A Simple Remedy For Holiday Burn-Out
Have you felt completely overwhelmed with meeting the demands of work, family and creating a beautiful life for yourself?
Maybe you’ve been under a stressful dead-line and unpredicted things have created delays, causing you to push and overwork in order to keep your business thriving?
Or perhaps it’s been so long since you’ve been relaxed and playful that numbness has taken over and you don’t remember what it’s like to have fun?
Or worse, you’ve been feeling alone and isolated, even when surrounded by people?
Disconnection is real. Stress is real. Trying to live up to our ideals is real. And learning to transform our stress is not only an essential part of reality, it’s a must.
No matter what the scenario, living in a stress cycle creates a lot of wear and tear on our body and spirit. And to add fuel to the fire, the more we are stressed, the less we are resourced to transform our stress.
So how do we break this pattern?
Oxytocin.
It’s one of the amazing secrets of our regenerating bodies!
Not only is it a powerful connection hormone, it’s also a very important neurotransmitter that assists in creating more brain plasticity which is essential in creating new healthy habits and giving us greater access to our creative genius.
Deeply embedded patterns lead to rapid aging and illness. To transform those patterns, we need to be able to change our habits and to learn new ways of being and living. Having a boost to our ability to shift and grow has very powerful and lasting results in our well-being.
To break our stress patterns, we must engage in a pleasure-based hormonal cycle which is most easily induced through direct connection with others. Not the ‘online-through-an-app’ connection, but direct human contact, where we give and receive physical touch.
Yes. This means getting off our devices and seeking out personal time with others, preferably playful, sensual contact such as the kind experienced through partner dancing or snuggling.
But what happens when we don’t feel safe enough for connection of this kind or don’t have access to other people?
If we do not have access to others or we don’t feel safe to connect physically with others, we can still induce an oxytocin state within our own body. This can be a huge game changer, especially for those of us who are under a lot of stress such as having young children and/or running our own businesses.
Steps to transformation stress into vitality:
- Recognize and admit we are stressed. This is important so that we are aware of our need for connection and relaxation.
- Break our habits. This means literally doing something different every 50 mins or so during our work day. For example: get up and move if we sit all the time or reach out if we have a tendency to isolate.
- Breathe more deeply if we tend to shallow breathe. Breathing is key, especially if we can combine it with gentle, yet firm contact with our own body. Let your out breath be slightly longer than your in breath.
If learning more about Oxytocin and how self-inducing oxytocin can benefit your relationships and well-being, you’re invited to join my oxytocin training and start to harness your own self-inducing skills: Transforming Holiday Stress Into Connection
Thanks for reminding me I need oxytocin.
I don’t know if by deep breathing you mean belly breathing or breathing a large volume of air. If the latter, I want to point out that that’s actually bad and stressful (check Buteyko method, Bohr effect). Knowing how it works breathing out slightly longer is healthy, just don’t force it.
Hi Jill, I was keeping it UBER basic. Shallow breathing is terrible. Allowing ourselves to breathe a little more fully is a great place to start 😉
Oh my my darling heart, to de- stress. Oxygen your cells and blood. First thing of a morning with a 6 mins vigour walk 2 mins breathing, then 6 mins back home. 2 mins breathing. Shower. And then have your own green super smoothie
All with love.
Thank you for your fun recipe!