Midlife Mojo: Fitness over 50 for Flourishing in Menopause

*Power Replay Series*, Part 1 From Holiday Pressure to Purposeful Mindset - Holiday Stress Relief [Ep 26]

• Lisa DuPree • Episode 26

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This is part 1 of a special "power replay" series  "From Holiday Pressure to Purposeful Mindset".  This series brings back the best episodes with tips to beat holiday stress, goal setting with the latest science, and ideas for nailing a success mindset when the calendar resets. 

In this episode, Lisa highlights four evidence-based ways to effectively lessen stress so you fully enjoy the holiday season and "bonus " -  they can be used any time of year!  You may be surprised to find that you are already doing  most of these in some form or fashion.  Lisa hopes to provide some ways to think differently about them to be more focused on relieving stress fast without a lot of extra time, money or effort. 


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Lisa :

You know I absolutely love this time of the year. As the air gets chillier and the leaves start falling, it feels like the perfect transition into the holiday season and a fresh start. I don't know about you, but I always get so excited when Halloween hits. It's like permission to lean into cozy sweaters, festive flavors and a new mood. This time of the year also makes me extra reflective. It seems natural to reassess how the year's gone so far, get clear on what matters most as the year wraps up and also think about goals as we head into the new year. That's why I wanted to give you an early gift, a special power replay series. I'm calling from Holiday Pressure to Purposeful Mindset. Over the next couple of months we'll talk about tips to beat holiday stress, goal setting with the latest science and ideas for nailing that success mindset when the calendar resets. So whether you need some quick holiday coping skills or you're craving a major mindset shift for big changes next year, I've got you covered. Get your coziest socks on, grab a cup of your favorite warm beverage and let's start easing that year-end frazzle while gearing up for your most purposeful year yet. The first series, replay, starts right after this short break.

Lisa :

Welcome to Midlife Mojo, the podcast, all about how to be fit and flourish in your 50s. With me, your host with over 25 years of experience in the health, fitness and wellness industry, lisa Dupree, we'll be talking about all the things that support living life to the fullest. Let's dive in. It's not unusual for stress to kick into high gear during the holiday season, especially with added stressors around finances, spending for gift giving, traveling, family expectations. There's also additional work pressures for many of us and more social obligations, or the lack thereof, which can cause stress as well. We can't completely avoid stress, and really we wouldn't want to. Stress in small amounts can be very helpful. Short-term, moderate amounts of stress help us focus. They can get us into action with a boost of energy and can help increase performance on tasks. On the other hand, longer-term or higher levels of stress disrupt the national functioning of our body's stress response and it becomes increasingly taxing to deal with. The good news is that it's possible to relieve and decrease stress by doing some simple things that don't take a lot of extra time, money or effort.

Lisa :

The four evidence-based strategies I've chosen to focus on in this episode are not the only ones by far. There are lots. However, these four things are things that you are already likely doing in some form or faction. It's just honing what you're doing, making it less daunting when you're really stressed out. To put these into practice and feel better fast. The first evidence-based strategy I wanted to touch on is to move.

Lisa :

One of the most effective ways to reduce stress is to exercise regularly. So if you know me, it's probably no surprise that, as an exercise physiologist, health coach, health educator, that I wanted to put this in first. There is such a large and ever-growing body of scientific literature showing that consistent exercise positively affects so many aspects of our health and well-being. With mental health, it's associated with reduction in depression, anxiety and stress. So it's really interesting that exercise itself is a stressor. It's a type of stress, so over-exercising or doing intense, long workouts can actually increase stress levels. However, regular physical activity in the right amount may help you sleep better and it can help boost your resilience to stress.

Lisa :

Any form of exercise can help reduce stress and provide real tangible relief. So I like to think of exercise as meditation in motion, the repetitive movement of exercise. It helps us to focus on our body and it helps to kind of keep us in the present moment. This allows our focus to shift off of our thoughts and our emotions that are coming, you know, from whatever we're stressing about. So while we're concentrating on that rhythmic movement of our bodies, the same benefits that you can get with meditation can be seen. So this ends up resulting in a more calm, relaxed state post exercise or when you're done with exercise. This effect is due to an increase in the brain's production of endorphins during and after exercise. So endorphins are those feel-good neurotransmitters in your brain. These chemicals have some key downstream effects. Not only do they act as natural painkillers, but they also improve our ability to sleep, which may help reduce stress and enhance our ability to manage stress. Exercise also reduces stress hormones, so it lowers cortisol and adrenaline levels. This results in helping you feel more calm and more in control. No worries if you don't have time for like involved long workouts, and if you're not a member of a gym, or if the gym is just not your jam, no problem.

Lisa :

The key for stressful relief when it comes to exercise is finding easy, enjoyable activities. This also increases your chance of doing the activity enough and consistently so that you can see the stress relief starting to happen. So, for example, research suggests that it is effective to walk every day for as little as 15 to 20 minutes, as opposed to doing longer, more intense workouts, like one day on the weekend. But honestly, realistically, if you can only fit in exercise one time on the weekend, go ahead, go for it, do it. So, thinking about it as, as far as frequency, some is better than none and more is better than some. We're talking about smaller bouts of exercise, don't take a lot of time, aren't super, super intense, but things that you enjoy. So some other things that people I know have tried and tend to work, especially during the holidays, is like doing a quick online workout, so something 10, 15, 20 minutes, yoga, stretching, also work riding a bike, even getting outside in raking leaves, works.

Lisa :

For me, I found that doing kind of dance-based fitness and straight-up dancing is where I find that stress relief. It's something I enjoy doing. I will make time to do it, but also I can just do it anywhere. Like it's not unusual, for when I'm really stressed out, you know, I just will end up putting on some music, usually the red hot chili peppers, and dance around in my kitchen while I'm cooking or while I'm, you know, prepping some things to cook it. Really. It's something that I found that really makes a difference to help me have a more calm, relaxed state and to cultivate kind of the those natural feel-good chemicals in my brain. Putting this into practice for you what are some things that you like to do that involve movement or physical activity? What are some things that are easily accessible to you that you can do for five, ten, 15 minutes a few times a week?

Lisa :

The second evidence-based way to lessen stress is to practice deep breathing. When we experience stress, our breathing rate and breathing patterns change as part of our fight-or-flight response. So sometimes our breath is shallower and it becomes faster, and other times, if we're really tense or there's an acute stressor that we're experiencing, we end up holding our breath, and that leads to having irregular breathing patterns. So deep breathing techniques are one of the best ways to lower stress in the body quickly, because it allows you to bring focus and awareness to your breathing. This enables you to get ample oxygen into your body while also slowing your heart rate and lowering your blood pressure. This increasing activation in your parasympathetic nervous system acts like a break on a speeding car and signals your body to slow down and relax.

Lisa :

In a 2020 clinical trial, researchers evaluated the impact of three different well-being interventions. First one was breathing exercises, second was mindfulness-based stress reduction and the third one was an emotional regulation and awareness program. In this study, the researchers found that participants who practice the breathing exercises experience the most significant benefits in social connectedness, positive emotions, along with lower levels of stress. Another study in 2020 compared deep breathing exercises to a workshop that taught more conventional, cognitive-based approaches for stress management. The results of this study indicated that deep breathing exercises were more beneficial than these cognitive-based conventional approaches due to the positive impact seen on stress and mood from the breathing exercises, and these effects were still substantial when measured three months later.

Lisa :

So I'd like to offer you one technique that's easy to do and brings on noticeable effects quickly, and it's called box breathing. It's a four-step process that's simple to learn and can be practiced virtually anywhere, at any time. You can do it in the shower, you can do it while watching TV. I particularly like to do it in the car, in traffic or even at your desk. I find myself doing box breathing several times a day on those days when I have Zoom meetings, like back-to-back for about six hours, so the stress kind of builds up. This really helps. So here's how to do box breathing On your next, inhale, breathe in through your nose as you slowly count to four in your head, and then you're going to pause holding your breath for a count of four, exhale for another count of four, then pause holding your breath again for a count of four.

Lisa :

You want those counts of four to be about equal, like the equal sides of a square or, if you think about like a box being kind of a square shape. So equal sides. So inhale two, three, four, pause two, three, four. Inhale two, three, four, pause two, three, four. And so you want to repeat this, ideally like three, four, five, six rounds. Doing this type of breathing can be an effective tool for both short-term management of stress and longer-term management of stress, because you really begin to experience the immediate effects of a more calm body and that parasympathetic nervous system kicking in, lowering the heart rate, lowering the blood pressure, and so this also helps calm your mind, because you're focusing on your breathing, and so this actually starts happening after just a minute or two. And the more that you practice, the quicker you are to respond and the more noticeable the effect is. All right, that brings us to our third evidence-based weightless in stress, and that is to practice gratitude.

Lisa :

Studies suggest that gratitude is linked to the systems in our brain that regulate emotions and support stress relief. So not only does expressing gratitude improve mental health and stress, it can also improve your physical health and even the quality of your sleep. Meta-analysis studies on the efficacy of gratitude interventions seem to indicate that gratitude significantly increases happiness, well-being and positive mood. Practicing the expression of gratitude can increase positive emotions, reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, again leading to that calmer, more relaxed state that we're aiming for.

Lisa :

Expressing gratitude can really take many different forms. Some examples are just a simple, heartfelt thank you. It could be writing a gratitude letter to someone that you're grateful for but for whom you haven't explicitly expressed your appreciation for, and the interesting thing about this is it's useful to share that letter, but the act of writing that and thinking through it and reflecting on it, even if you don't ever share that letter, is also beneficial. Another example is setting up a meeting or talking on the phone with someone that you haven't talked to in a while but who has been helpful to you, and in being able to express how that has made a positive impact on you, or it can be simply noticing and writing down things you're grateful for.

Lisa :

One exercise that's been studied is called the Three Good Things Activity. People who completed a Three Good Things Activity that involved writing down at night three things that went well during the day, along with identifying the causes of those three things, reported increased happiness six months after they did this for just one week. So the effects are immediate and they also are lasting. Other studies of the Three Good Things Activity have found that those who tried it reported enhanced subjective well-being. They had better access to positive memories, as well as a greater sense of flourishing and reduced stress. I have actually done this exercise on several different occasions for a few days in a row and I've noticed that I tend to be a little bit more positive. It tends to also help kind of wind down at night, which I'll talk about a little bit more in a minute. I also assigned this in a couple of my classes for students that were when we were talking about stress, and it was very interesting because these students were anywhere probably 18, 19, 20, 21. It was really interesting what they came back and had to say about it. It was a positive experience and not something that they thought of on a regular basis or that they actually took action on. So it's something to give a try Again.

Lisa :

It's pretty easy to even just take a couple of moments at the end of the night and just reflect on one or two things that went well during the day. If writing something down isn't something that you feel like is going to work for you, but just taking that intentional, mindful moment to think of something that you're grateful for and express that and reflect on it can have an impact overall in how you feel. And last but definitely not least, that brings us to our fourth evidence-based strategy, which is getting enough good quality sleep. When we're stressed, we often sleep less and then when we sleep less, that makes us more stressed. So I chose to mention sleep fourth, not because it's the kind of the least of the priorities. It's because the three previous strategies moving consistently, practicing deep breathing, expressing gratitude can all help with getting good quality sleep and it all kind of works together.

Lisa :

So, in addition, not getting enough sleep, so hours of sleep, whether it's through chronic sleep deprivation or short-term restricted sleep, like restricted sleep is not getting seven to nine hours, but you're like first, several days in a row you're getting like five to six hours. So this all disrupts our stress response system and it in turn reduces our ability to deal effectively with the stressors that are coming up for us. So when you've had a stressful day or several stressful days in a row, getting enough good quality sleep is an important recovery strategy. Research suggests that deep sleep can restore the brain's ability to regulate emotions, and this is important because much of our stress, especially during the holidays, is due to, kind of our internal processes, our thoughts about, and our emotional reactions to, circumstances and events. So having a better handle on our emotional regulation is beneficial to be able to reduce our reaction or overreaction to stressors.

Lisa :

Here are a few things to consider to help you get better sleep. One is to determine a sleeping and waking schedule, and this is so your body kind of gets in a rhythm and it knows when to when it's time to wind down and when to rest. This is easier said than done, given all the demands that we have. It's worth giving it a try Again. Some days doing it is better than no days doing it, and then more days doing it is better than some. So again, kind of going back to see how this might work for you. It helps regulate and keep our circadian rhythm and our homeostatic rhythms in sync so that you're able to wind down and go to sleep more easily.

Lisa :

The other thing to think about is to remove anything from your bedroom that is not conducive to sleep. Now, this is like a pretty standard sleep hygiene recommendation, and this is something that I totally didn't do for a really long time, and then it got to be like I got to be in midlife, started having some issues sleeping, not being able to go to sleep, not being able to stay asleep, had some additional stressors coming on with life circumstances, things like that. So I decided to give it a try. Things that I did that were super helpful to make my bedroom more conducive to sleep. I removed the clutter, and that's like things just sitting around, sitting on the dresser, sitting on my night stand, things just on the floor. So remove that clutter. Consistently Looked at other sources of light, those small sources of light, the little machines, the street lights coming through the blinds, all those kind of things and eliminated those. So it was nice and dark, because I like it to be cool and dark when I sleep, and then also all work related items or anything that kind of makes me think of work doesn't come into the bedroom. My computer no longer comes into the bedroom A lot of times I don't even want my phone in the bedroom. Those things really really help.

Lisa :

So think about what is in your bedroom. Take a critical look at your bedroom. Is it really conducive for relaxation and for you to go in and kind of be able to let the day go so that you can transition into sleep? And that leads to the next thing is coming up with a sleep routine, some sort of sleep routine to help you wind down before bed, and it can work in whatever way it works for you. So some people like to take a warm bath or shower at night, trying that three good things activity, writing down a couple of things and reflecting on what went well, thinking about things you're grateful for trying a few rounds of that box, breathing afterwards to really relax and bring on that state of relaxation.

Lisa :

Me, I like reading, read, probably for a good 20, 40 minutes or something before I fall asleep. It helps me just transition from the day and I don't read anything that has to do with work. I don't read anything that has to do with health or health coaching or exercise. It usually has to do with I don't know cooking, or it's a mystery or some sort of like trashy romance novel, something that has nothing to do with my actual like work or anything that I have responsibility for and that helps me wind down. So those are the four things Moving more, practicing deep breathing, expressing gratitude and getting enough good quality sleep.

Lisa :

All these things taken together not only are gonna help benefit your overall well-being and your overall health, it can really help you, just in the moment, reduce some of these stressful things that we end up dealing with in the holidays and on a day-to-day basis. And if you give any of these things a try, I'd love to hear about it. Send me a message on Instagram at LisaDuPreeCoaching, or snap a picture of that deep breathing or whatever you like to do for exercise and post it on Instagram. Tag me at LisaDuPreeCoaching. Bye for now. If this episode has been helpful to you, I'd love to hear from you. If there's a topic you'd like to hear more about, send it my way. Email me at Lisa@LisaDuPreeCoaching. com or connect with me on Instagram at LisaDuPreeCoaching. Thank you for listening. Bye for now.

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Lisa DuPree

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