- This is my first ever dual Facebook Live
and Instagram Live.
It's pretty exciting.
Oh, I hope I wasn't giving a peepshow
over there on Instagram.
Hi, everyone!
I'm Felicity.
I'm the founder of Imbibe, and this is Radiant Wednesday.
This is a lifestyle show that we do every Tuesday
on a Wednesday when I get to answer all of your questions.
You get to ask me anything you want,
so make sure you put them in the comments below
so that I can get to them.
And today, I've got a super special
Radiant Wednesday for you.
Today, I'm showing you how I de-stress
my life in like a little jiffy.
I know so many of us are running around crazy busy,
and we just need like a few new techniques
to help us to de-stress, to calm the farm, people.
So today I'm gonna show you my top 10 ways.
Hi, Caroline!
My top 10 ways that I do that.
So it's gonna be super simple, and you're gonna be able
to take these away with you and just have them
on repeat, like on speed dial, so you can just dial them in,
my ways to de-stress.
So that's super exciting, and if you're just joining,
let me know where you're actually in from live.
I would love to know!
So I'll just give you a bit of background.
We, and some of you might know, but I obviously create
a range of drinks which I took off the shelves
at the end of last year because what happened was,
my current factory that I've got is too small.
And it's taken me two years to find a new factory.
And it was like almost impossible to find a new factory.
And what happened was, I caught up with a friend
in Bombay who gave me a tip-off that there was
this brand-new factory being built in Bombay.
And so what happened was this very fast chain of events
where we basically had to sign a lease on the factory,
quite a big lease.
Hi, Jai!
Awesome.
Quite a big lease, so we had to lock ourselves in
for like at least five years on this lease.
It would mean moving our entire family.
My husband would have to quit his job,
and he needed to come in on the business with me.
So there was that dynamic of then having to work
with my husband, which sometimes can be a challenge.
We'd have to pull our girls out of school.
My little one's only in kindergarten.
She's only five.
So like that's, you know, I mean I know it's a good time.
But just a lot of change.
Plus, selling our house, buying another house,
all those kind of things.
And literally we had to decide in the space of two weeks
because they were going to give our factory
to somebody else if we didn't sign.
So can you imagine, if you were in that situation,
to have to sign right there and then, what are you doing.
Is your husband quitting his job that he's worked
for quite a long time to get to this place in his career?
Because his work isn't available in Bombay,
and it meant a financial risk for us.
It meant pulling our kids out of school.
Like an entire life change
that we had to decide in 10 working days.
So that is actually quite a stressful situation,
would you agree?
Like, give me a heart or something
so that I kind of understand.
Like, would you agree that that's a
pretty stressful situation for anybody to be in,
let alone like running your own business
with all the stuff that comes along with that?
So today, I'm gonna give you my top 10 strategies
of how I have dealt with that level of high-impact stress.
And if you want the PDF, so I have created a PDF
so you can always just have it on your phone.
So if you find your breath starting to go
and you find you're starting to get stressed,
you'll have it on your phone, and you can just refer to it.
So in the comments below, just hit Yes
if you would like that PDF to download,
and I'll DM it over to you straight away.
So just hit Yes, and then I'll get it over to you.
It's like just a little pocket guide
that you can have on your phone.
And anytime you start to feel stressed,
you can look at it and just choose
one of the techniques that I recommend.
So that's sort of what's been going on.
So the first thing that I'd love
to share with you is box breathing.
Do you know about box breathing?
If you do, give me a heart,
just so I can sort of see where you're at.
So box breathing, to me it's like you create a,
oh, aren't they pretty.
Rainbows from my sun catcher.
Oh, it's so nice.
With your breath, you create like a box shape.
Let's just talk about stress for a minute first.
Some of us, myself included, I don't actually know,
there's no, like..
And sometimes you get so used to being in this
state of stress that it's hard to realize
when we are actually, oops, sorry guys.
I think I'm giving a peepshow over there.
It's hard to realize when we are actually in stress,
because we're so accustomed to feeling that way,
so we don't actually notice what's going on.
So some of the signs of stress are your breath being short.
So you can recognize that your breath is like
kind of erratic, having like multiple lines of
different thoughts going on that we find it hard to
concentrate on one thing, sweaty palms.
It's almost like that excited feeling
but without the breath, so that's like one of the
first ways you can tell if you're stressed or not.
And some of us, myself, I'm talking to myself here,
don't actually realize when we're in stress mode.
So that's one way you can check in with yourself.
And the reason we want,
Hi, Tash, how are you?
The reason we want to be slipping away from this stress mode
is because what happens when you're stressed,
all your blood gets sent out to the ends of your bodies,
like your feet, your hands, your legs,
to get you ready to run out of that stressful situation.
And when we're walking around feeling stressed
the majority of the time, or at least some of the time,
our bodies can't go into rest and digest
and nourish and nurture, which is what we need
to be a fully vital person, right?
We need to be in that rest and digest state.
So what happens when you're stressed,
you're in the sympathetic?
Is it sympathetic or parasympathetic?
You're in the sympathetic nervous state system
where your body's literally just trying to keep you going.
And often that's when we crave sweet things, you know?
Three o'clock in the afternoon when we've been
going, going, going, going, going
all day, and our body's like, right, we are going
so hard, we actually really need some energy here,
some glucose, which is like a really quick
energy source for the body to keep us powering through.
So then we start eating sugar,
and then we all know the flow and effects of having
too much sugar in our body, right?
It's not good for your adrenals.
It's not good for your nervous system.
It's not good for your waistline.
It's just, period, not good.
"Yes, please, I want the PDF."
Awesome, Jai!
You can have that PDF.
Just hit Yes in the comments below,
and you'll have the PDF.
So that's what's happened when we're stressed.
So here are my 10 ways to help you bring back
your breath so that you're not stressed.
First way is box breathing.
So that's what I was saying before.
That's creating a box for your breath.
Breathe in for four.
Hold it for four.
Exhale for four.
Hold it for four.
Who's gonna do it on the call with me today?
Inhale for four.
Hold it for four.
Exhale for four.
Hold it for four.
And keep going like that.
So you create a box with your breath.
So when you're driving, brushing your teeth,
getting your kids ready for school,
whatever you're doing, you can do box breathing.
And that immediately sends a signal to your body,
Hey, life's good!
We are quite chilled out here!
We can rest, we can digest, everything is good, right?
So your body only knows your stress system
because of your breath.
Isn't that amazing?
It's the only way to calm the farm.
So by doing that box breathing
you'll instantly tell your body
that everything is cool and to chill out.
Who of you knew about that box breathing technique?
I'd love to know, and give me some hearts
if you knew about that box breathing technique.
I do it often when I'm driving
when I remember, when I'm stressed.
'Cause anything with the lights and the people ahead of me,
I'm do my box breathing, number one.
Number two, put your legs up the wall.
So this is a yoga technique called Viparita Karani.
I've been practicing yoga for 20 years,
and I still cannot say the Sanskrit, so I guess,
but just put your legs up the wall.
And what this will do, so this is like what you can do
just a couple of minutes before you go to sleep,
is lie on your back, put your feet up the wall.
That will actually drain the blood back down into your body,
getting that parasympathetic nervous system switched on.
So legs up the wall.
Hit Yes in the comments if you'd like this PDF,
and I'll DM over to you straight away
so you've always got it in your hand.
Okay, the third thing is, it's not gonna come as any
surprise to many of you, you have to nourish your gut.
Do you know why?
It's because in your gut, that connects
directly to your brain via vagus nerve,
sending communication messages constantly to your brain
telling your brain what is going on in the terrain,
whether it's a peaceful situation or a stressful situation.
Getting stress in our lives damages our gut,
and it kills off the good bugs, the probiotics in our gut.
And what happens when you kill off the probiotics in
your gut is that you're not digesting your food as easily,
you're not getting access to the nutrients you need.
The neurotransmitters which are responsible for
hormone regulation and stress regulation,
a whole host of things, your happiness hormone,
it's not being able to effectively be produced.
So you have to nourish your gut with probiotic drinks.
Probiotic drinks, right?
That's one of the ways.
That's my way, that's the way that I love it.
Of course, there's sauerkraut and kimchi.
Just make sure whatever you're buying is
raw and pure and full of probiotics.
You don't wanna be getting the stuff that's just
been like sitting on the shelves for ages.
You want your own living probiotic drinks
because all those thousands, millions, trillions
of living probiotics are gonna go in your gut,
nourish your gut, and that's gonna help your stress
activation towards your brain just calm down.
So get yourselves on to having your own probiotic drinks.
Plus, it's so fun.
And we'll check if you can make
all these since I've made it super easy for you
with your own take-home bags and my book.
So get on to nourishing your gut.
My fourth way is Nadi Shodhana
which is called Alternative Nose Breathing,
which is also an ancient yogic technique.
Who does know of Nadi Shodhana?
Give me a heart, and I'll know who does it.
So I'm just gonna demonstrate so that you've got this
so that when you're looking at your PDF,
you can look at the video.
So you just take your two fingers, put them there.
Oh, I'm getting some hearts coming through.
That's good.
Take that finger,
hold one nostril.
You breathe in, just one nostril.
Just nice and straight, just breathe in.
And then, so you close one nostril,
and breathe in the one side.
With your other fingers, close the nostril,
and then you exhale through the other side, right?
So you're just breathing in one nostril
and breathing out the other one.
In the same way of box breathing,
this also helps to just calm your whole nervous system down.
So Nadi Shodhana.
What about our sense of smell?
If you get on to some lavender oil,
it's like instantly so calming.
So I would just go to the pharmacy,
buy yourself some lavender oil.
And I like literally douse myself in this stuff.
There are some days where I'm just scattering lavender oil
all over my body to help calm me down.
Who uses lavender oil, and do you love it?
Let me know.
The other thing that you can also do is,
just try and find yourself a mantra you can repeat.
So a mantra is just like a set of words
that you repeat over and over.
And my mantra often is, I am calm.
I'm relaxed.
I'm well.
Like, I just keep saying really positive things to myself.
Since so many of us run around with this pre-programmed
vocalization of, "I'm stressed, and I'm so busy,
"and I've got too much going on," or that kind of thing.
Which, you know, yeah, it might be the reality you are,
but you can use more positive words over yourself.
So definitely check the way you're speaking to yourself.
And if you want this PDF, just hit Yes
in the comments and we'll get it to you.
The next thing is just like, yeah, get rid of distractions.
So turn off notifications on your phone.
Put your phone in Do Not Disturb.
If you're feeling super stressed out,
that is not the time you want to be hearing
that bing-bing-bing-bing going on all over the place.
That's the time you just need to take a breath and chill.
So definitely turn off those notifications.
And lastly, I would just say be kind to yourself, right?
With all of us living in quite a high-pressured environment,
quite a high-stress situation for some of the time,
and if we can approach ourselves just with some calm
and kindness towards ourselves and others,
your nervous system is really going to thank you
because, again, you're gonna have to beautiful words
going over you, that softness, that kindness.
So it doesn't mean like don't do all the stuff, not at all.
Like, I'm firmly in the real world
with lots of stuff going on, and like I said,
we signed on a house, we're moving,
all this stuff happening.
But if we can just, having like a kinder approach
towards ourselves, our nervous system
will really thank us for it.
So those are my top 10 tips to helping
de-stress and de-frazzle, aka the working parent's
guide to hit the refresh button.
I hope that you've loved this installment
of Radiant Wednesday.
Hit Yes in the comments, and I'll send over your PDF.
And if you want me to answer anything next week,
just tell me in the comments,
and I will definitely get to it.
Turn on notifications so you always hear from me,
and I will see you next week, Wednesday, 2 p.m.,
for Radiant Wednesday.
Caio, guys!
Thanks for joining in.
No comments:
Post a Comment