Lately I've been working on several side projects at the office and as much as I love my job, we all know how easy it is to get stressed when we have a lot of things to work out, appointments, problems, etc. Stress is something that is present in almost everyone's life. But what is stress?

By definition it is your brain's response to any internal or external stimulus. This can be due to a change in your lifestyle, physical damage such as a wound, excessive exercise, scarring from surgery; and of course emotional stress caused by problems at work, relationships, losses, emotions, financial conditions, etc.

Stress is not a good thing or a bad thing, it just is. How we react, deal with, manifest, and manage stress is where all the magic – or rather, challenge – lies. The impacts of stress on our health and our bodies can manifest in a multitude of ways, including hormonal changes, nervous system reactions, changes in weight and sleep, poor digestion, cardiovascular disease, decreased immunity, reproductive system imbalances, insomnia , chronic fatigue syndrome, thyroid disorders, depression, among others.

Stress is a physiological response needed mainly in dangerous situations. For example, if we were to come face-to-face with a lion, we would need our stress response to give all the gas a boost to start running, breathe faster to supply oxygen as fuel to the muscles, and the release of hormones from the suprasternal glands. kidneys, especially cortisol, to increase our focus and use energy reserves as fuel to escape danger.

Cortisol is not a bad hormone, but when it becomes chronically high this hormone signals your body to eat more than it needs because it's reacting to a survival instinct rather than a work deadline or 2 hours of traffic. Cortisol is needed, however high levels of this hormone for many hours will contribute to a state of chronic silent inflammation and especially to abdominal weight gain. That's why it's important to learn how we can turn off this heightened stress response when it's not needed.

For me, yoga and meditation are foolproof tools to help relieve stress. With the pace at which things happen, so fast and exciting, we can easily feel overwhelmed. Yoga and meditation help me a lot and can help you handle negative thoughts, to-do lists, pressures, anxieties, etc.; it's the only thing I can do to completely center myself and get back to my true self, feel happy, alert, energized, and be able to continue to do what I do best.

Most days I meditate for a few minutes after my yoga practice before starting my workday at a special location in my home. If you've never done yoga, try an experimental class or just sit quietly and watch your breath for a few minutes. It can be a meditation walking in a garden or park, on the beach or even in your car while you drive – you can take a deep breath anywhere. The goal is not to “not think” because the thoughts will come, the challenge of practice is to allow those thoughts to float like a little bubble and not attribute a reaction giving them more power to take the present moment.

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