Anxiety can do a lot to your body.
It can make you feel physically ill, it can make it difficult to concentrate, and it can lead to depression. Anxiety can also cause your body to produce the stress hormone cortisol, which can have a number of negative health effects.
Cortisol is often referred to as the "stress hormone," and for good reason. This hormone is released in response to anxiety or stress, and it can have a profound effect on your physical and mental health. Cortisol levels that are too high can lead to anxiety, depression, and difficulty concentrating. In addition, cortisol can disrupt your sleep pattern, leading to fatigue and irritability. Long-term exposure to high levels of cortisol can also weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to illness. In short, cortisol is nothing to mess around with. If you're feeling stressed or anxious, it's important to find ways to relax and bring your cortisol levels down. Otherwise, you could be putting your health at risk.
In short, stress and anxiety are not good for your body OR your mental health. It is important to target ways to manage stress and improve sleep to keep cortisol low. It may be important to talk to a life coach to work on lifestyle changes to reduce stress or therapist to build skills for stress reduction or to help manage the thinking that often accompanies anxiety.
Along with managing stress, it is important to target nutrition and the gut-brain axis to help with stress resiliency and lowering cortisol levels.
Some basic nutritional supports that I recommend for mood and gut support are:
Hey Hey, friends!
You may have heard me speaking about "Mental Wellness" and might be wondering, what are you talking about? ;)
Well, GREAT QUESTION!
Let's start by looking at what MENTAL HEALTH is.
Mental health is looked at too narrowly. It is how we think and respond. It encompasses emotional, psychological and social well-being. It looks at cognition, perception and behavior. It also looks at decision-making, interpersonal relationships, and how one manages stress.
Now, let's explore MENTAL WELLNESS.
Mental Wellness is a more encompassing term that looks at life balance. It is about activity and exercise, nutrition, sleep and physical health. It is about relationships and connections as well as feeling balanced AND feeling ready to meet challenges life may throw your way. So, we are looking at a more holistic and broad way of refining mental health!
I have been an Integrative Mental Health Practitioner for a long time. There have always been links and connections to lifestyle and nutrition. Mental Wellness is a term that describes that holistic approach to looking at alllll the things!
For example, did you know? The average American drinks 1.5 CUPS of water a day. The minimum that our body needs is 8.5. Kinda a big difference, right?! (Sadly, your coffee, tea and wine does not count toward your water intake each day).
As a practitioner, I can help you look at ways to increase your water intake and help you understand the ways that the dehydration may be impacting you- mentally and physically.
As a Certified Mental Health Practitioner/Mental Wellness Coach, I help them look at lifestyle pieces, such as water intake, that might be impacting their physical and mental well-being. We develop plans as needed that may include supplements, health scans, targeting emotions (maybe through therapeutic means, oils, nutrition, movement), and problem solve areas that might be a barrier to betterment- financial, support, mindset, etc. You can basically say it is a detailed Health/Life Coach!
So, how do you know if you need extra support and what you might benefit from?
Sometimes you DON'T know. Sometimes you feel "fine" but you might know that you are just not happy. A bit "dull" or toned down with feelings. Or energy. It might feel "average" but if you think about it, it could probably be better. OR you might be really struggling with health- physical and/or mental health. You might feel extremely low energy and don't know what to do about it or anywhere in between.
For starters, exploring options is always a good move. I mean, if you can feel better (even if you don't think you feel bad), WHY NOT?! Build up stress resiliency and target ways to keep yourself on a good track. You might only need some small tweaks or improvements. OR you might need a complete overhaul. It is very customized to you!
If learning more appeals to you, feel free to pop over to my webpage at: www.judithlabert.com to learn more about me and some of my services or dive a little deeper through a call with me to see if I am a good fit to work with you!
I am passionate about helping others not just FEEL better but DO better in all areas possible of their lives. When we are living a healthy life of balance and have tools to support us better, we will do better, overall, and especially in those more challenging time. What might you need to live your best life?
#liveyourbestlife
xoxo, Judith
