In clinics, we recommend many ways to help our clients reach balance and reduce the effects of the stress response on their minds and bodies.

Stress-relieving techniques may include one or a combination of the following:

• Yoga (physical or online classes, or via apps)

• Stretching

• The butterfly hug

• Meditation (5 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on your ability to unwind)

• Mindful breathing (essential to reset the parasympathetic nervous system and soothe the vagus nerve, the nerve relaying information from the gut and visceral organs to the brain)

• Gratefulness (list 3 things you are grateful for. These can be anything, as long as they made your day or made you feel good. Build up on what you are already doing)

• Reading a book

• Drawing or colouring books (ideal to take your mind off things, so avoid apps as they make you hyperactive)

• Journalling and self-reflection\

In “Energise - 30 Days to Vitality”, I explain in much detail each technique and how they can support you along your journey and help you set up long-lasting habits.

Additionally, at Nutrunity UK, we have developed 5-minute SOS meditation videos that can help you start, if meditating is not for you. Our sessions last 5 minutes, giving you enough to change your state and refocus on yourself.

Understandably, meditating is not for everyone and the more stressed you are the less you will be able to sit still and let the quietness fill your being. If you had a coffee or two, or more, you may even be fidgeting and end up more stressed before you attempted to meditate. This is for those reasons that we have made our 5-minute SOS meditation videos available to you, so you can start somewhere.

The exercise that shows the most impressive results in clinics and that is most helpful to most people is journaling and reflection.

How to: 

In the morning, write down your intentions for the day in your journal. Affirmations are a fantastic opportunity to help your mind control thought patterns. This can take as little as 3 minutes.

In the evening, as you unwind, focus on the day, and those intentions, and write down everything that had an impact on your mental and emotional well-being. Write down how it made you feel at the time, how it has affected you and how you have reacted to it.

• Was it a constructive response?

• Was it in tune with your intentions?

• Were these linked to your authentic self, your values and beliefs?

• Did you apologise for your wrongs if you were?

• Did you accept apologies from those who did you wrong?

The key to journalling is to be as honest with yourself as possible, to be kind with the way you feel, and work inwards. Welcome the constructive thoughts, the good. Acknowledge the challenges, the moments you were not your best self. Dive deep into understanding yourself and your reactions to events. Remember that the event is only part of the way you feel. Your reaction dictates the way you feel, and this is intrinsically linked to your behaviour.

Choose from any of the techniques listed above. 

Experiment if necessary and see what works best for you. It must, however, become a daily habit, an automatism. The brain is hooked on regularity and, again, breaking states is the best way to reset the brain and prepare your mind for what follows. Setting up your intentions in the morning allows going from a relaxed state (sleep) to a more active state. However, you can be more focused and direct your thoughts because of your intentions for the day are set. You have clarity and focus, without any excessive pressure.

In the evening, you create an opposite pattern, giving your mind and body indications that it is time to unwind and prepare for sleep. This will allow you to reach deeper sleep faster, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed.

Addressing the stress response (felt or not) is the most important part of the protocol. You are laying the foundations. If you do not follow through with any of the relaxation techniques you have chosen, the foundation will collapse and you will be back to where you were today, disheartened and likely not motivated to try again. So, it is important you stick to it. Naturally, it might take a little use to, find what works best for you, but the rewards are immense.

You also need to reconnect with nature, with food. 

Spend as much time as possible outdoors, surrounded by nature. Appreciate the beauty of nature. This can be part of your intentions (if you need a hint to get you started). Reconnect with food by understanding the effect it has on your body, nourishing your every cell, making each and every cell membrane keeping your cells functioning at their best, allowing for oxygen to enter freely and waste to be excreted easily. So you can have more energy and spend more time being you — your best you. 

Journaling — 8 Morning prompts

The aim is to set the tone for the day, give you structure and help you focus on what is important to you.

• Self-check: How do I feel this morning? Do I feel refreshed? Exhausted? Anxious?

• How did I sleep?

• What do I want to achieve today?

• How do I want to feel at the end of the day?

• What did I learn yesterday or made me stronger today?

• what would make today a great day?

• Self-care: What am I planning to do today to support my body, my peace of mind and my mental health?

• Note to self: choose 3 affirmations for the day that I’ll carry with me everywhere

Journaling — 5 Daily prompts

It may be necessary to keep your journal with you and write during your lunch break so that you can gauge how the day has gone so far and what you could do to offload all that is crowding your mind and affecting the way you feel.

• If I could live today all over again, what will I do differently?

• What did I learn today, the challenges I faced and the things I am most proud of?

• What have I done so far to take care of myself, and my mental and physical well-being? If not, am I planning some me-time soon? How will I stick to the schedule?

• Have I checked with myself about how I feel today and how it has affected my behaviour? Is my reaction a problem or my environment? Can I do anything about it?

• What is derailing my best intentions today?

Journaling — 10 self-reflection prompts

The aim is to work inwards by identifying and acknowledging the thoughts in your mind and how these are affecting your emotions and behaviour.

• Am I accepting myself, my flaws and my mistakes? What do I have at my disposal to practice acceptance and be kinder and more understanding of myself?

• How do I regain focus, composure and control over my revving thoughts after a stressful event or following an argument?

• What do I need right now that I can do to help myself feel my best self?

• What resources do I have to remain calm and focused on my needs?

• Are my expectations too high? Am I setting myself up for failure on purpose?

• Do I trust myself? If not what can I do to trust the decisions I make?

• Am I easy to forget myself or do I give power to my inner voice to bring me down and remind me of all the past failures?

• Is there something I should be proud of or need to celebrate? If nothing obvious, is there really nothing I should be grateful for?

• Do I see experiences as opportunities to grow, improve and be a better version of the person I can be?

• Is there anything I can do to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to grow as an individual?

Journaling — 12 end-vision prompts

These prompts can help you with what is important for you, understand what resources you have at your disposal and how you are going to reach your end vision, what will you do to make sure you end up where you want to be and be who you want to be

• What do I want to achieve that is important to me?

• What do I want my ideal life to be?

• How will I know I got there? How will I feel, hear, smell, or taste? What do I look like? What am I wearing? Am I smiling? How is the background; a sunny day, on a beach?

• Is there something I want to do or achieve before I retire?

• How do I react in the face of adversity?

• What coping mechanisms have I developed or still looking to develop? What am I doing to increase my resilience?

• Do I have any regrets? Anything I wish I didn’t do?

• Am I prone to rumination and giving control to my over-critical inner voice?

• Am I the biggest barrage in becoming the person I want to be? What am I doing that restricts my movement and my ambition and prevents me from reaching for my dreams?

• Do I give power to the greatest self-saboteur in my life, that voice that is keeping me from being me and the reason for much anxiety and loss?

• If I wake up in a bad mood, what can I do to make my day a better day?

• Is there anything I am grateful for? Write 5-10 nice things that happened to you in the past week or month.

Journaling — 6 self-discovery prompts

• Write a letter to yourself for five years from now on

• List 5 goals that are important for you and why (understand your motivations)

• List up to 5 names of people you admire and why (again, understand your motivations)

• List the main character traits you want to embody and why

• List your best qualities and why you think those are important

• List your biggest flaws and why you consider these to be flaws

Journaling — 4 daily habits

Consider making the following lists in the back of your journal. Refer to those whenever you need a little push or inspiration.

• Make a list of affirmations that ring true to you and resonate best with your core values

• Make a bullet list

• Make a list of goals you want to achieve.

• Make a list of intentions and as the evening draws in check on those intentions. Did you do all that you intended to do? If not, why? How is this affecting you right now?

Journaling — 10 beginners prompts

Do not see journaling as a chore, a task that needs to be done. Do not feel obligated to answer any or all of the above questions. Some questions may be more personal to you and you can come up with your own questions. The aim is to better understand yourself, your thought patterns, and your behavioural responses in certain situations, so you can be in control of the way you feel and behave. Always try to understand your motivations.

• Make it a daily habit, so set some time out of your day to focus on yourself. This is me-time in the best possible way

• Make it easy. Do not over-complicate it. Writing how you feel at this moment in time may be the simplest exercise you can do to refocus on your needs and reframe your thoughts

• How would you like to feel?

• What did you do today to make yourself proud?

• What did you do today that made you furious, harsh and over-critical of yourself?

• What are you scared of and why?

• What are your biggest dreams and why?

• Who are the people that bring the most joy in your life and why?

• As you prepare for sleep and reflect on your day, what are you most grateful for?

• What is the positive thought you want to take to sleep and carry to the morning?

Choose any of the above prompts and use the ones you feel can help you start.

As you keep writing in your journal, you’ll learn more about yourself than you ever thought you could. Using journaling as a stepping stone, then anything is possible.

Let journaling help you build your confidence and give you the tools to be more resilient.

Start journaling today.