This video, titled "Defuse Stress," explains how stress impacts your body and offers several ways to manage it. The speaker, Deb Ford, introduces the "HEAVEN" acronym for good health foundations and then focuses on stress management techniques. She details breathing exercises, the practice of gratitude, and the Eisenhower Matrix for organizing tasks, all designed to shift you from a stressful "fight or flight" state to a calm "rest and digest" mode.
Key Takeaways
1
Good health is built on a foundation of proper sleep, exercise, avoiding aggravation (stress), a positive viewpoint, eating properly, and eliminating toxins.
2
Chronic stress, unlike acute stress, keeps your body in a prolonged "fight or flight" state, disrupting hormones, immunity, and overall health.
3
Stress can lead to unhealthy food cravings, weight gain, and various diseases, including fatigue, digestive issues, and memory problems.
4
The "rest and digest" state, characterized by calmness and deep breathing, is essential for long-term health, a strong immune system, balanced hormones, and good digestion.
5
Breathwork, such as box breathing (4-4-4-4) or the 4-7-8 technique, can quickly regulate the autonomic nervous system, moving you from stress to relaxation.
6
Practicing gratitude, by consciously listing things you are thankful for, helps shift your mindset from stress to appreciation.
7
The Eisenhower Matrix helps manage overwhelm by categorizing tasks into urgent/important (do now), not urgent/important (schedule), urgent/not important (delegate), and not urgent/not important (eliminate).
8
Spending time in nature for even 10 minutes can help reset your mental state and reduce stress.
9
Strong social connections with friends, family, and community are a crucial component for longevity and a high quality of life.
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good morning and welcome to another
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edition of today's nutrition where we
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look at what is hot in the news what's
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new in research or any topic that can
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help us lose weight feel great or most
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importantly live longer better we really
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aim for all three cuz they really go
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well together and today coming off the
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holidays we're looking into the new year
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we really want to enjoy this year make
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it the best year yet I'm hopeful really
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hopeful now I normally early this time
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of year I usually do shows on New Year's
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resolution but this time you
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know I thought you've already had enough
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on the state of health of Americans and
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we've covered that a lot so many of you
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are finishing up my 10day Mya challenge
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making you healthy again one of my
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favorite topics we cover through this is
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stress we're covering all the areas that
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are a foundation of good health I like
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to use my acronym for that comes from my
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book called heaven and that is H for
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hibernate you've got to sleep got to
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sleep well 8 hours is a good average for
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most people e you got to exercise you
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know it doesn't you really can't be well
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doesn't work if you don't move you got
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to walk you got to move and if you don't
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stay strong by lifting weights doing
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resistance bands
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something using your body weight
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something to stress the muscles and
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build them got to have that because
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after all
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muscles make so many compounds that we
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need for long-term Health good bones
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good brain good digestion healthy heart
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that's the E A is to avoid
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aggravation you know stress is a killer
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so Stress Management is key this this is
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going to be my topic for today but first
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let me finish Heaven V is for Viewpoint
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arguably the most important aspect it is
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mindset your mindset is going to
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determine if you are determined if you
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persevere oh or if you just roll over
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and give up my favorite one is the V I
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guess but next is eating properly which
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I guess that can kind of be my favorite
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too but you got to get rid of the
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process the chemical Laden foods high in
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bad fats high in sugars low in fiber you
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know just flour and sugar you are what
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you eat so don't eat junk don't eat
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cheap don't eat easy right okay last n
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it's those noxious toxins that have
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pervaded our environment overwhelmed our
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body wrecked our hormones caused obesity
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caused diabetes cancer INF fertility on
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and on and on you got it I mean these
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toxins are the beast but stress is the
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topic today those pesky aggravations
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that keep us in fight or flight that
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stage and that stage prevents us from
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healing from hormones balancing and from
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keeping your immune system working
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stress really kills and stress in the
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21st century
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it's like never before I think and I'm
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going to give you some real strategies
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to deal with stress and I also want to
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tell you about the Dutch test Dutch
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stands for dried urine test for
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comprehensive hormones it's going to do
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all the sex hormones it's going to do
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cortisol four times a day how you are
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detoxifying the hormones
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neurotransmitters gut health um B
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vitamins gives gives it's just a
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wonderful kind of a roundabout test that
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really will help us focus in on what you
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need to be looking for and what hormones
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are
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disregulated and that way we can come up
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with a personalized program just for you
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okay so in the fighter flight we've got
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basically the nervous system is composed
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of many parts but the one I want to dive
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in today is the autonomic nervous system
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that's the automatic one that takes care
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of keeping your body working without you
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having to think about it you don't have
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to worry about breathing or digesting or
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keeping your heartbeating
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immunity keeping that blood sugar
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regulated that is the autonomic nervous
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system that's the one we're going to
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talk about here because it then is
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divided into two parts the sympathetic
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that's really sympathetic to all the
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stresses around and the
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parasympathetic sympathetic refers to
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fight ORF flight and the parasympathetic
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is the resting and
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digesting so I'm just going to call it
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fight ORF flight and resting and
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digesting so picture this you're walking
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home alone one night and you decide to
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take a shortcut to get home faster it's
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dark you're on an unfamiliar street that
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is not well lit ahead you see a few men
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standing next to some bushes and you see
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one of them them carrying something that
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looks sharp and shiny your heart starts
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beating fast your eyes are focused your
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hands are cold your breathing is
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probably shallow and you feel it in your
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gut you are in the moment that's fight
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ORF flight it helps us survive and be
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alert to Danger you got to be ready to
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flee like run like crazy or fight it
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really is geared at just survival for
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the moment
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moment and and that's good but we really
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the body is designed to only be there
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for a short period of time it is
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survival mode there's there's nothing
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going on that is going to be for
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longevity stress activates the release
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of stress hormones cortisol in
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particular and that disrupts all sorts
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of things if they it is sticking around
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a long time blood sugar fat storage
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energy levels chronic stress lead leaves
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to the big threes that we don't want
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oxidative stress insulin resistance and
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chronic
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inflammation but also craving of really
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unhealthy Foods you know when you're
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under a lot of stress the last thing you
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think about is eating a nice crisp salad
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you want the starches you want the carbs
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you want the sugar that's what stress
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does to you so staying in this stress
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mode for a long time makes us put on
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weight makes us more prone to all sorts
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of diseases from fatigue to digestive
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problems to immunity problems to memory
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problems long-term stress will de derail
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anybody's health and of course not all
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stress is bad a little bit of acute
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stress projects important things on your
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list that's going to make the world a
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better place so you know there a little
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bit of stress not bad but it's The
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Chronic one that really gets us into
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trouble and honestly changing bad habits
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for good habits can be a little
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stressful pushing you to build better
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habits the old ones are comfortable and
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they don't want to give up so you got to
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push yourself to be a little better eat
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a little better move a little better so
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in the long run it's really good for you
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and if you're a student you're thinking
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about getting good
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grades can all of these can be good but
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we can put too hard for too long and
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that is hard on ourselves and then that
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becomes chronic
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stress some other examples of chronic
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stress bad
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relationships bad unresolved grief
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unresolved anger guilt fear
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loneliness even PTSD is going to destroy
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Health we know that from so many studies
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and we really have to learn how to
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manage chrme stress to reframe it to
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defuse it or we're going to end up
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burned out or worse with disease stress
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shortens your life and boy stress can
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disrupt women's hormones especially in
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that per menopause or menopause stage so
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getting a handle on managing stress goes
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a long way for making hormone changes as
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easy as can be like it's been designed
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to be okay so resting IND digesting the
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other part of that part of the automatic
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nervous system I like to kind of picture
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this as those fuzzy Chenille slippers
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and oh yes everything is calm you're
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sitting on the couch or maybe you're on
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the beach happy safe content maybe even
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catch a little nap now and then your
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tummy is full your breathing is deep
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belly breathing like a baby calm
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breathing deep no and you're safe
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everything's taken care of that's where
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we want to be most of the time that is
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where longevity is built you're happy
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your immune system your hormones your
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digestion it's all doing great that's
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where long-term health is that's what
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helps you have a long life so of course
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good nutrition exercise sleep mindset
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all of those heavenly components
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contribute to reducing perceived stress
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so now I want to just kind of switch
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gears and talk about some powerful
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techniques at reducing stress you know
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some of them date back thousands of
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years their roots go back to the Ancient
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aurvedic Ancient Chinese medicine dating
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back 4 to 6,000 years so I guess humans
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have always had the potential to be
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stressed breath work first works wonders
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because it quickly regulates that
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autonomic nervous system taking you out
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of fight or flight and putting you right
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into the resting and digesting like that
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reduces those stress hormones AIDS
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digestion helps you rest sleep gets that
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immune system back on track there isn't
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a system that doesn't benefit from
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breath work so I'm going to give you
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three different techniques and you can
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try one or all or make up your own that
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works for you but it's in the doing them
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that the magic happens and doing them
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often one thing in all of them you got
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to keep your shoulders down and when you
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take the breath in I Want You to Breathe
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Into the belly you take that deep
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breath and if your shoulders go up ah ah
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ah that isn't helping put your your hand
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on your stomach or lower abdomen and
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breathe there let it extend out you know
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like a baby sleeps when the tummy goes
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out that's true relaxation first one box
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breathing four four 4 4 inhale to the
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count of
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four hold for the count of
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four exhale for the count of
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four pause for the count of four and
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then you start all over slowly it's a
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real popular one next one I really like
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is the
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478 it slows you down it's the one I use
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to help me retrain myself to sleep you
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know when I first tried it you know Dr
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Andrew W is a big proponent of it so I
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gave it a go maybe a month or longer I
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don't know each night you know I might
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have done it a hundred times I really
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don't remember but man after a while I
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didn't even make it through one cycle
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the brain has to rewire and it just
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takes time to do that so I don't like
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taking drugs for sleeping because so
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many of them are tied to risk for
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Dementia or other problems that I don't
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care to encourage so you know I'll I'll
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work on that even if it does take a 100
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times and so now even when our dear
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puppy gets me up to go outside at night
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I use this to get back to
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Dreamland third option is just inhaling
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four and slowly exhaling
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eight all of these are best done for at
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least 5 minutes but whatever time you
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have it's going to help more is more if
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you have lots of stress it's a great way
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to stop that chatter and just focus on
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the breath besides breath work there
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there's a lot of other mindful or
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gratitude practices that promote being
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in the moment rather than being all
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worked up it shifts you from stress to
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appreciation and the two cannot exist at
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the same time so this is a little
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challenge I want to give you that I've
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done on a regular basis from the time
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your feet hit the floor in the morning
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or when the puppy gets you up start
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listing all the things you're grateful
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for starting with the floor beneath your
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feet even if it's just dirt you are
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grateful for that floor the solidness
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the warmth or the air conditioning or
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the fresh air or the sunshine or the
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full moon the quiet or the smell of
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coffee you know you just keep going all
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the things you're grateful for you know
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you got this body you've got ears you've
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got eyes you've got hands and if you
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don't you know you've got other things
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you're really grateful for gratitude is
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a phenomenal practice especially if you
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get tied up in situations that are
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difficult even writing down five things
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you're grateful for is going to help
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tremendously it just shifts that focus
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when you're stressed and appreciation
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you know what do you want to win out
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I'll go with appreciation and
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gratitude also you know 10 minutes and
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nature is a perfect way to reset things
14:31
now finally I just want to give you this
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big big thing and it's um so many of us
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are in overwhelm too much coming at you
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and I'd like to introduce you to this
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Eisenhower
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Matrix draw a box and divide it into
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four quadrants first one is urgent and
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important do it now it requires
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immediate attention by you second one is
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labeled not urgent but important so you
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schedule that that's like important
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things for long-term
15:09
projects Fitness maintenance things you
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know just put them on your calendar
15:14
everybody's birthday put them on your
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calendar you know that's you know not
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urgent but it is important third thing
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urgent but not important you know it's
15:25
like usually driven by other people's
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priorities other people's schedules I
15:29
mean it could be you know
15:33
non-important emails it could be
15:35
unnecessary meetings it could be minor
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requests um in a household teach the
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kids to pick up a lot of this you know
15:45
taking the trash out um clearing
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cleaning up their room running the
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sweeper you know
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they're not necessarily urgent but not
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it's urgent but not important you know
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things that have to be taken care of
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then if it's an urgent not urgent not
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important you eliminate it binge
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watching movies scrolling social no
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lasting value at all it's just a Time
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waster taking up all the other things
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that are important that when they don't
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get done you're in overwhelm that one
16:20
has helped me a lot so you may want to
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look further into the Eisenhower Matrix
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often used in management training so
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that people can learn to be the most
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effective with their time you know I'll
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bet Elon Musk doesn't spend time in a
16:37
lot of areas that don't have major
16:39
benefits so we all have the same amount
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of time in a day so you don't want the
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day to run you we need to run our life
16:48
with smooth sailing so finally probably
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the most important stress busting
16:53
technique spending time with others
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connection social support is one thing
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that all areas on the planet where
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people have longevity high quality of
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life and health they have strong
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connections good connections to share
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their life with church friends family
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clubs even little casual smiles and
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friendly conversation can be very
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enriching take time to talk to the clerk
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take time to just chat people just need
17:30
people so that's another addition of
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today's nutrition I hope it helped you
17:36
or someone you love as always you can
17:38
listen again to this or other shows on
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my website Deb for.com on YouTube under
17:44
Dr Deb Ford or any place you listen to
17:48
podcast have a wonderful enriching and
17:52
stressfree day
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Defuse Stress
Deb Ford DCN RDN
15 views
Feb 8, 2025
17:55
I normally do new year’s resolutions this time of year and give you the state of health in Americans but we have covered that a lot and so many of you are finishing up my 10 Day MYHA Challenge- Making You healthy Again and one of the favorite topics we covered was stress and how to defuse it. Breath work, meditation, and life schedule adjustments.