

Managing High Cortisol Levels and Weight Gain

To fight back against the effect cortisol can have on your body, it is important to keep your blood sugar levels balanced. Doing so will help prevent the sudden hunger and sugar cravings that come with a quick drop in blood sugar.

To keep your blood sugar steady, it is important to eat a balanced mix of protein, beneficial carbs, and healthy fats.

Lean meats, eggs, and dairy are some quality sources of protein that will help break down amino acids and encourage the production of serotonin and dopamine. These “feel-good” neurotransmitters help combat stress hormones and weight gain.

While fats are considered taboo among many trying to lose weight, the human body needs a certain amount to function properly. Nonsaturated fats can help us think better and encourage a better mood without clogging the arteries.

Another alternative to consider is adding a dietary supplement, such as Pep2Dia to your diet.  It can help control blood sugar levels and lower the post-meal glycemic peak.  

Exercise

Regular exercise can help reduce stress levels and increase a person’s resilience when faced with a stressor.

Exercise is known to increase the level of endorphins in the body. Like serotonin and dopamine, endorphins are “feel-good” neurotransmitters that can help combat high cortisol levels and weight gain.

Plus, exercise burns calories which can also help with weight loss and weight management.

Getting More Sleep

As mentioned earlier, sleep and cortisol levels are connected.

Not getting enough sleep can have a negative impact on your metabolism and increase hormone levels associated with hunger and appetite.

The recommended amount of sleep per night is generally seven to nine hours, but this can vary by a range of factors, including age, health, and typical physical and mental activities.

If you are struggling with falling asleep, a supplement such as Lactium may also help. 

Managing Weight Gain

The relationship between cortisol and weight gain should not be ignored.

Taking steps to lower your cortisol levels can boost your metabolism, decrease your feelings of hunger, and help prevent fat in your abdominal tissues. By improving your diet, exercise levels, and sleep schedule, you can reduce your cortisol levels and boost your overall health.Contact us today if you want to learn more about managing stress and living a healthier lifestyle.

How Music Helps to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

by Ingredia USA | Mar 9, 2022 | Stress Management

What’s the correlation between music and stress? The past two years have been historically stressful for many people. 

Between a global pandemic, political upheaval, catastrophic weather events, and interpersonal drama, people are more stressed than they have ever been. Therapy, meditation, yoga, and other stress-relieving techniques are gaining in popularity. 

With that in mind, it makes sense that music for anxiety and stress is getting attention. That’s why we’ve assembled a guide to the connection between music and stress. Let’s get started!

1. Music Provides Connection

Bonding with other people is difficult. Depending on where you live, you may still be worried about the pandemic. And navigating stresses around work, family, friends, and other relationships makes connection difficult.

This is especially true in the modern age when scientists say that we are suffering from a lack of interpersonal connection. That’s why music is the universal language—you can connect with anyone over their love of the same band, artists, genre, or performance. 

Relaxing music for anxiety and stress is different for everyone. If you want to connect with people who love the same music you do, your ‘calming music’ doesn’t need to be classical jazz. Whether you love country, hip-hop, or pop, any music to relieve stress and anxiety can be effective.

2. Music Is a Distraction

Sometimes, you need to work through your feelings. Therapists sometimes refer to this process as ‘sitting with your feelings.’ There may not be concrete work, but feeling them—as opposed to distracting or stuffing them down—is crucial to the healing process. 

Conscious processing isn’t the only way to deal with them, however. Instead, being able to ‘feel your feelings’ through music is important. That’s why we tend to turn to a Taylor Swift album or an Adele single during times of heartbreak.

The music is sad, so it compounds our own feelings of sorrow or heartbreak. This provides a sense of camaraderie, but it’s also a distraction. Hearing how someone else processed their feelings provides an alternate view of the situation.

When you’re distracted, your body is no longer in fight-or-flight mode. Instead, you have a chance to calm down, think about something else besides your breakup or toxic job, and take a time-out from your own emotional or mental issues. 

Whether you choose classical music for stress and anxiety or choose to jam out to Broadway show tunes, any type of distraction can help. Music that you aren’t familiar with can sometimes be better since it forces your brain to tune in and pay attention. 

3. Music Reduces Cortisol Levels 

Cortisol is sometimes known as ‘the stress hormone.’ It triggers a fight-or-flight response in your body, which is good for immediate survival. This reaction helps people exhibit superhuman strength in crisis, run farther than they ever dreamed, and survive the predator-prey situations our ancestors experienced. 

Today, though, cortisol can often do more harm than good. If you’re in a state of chronic stress, your body is constantly releasing cortisol. This may leave you emotionally drained and exhausted.

When you listen to calming music to reduce stress, your cortisol levels often drop. The human body wasn’t made to maintain extreme fight-or-flight responses over long periods of time.

But when you’re grieving, or going through a breakup, or staying at a toxic job, that’s exactly what your body does. Listening to music to relieve stress and anxiety can provide small patches of relief to help you get through the day. 

4. Music Slows You Down 

If you’re a big fan of rock or hip-hop, listen to those genres! But there’s still an argument to be made about classical music for stress and anxiety. 

When you listen to calming genres, such as classical music, indie music, or other slow music, your body calms down. Your body’s biological processes, such as breathing and heart rate, often react to the music you’re listening to.

When your breathing slows and your heartbeat is beating normally, you will feel less stressed. This gives you an opportunity to relax on a biological level, not just a mental or emotional one.

5. Music Sparks Creativity

Music to relieve stress and anxiety is a great idea because it sparks creativity. Human beings weren’t made to exist in a constant state of production. Instead, taking time to be creative, use our imaginations, and make things is crucial. 

Creativity is often emphasized for children. Rather than considering it childish, taking creativity into our adult lives is massive stress relief. There’s no ‘wrong way’ to be creative, which lowers the stakes and associated stress with everyday life. 

That’s why listening to music can help spark your creativity. Whether it’s an instrumental piece or there are lyrics involved, music is meant to tell a story. Humans are communal, storytelling creatures, and hearing someone’s story can help you decide to tell one of your own. 

Whether you make your own music, tell verbal stories, draw, or simply enjoy imagining stories in your head, music prompts the creativity that can distract you from ‘the real world.’ If you’re looking to reduce stress and anxiety, music is the way to go.

The Connection Between Music And Stress

Music and stress are associated together because one helps reduce the other. Whether you prefer old country classics or new rap music, there’s something for everyone.

Take the time to experiment a little when finding the genre or artist that really calms you down. After all, there’s no reason to subject yourself to elevator music just because you think it ‘should be’ calming. In fact, listening to music you hate will only raise your stress levels—not reduce them. 

Being able to holistically care for yourself, through music, a healthy diet, and the right supplements are also good ways to reduce stress. If you’re interested in learning more about being able to holistically take care of yourself, contact us today! We can help.

The Negative Effects of Stress Eating

by Ingredia USA | Jan 6, 2022 | Stress Management

Stress eating is a vicious cycle perpetuated by anxiety. So, it’s no surprise that 47 percent of adults say they have been eating more or eating unhealthy foods due to the stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If have found yourself wondering — why do I stress eat? — and want to learn how to stop, keep reading. This article explains the reasons for emotional eating, its impact, and how to help yourself. 

What Is Stress Eating?

Stress eating, also called emotional eating, is a pattern of eating and behavior that causes one to push down emotions with food. Physical appetite or hunger does not have anything to do with stress eating. 

Unsurprisingly, there is a link between stress and weight gain. When a person’s levels of stress rise, it’s not unusual that they put healthy eating on the back burner. Stress may cause one to:  

• Exercise or move less 
• Eat comfort foods 
• Skip meals
• Overeat
• Eat whatever is accessible (which is often unhealthy)
• Drink less water 

This is because stress causes the body’s cortisol and adrenaline levels to rise, which triggers a physiological response that may compel one to turn to high fat, high sugar, energy-dense, and low nutritional value comfort foods.

This response, known as fight-or-flight, is leftover from the days of early human development when stressors were life-threatening, and food was in short supply. While there is still some benefit to this response, prolonged or chronic stress can lead to a number of different health issues, especially binge eating and complications that can follow. 

Stress Eating Disorder

While it is normal to eat when you are not hungry to relax, stress eating disorder is different. Stress eating disorder follows cycles of high stress, excessive eating, followed by shame and/or more stress. 

This cycle may look like:

You have a hard day at work or get into a fight with someone important to you, so you turn to food, often something sugary, salty, or high in fat, for comfort. Even if you are not hungry, you eat and maybe continue eating past the point of fullness. After the stress eating episode comes a wave of shame or worry, which in turn causes more stress.

When that new wave of stress is not dealt with in a healthy way, it can loop back into another cycle of emotional eating. Not only is it damaging to mental health, but this type of interaction with food can have a negative impact on your physical health. 

Side Effects of Stress Eating Disorder 

Stress eating disorder is a cycle. This cycle can cause mental and physical health side effects such as:

• Excessive fatigue 
• Increased abdominal fat
• Fluctuations in weight 
• Stomach pain, cramping, or other gastrointestinal issues
• Preoccupation with food 
• Feeling out of control
• Isolation 
• Difficulties telling the difference between emotional and physical hunger 

Stress, in conjunction with emotional eating, can also raise your risks for diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart conditions. As cortisol builds with excessive stress, it may raise your blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides levels. These changes also contribute to the accumulation of arterial plaque and coronary artery disease. 

Cortisol also impacts metabolic function, which can make weight loss more difficult. Obesity is a compounding factor of each of these conditions and can serve to cause more stress. Conditions like high cholesterol or diabetes do not happen overnight or just because you indulge every once in a while.

The more immediate signs that stress is taking a toll on your body are sleep issues like insomnia, muscle tension, muscle pain, and migraines. However, if stress and related issues like emotional eating go untreated for long enough, your cardiac health may begin to suffer. 

Treating Stress and Emotional Eating 

As mentioned above, stress and emotional eating feed into one another, causing a cycle that is not easy to break. So, what can you do to help manage a stress eating disorder?

Add More Movement To Your Day 

Try to add more movement and exercise to your daily routine. This can include going on a walk, trying out yoga, signing up for a gym, or even setting a timer on your phone that will remind you to get up and stretch every once and a while. Start out small and work your way up to bigger activities if you are intimidated by the idea of beginning a new fitness routine. 

Getting Professional Treatment 

Knowing how to stop stress eating is a process that is hard to take on alone. Reach out to your general physician for help or a referral to a specialist. The consequences are not only physical but mental too, so it is strongly suggested you seek out a mental health specialist as well. 

A therapist or doctor specializing in emotional eating behaviors can help teach you coping mechanisms and strategies for dealing with the thoughts food suppresses. 

Identify and Try to Remove Your Triggers 

Triggers can be emotional, like stress, boredom, anger, or social anxiety. Practice identifying what triggers you to overeat or eat emotionally and take a five-minute break before acting on any impulsive thoughts. Go for a walk, do some deep breathing, or take a moment to assess what you are feeling and why you want to stress eat. 

Other triggers may be environmental. These may include keeping certain types of food in your home that you know you go to when you are stressed out. Consider planning out your meals, making substitutions, or proportioning the food into appropriate containers. 

You do not have to cut out the trigger foods completely. Try not to assign a “value” to them or feel ashamed after eating them, as it will continue the cycle. Instead of thinking of them as taboo or off-limits, let yourself eat them in proper serving sizes to help control the urges. 

You Can Control Stress Eating 

Stress has an impact on many aspects of your life, and it can seriously impact your health. Stress eating is a self-perpetuating cycle that is difficult to break on your own. We hope this article helps you identify resources and motivates you to ask for help. 

Take a look at our activities page to see Ingredia’s natural products for stress relief and overall wellness.