Let's face it, the world is a stressful place. Going through our regular day-to-day lives can be stressful with all of our modern-day responsibilities. This along with the hustle of the fast-paced society we live in can cause us to get wound up, stressed, and uptight. Good thing there are plenty of natural methods to alleviate this stress and promote relaxation to soothe your body and help you recover from exercise, oxidative stress, free radical damage, everyday toxins, and more!
Most of us have to get up and go to jobs every day that wear a toll on us. Some even have children to get up and get ready for school before they head out to start their workday. This is all done to keep their lives and families going by making money to pay the bills and feed the family. While that may be enough to drive most to succeed and provide for their families, it can still wear you down mentally and physically.
Stress can cause many problems in your life that you may not even know it's causing. Many think it's an illness that is causing their irritating headaches, frequent insomnia or decreased productivity when these can all be signs of stress. The symptoms of stress can reach far and wide, affecting your body, thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
When left unchecked stress symptoms can lead to various health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. The physical effects of stress can lead to headaches, muscle tension, muscle pain, chest pain, fatigue, change in sex drive, upset stomach, and even sleep problems. Stress can also affect your mental state and your mood, causing anxiety, restlessness, lack of motivation, lack of focus, the feeling of being overwhelmed, irritability, anger, sadness, or depression.
The combination of these stress effects can lead to changes in your overall behavior as well. This can include changes in your everyday habits such as overeating, undereating, angry outbursts, drug or alcohol misuse, tobacco use, social withdrawal, and exercising less. Noticing these signs when they begin to appear is key to managing your stress.
There are many natural methods for managing and relieving your stress including physical actions and nutritional improvements. Regular exercise is a great activity for alleviating your stress and improving your mood. This begins on a neurochemical basis by reducing levels of the body's stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, and by increasing chemical endorphins in the brain that are the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators.
This exercise can come in many shapes and forms including yoga, walking, running, swimming, weight lifting, and even breathing exercises. Researchers from Stanford University have uncovered a link between slow breathing and a tranquil state of mind. The team from Stanford University School of Medicine identified a small group of neurons that communicate in the brain's respiratory control center with the structure responsible for the overall feeling of well being, which essentially connects breathing to states of mind.
Mental, physical, and emotional stresses aren't the only types of stress caused by our environment either. Oxidative stress is essentially an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body. These free radicals are oxygen-containing molecules that have an uneven number of electrons which makes it easy for them to react with other molecules. This reaction can cause other large chain chemical reactions in your body called oxidation.
Oxidation is a natural and essential process in the body. Whereas oxidative stress only takes place when there is an imbalance of antioxidant activity and free radical activity. When functioning properly, oxidation and free radicals can help fight off pathogens that lead to infections. However, once there are more free radicals present than can be kept in balance by antioxidants, the free radicals can start doing damage to fatty tissue, DNA, and proteins in your body. Because proteins, lipids, and DNA make up a large part of your body this damage can lead to numerous diseases including diabetes, atherosclerosis, inflammatory conditions, high blood pressure, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and even cancer.
The good news is that just like the other types of stress there are plenty of natural ways to alleviate and prevent oxidative stress. The best and most effective way to do this is through nutritional improvements in your diet. This is done by making sure you are getting enough antioxidants in your food to balance out the free radicals.
Foods high in antioxidants include berries, cherries, broccoli, dark leafy greens, and other green plants such as wheatgrass, moringa, chlorella, and spirulina that can all be found in our Organic Superfood Greens without the hassle and mess of juicing. Other sources of antioxidants can include carrots, tomatoes, olives, as well as turmeric and cinnamon that are included in our Organic Superfood Golds to help boost recovery as well as fight oxidative damage.
The turmeric and cinnamon bring even more to the table than that! Research shows that ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon which are present in Organic Superfood Golds also have potent anti-inflammatory properties. This can help speed up your physical recovery and relieve pain in the body. We take it a step even farther by incorporating reishi mushrooms, lemongrass, and ashwagandha to help you unwind after a long day and promote a night of deep restful sleep, making Organic Superfood Golds the ultimate wat to promote relaxation and recovery the natural way!
