5 Tips for Feeling Less Stressed
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… and also, for some of us, can be one of the most stressful times of the year.
And stress, for a lot of people in my world, can lead to stress eating and just not feeling great about how they’re caring for their bodies.
It’s important to understand here that when it comes to stress eating, or any emotional eating, it has nothing to do with you not having enough willpower.
Stress eating comes from a lack of self-care and overwhelming emotions left un-tended to. We turn to food to try and “fix” our emotions, numb out from them, not feel them or deal with them. And this is what you experience as “stress eating”.
So, in order to not stress-eat… it’s really all about #1 increasing your self care (which by the way, this isn’t meant to be just another thing you have to do… self-care can be super simple, as simple as just pausing and taking a few deep breaths a couple times a day). And #2 building your resiliency to hard and uncomfortable emotions.
I share the image in this episode when it comes to self care of taking small “sips” of water throughout the day vs. “drinking a gallon” once every couple months. These “sips” are, again, small actions and behaviors of self-care like breathing, getting 5 or 10 or however many minutes of movement in, listening to fun music while you’re cooking, taking a shower or a bath. You see, it doesn’t have to be a full on spa day or vacation (although, of course there’s nothing wrong with this). Just like it’s better to drink small sips of water throughout the day vs getting to the end of the day and drinking a ton… you’ll feel way better with the small sips often… small “sips” of self-care is also often more helpful.
In this episode I want to share with you 5 tips for feeling less stressed to give you practical actions you can do to feel more calm as you go through your life. Because this is what will, in return, help you not to stress- eat.
So here are 5 things you can do to decrease stress, both now during the holidays, and anytime you’re feeling stressed. Maybe this even becomes just your “norm”.
Get outside
Move your body
Have a ritual
Say “no” to create space
Look up (both actually & hypothetically)
*When you listen to this week’s episode, I go more in depth on each of these and give some specific examples of how I practice each of these.
Can’t wait for you to listen! When you do, I’d love to hear what practices you’re going to try! Come share with me over on Instagram @nondiet_rn or you can email me at hello @ victoria-yates.com.
You can find this episode of the Redefining Health Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or Google.
And if you’d like my help healing emotional eating, learning to create better coping skills for stress and other emotions, this is one of the areas I help my clients inside Stop Dieting Start Living. You can learn more & enroll HERE .