HH568: Encore Presentation-Stress: How It Impacts Your Cognitive Function

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Welcome back to another episode of health hacks

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as I continue talking about stress and how it impacts

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various aspects of your life, health and ability to function

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at optimal levels. And today, I want to talk about how it

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impairs your memory and your concentration, your cognitive

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function. Overall, chronic stress can affect your brain

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function, and you intuitively already know this, because when

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you're stressed out, you're feeling like there's that ping,

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ping, ping, ping, going on in your brain, and you can't

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actually land on one thing. And as a result, you struggle to

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remember things. You struggle to focus. You struggle in your

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decision making abilities, and in that moment, recognize that,

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ah, it's stress that's causing this. What can I do in order to

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calm my nervous system? And so, as with all of these episodes

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I've been doing, I love to give you some tips of different

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things that you can implement in your life to help calm your

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nervous system. And some of them you're going to hear me saying,

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you're going to be like, yep, not doing that. It's not for me,

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and that's okay. Keep tuning in, because every session, I am

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giving you another tip, and in at least one of them out of the

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12 that I'm running this month, you will find something that you

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enjoy, that helps you calm your nervous system each and every

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day, so that you don't get into this place of chronic stress

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where you can't focus, can't make decisions, and can't sleep,

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etc, etc. So my tip for today is to find a hobby that you love.

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What is it that brings you joy that you can lose time in when

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you do it? Is it something such as reading, taking some time to

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read every day, lose yourself in the story in a book. Is it

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gardening, losing yourself in nature outside and feeling the

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soil in your on your hands and fingers, which is actually

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great, because then you're getting some of the microbes in

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the soil into your body that support your gut health as well.

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Is it painting? Is it some other kind of craft that you enjoy

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doing that allows you to just relax into that activity and

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push everything else that's going on in your world outside

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of it, while you take that time to lose yourself in pure joy.

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And sometimes we feel like I don't have a right to do that.

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I'm too busy. I have all of these things that I need to get

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done. I don't have time. And the reality is is that in that

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stressed out state where you can't focus, where you can't

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make decisions, where you're struggling to remember things,

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you are not productive anyway, so everything is taking longer,

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and that's frustrating, and that adds to your stress. If you

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instead take half an hour out of your day to calm your mind, you

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can come back to whatever else it is that you're trying to get

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done from a place of being able to focus, being able to remember

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things, being able to make decisions, and therefore you are

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much more productive. I know it sounds counterintuitive,

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however, it truly works. So what have you got to lose? Give it a

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try and see if that helps you get out of chronic stress and

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into a place of being more productive. And as you do that,

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and you get yourself out of chronic stress, you're also

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supporting all of your other factors in your health that I've

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been talking about thus far in terms of stress will not be

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negatively impacting them anymore, because you're getting

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yourself out of that Chronic stress state. If stress is

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something that you struggle with and you feel like you need some

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more support with in the interim, as you make some of

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these lifestyle changes, please reach out to me, Melissa, at

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your guided health journey.com. Because there are some natural

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supplements that can help your body calm. There's also some lab

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testing that we can do to see what your cortisol levels are,

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what time of day they're out of balance, so that we can really

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tune in and create a customized plan for you to help you get out

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of your chronic stress state and into a healthy state of moving

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between your parasympathetic and your sympathetic nervous systems

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as you should, As opposed to being stuck in your chronic

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stress, sympathetic nervous system all day long.