May 13, 2025 • 18 mins
The alarm bells are ringing. Everywhere I look, I'm seeing patients more stressed than at any point since the height of the COVID pandemic. But this time, it's different—instead of fear of the unknown, we're facing a perfect storm of economic uncertainty, health anxiety, work-life chaos, parenting challenges, and global unrest all at once. As a practitioner seeing hundreds of people each week, the pattern is unmistakable and concerning.
Your nervous system wasn't designed for constant crisis mode. This chronic state of alert is wreaking havoc on our bodies in ways many don't fully comprehend. When cortisol stays elevated long-term, it weakens your immune system, destroys your digestion and sleep quality, increases inflammation around your heart, and literally shrinks areas of your brain responsible for memory and decision-making. The ripple effects extend beyond your own health to impact your relationships, family dynamics, and entire communities.
The good news? Practical, science-backed solutions exist to help your body manage these unprecedented stressors. In this episode, I break down specific techniques you can implement immediately, from box breathing (the 4-4-4-4 method) that directly calms your prefrontal cortex to strategic digital detoxes and movement "snacks" throughout your day. I also explain why creating a "home culture of calm" might be your most powerful defense against the stress epidemic, and how understanding your nervous system's primitive wiring helps you give it what it truly craves—safety.
Remember this fundamental truth: your body cannot heal while in a stress state. While we can't eliminate the stressors of 2025, we can dramatically improve how our bodies respond to them. Try these evidence-based strategies, share them with your loved ones, and join our upcoming "Unwind" stress workshop if you're in the Tampa area. Your nervous system—and everyone around you—will thank you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everyone, I'm Dr Enrico Del Toro and welcome to
another episode of Living a FullLife this week.
What's weighing us down and howto stay healthy through it?
It's the stressed out editionof 2025.
I mean, we've talked a lotabout stress over the two years
that this podcast has been goingon and I feel like you can't
talk enough about it.
It's around us all the time.
(00:23):
It's physical, it's chemical,it's emotional.
It's around us all the time.
It's physical, it's chemical,it's emotional.
It's around us every singletime and it's one of the biggest
health threats that we face ona day-to-day basis.
It's chronic stress.
So I've seen more stressed outpatients lately than I think
ever I mean since covid, maybein 2020, when everyone was
apprehensive and unweary ofwhat's going on.
(00:44):
That was a different type ofstressary of what's going on.
That was a different type ofstress, and now it's just.
People are just.
The stress is just piling upfrom all different dynamics
financial, economical,relationship.
I feel like there's moredivorce happening right now than
I can remember.
There's a lot going on and it'staking a toll on our health.
It's taking a toll on ourrelationships.
(01:04):
It's taking a toll on ourfamilies.
It's taking a toll on ourrelationships.
It's taking a toll on ourfamilies, it's taking a toll on
our communities, and it's timeto speak up, get loud, motivate
in the right way.
In the world that we live in,with so many influencers online,
it's almost diluted to beingnumb, to actually influencing
anyone and it's things likethese good podcasts, good
interviews, good resources, goodinformation that helps people
(01:28):
feel confident about whatthey're doing and make steps to
move in the right direction whenit comes to their health.
So that's what today is goingto be all about.
What's stressing us out in 2025?
What is going on in the worldthat's really stressing us out
and, as a practitioner that seeshundreds of people a week, I
mean we get some volume.
We get to see people.
Sometimes we see people twice aweek, sometimes we see them
(01:49):
once a week, sometimes we seepeople once a month.
So, to see hundreds of peoplehave conversations each and
every week, you start to putyour thumb down on things and
start to say, well, hang on,there's a tendency going on here
.
Then I get to talk to my peersthat work in all corners of the
earth and the country itself andask them hey, are you having
this out in Washington state.
Is this happening?
(02:09):
They're like, yeah, same thinghere.
I'm like holy smokes, so let'stalk about it.
The top things affecting peopleright now is economic
uncertainty.
Wherever you are in yourfinances, wherever you are in
your career and your life andmaking money, economic
uncertainty is really hurtingpeople right now.
They just don't know what'sgoing to come up next week.
I mean, the administration thathas been elected is volatile.
(02:31):
Let's keep it at that.
And we just don't know what'sgoing on.
Inflation just keeps going up.
It's crazy.
The cost of life has gone upsince 2021.
We've seen record inflation insome things 21% and other things
35%, some things 50%.
So when they tell you there'sbeen 4% inflation, I can't
believe that Housing debt isskyrocketing.
(02:53):
So we have a financial stress,and finance is energy, and
finance is how we exchangeservice and energy for the
things that we need each day forfood services, mortgages, rents
.
Everything revolves aroundmoney.
So that's a huge stress point.
Health and anxiety.
Lots of stuff, virus surges,media overload, conflicting info
(03:14):
.
Since COVID, we've had morescares about the next
COVID-esque type virus that'sgoing to come out.
We've got random viruses.
We've got long COVID syndromethat people are now dealing with
since 2020, when this was allgoing around COVID vaccine, long
COVID syndromes, lots of thingsgoing on.
A lot of people did get thevaccine, a lot of people did get
COVID, a lot of people got thenatural virus and now we're left
(03:36):
with that stress, work-lifeimbalance, with the hybrid work
model, and then go home for twoweeks and flatten the curve to
now.
Well, now you've got to comeback to work and guess what?
This government sector is goingto be laid off and fired and
we're going to cut here.
That's a lot of stress.
We've got work-life imbalance,we've got burnout.
We're caregiving to our illfamily members.
(03:57):
That's stressful.
Parenting stress.
There's academic pressure andtech addiction right now with
our students and our kids, andthat tech addiction is really
putting more pressure on theacademic, pursual of focus,
behavioral issues, mindfulness,gratitude in our children and
(04:17):
that's a lot of feedback I getfrom the parents raising kids
today.
And then global unrest Holysmokes.
There's been this many wars atthe same time before.
There's a lot going on Travelplanes I mean there's been.
It's a weird year, isn't it?
So I thought we'd take sometime and go over this and review
it and kind of build a villageand a community together and
(04:37):
know that we're all heretogether, we're all thinking the
same things, we're all in ourdifferent boats, but we're all
in the same ocean together,right?
So the weather and theturbulence and the jet streams
and the flows affect us all.
It's a cool quote I read theother day.
You know, it's no wonder we'refeeling overwhelmed.
Our nervous systems were notbuilt for constant alert and
crisis mode.
(04:58):
And I read that.
I'm like man.
That is so true.
Our nervous systems are notbuilt for constant alerts and
crisis mode.
It's built to adapt to certaincrises at certain time and
alerts, but it's not built to bein a chronic state of chronic
stress.
And that's what we need to talkabout how chronic stress makes
(05:20):
you sick, and that's the wholepoint of this podcast.
You know, cortisol, long-term,whether it's high or low, has
drastic effects on the entirehormonal cascade.
It weakens our immune system.
To be cortisol spiked, itwrecks our digestion and our
sleep.
It increases inflammationaround the heart and our
(05:42):
autoimmunity.
It shrinks areas of the brainresponsible for memory or in the
prefrontal cortex that affectour memory and decision-making.
So then we become irrational,then we become tempered, then we
become moody and our responsebecomes very stress-induced,
very stress-rebounded over time,and chronic stress does that to
(06:05):
us.
It alters our mood, ourbehavior, our daily habits and
it trickles down and affectseveryone around you.
If you're a father, a mother, akid, it affects your family.
Then it can spread out andaffect your community, your
peers, your coworkers, whereveryour place of work is, and it
has a trickle down effect intoour communities and the more and
(06:26):
more people that are stressed,the more and more trickle down
effect that we have.
So if I'm wrong, you know, sendme an email, say I don't know
what you're talking about.
These are the greatest twoyears I've lived ever.
Uh, then I'll scratch my headand wonder what rock you just
came out of.
But that that's great.
Uh, but let me know what'sgoing on.
So here's the, here's the tipsthat you know.
We try and make these podcastsquick.
(06:47):
You digest them, you get someinformation, you get a little
bit of inspiration and you get,most importantly, something to
think about or to do to moveyour health needle in the right
direction.
Health is not an objectivething, it's not a number.
Health is something youpreserve.
You're either well or you'reill, and you move along that
spectrum day to day, week toweek, month to month, year to
(07:08):
year in your life, and if theneedle starts moving towards
illness, you need to doeverything you can to push that
needle back towards wellness andthat's your job.
Is the balance to maintainhealth.
It's the homeostasis of thebody and let's move into the
homeostasis of the nervoussystem, of sympathetic versus
parasympathetic.
There's some quick ways tode-stress and I recommend doing
(07:37):
these almost every day if youcan.
Box breathing, another way.
We talked about breath andbreathing before, but let's give
you some specific ways to dothis Box breathing or the
4-4-4-4 method or the 4-7-8method, whichever one you want
to look up online.
Look up the box breathingmethod, where you take a deep
breath in and you take fourseconds to pull that in and you
wait four seconds and then youbreathe it out for four seconds
(07:58):
and then you wait for fourseconds and then you continue
that cycle again.
Slowing down your breath has adirect effect on the prefrontal
cortex, calming down the effectsof that hyperactive stress area
of the brain which relays aproper vagal tone back to the
body and can help maintainbreath, respiration, cardiac
(08:23):
rhythm and the gut, and thesethings can help you feel better
immediately the gut and thesethings can help you feel better
immediately.
Pretty cool stuff to just useyour breath and slow it down and
expand the diaphragm and expandthe lungs and then slowly
breathe it back out.
Try that Even right now, asyou're listening to this podcast
(08:43):
.
Do four seconds of a big depth,deep breath in four seconds of
holding, breathe it all out niceand slow, with a four count in
your head, and then hold anempty lung for one, two, three,
four, good job.
And then repeat, and you dothis four times, seven times,
(09:08):
eight times.
It doesn't take that much timeand you don't have to do it that
long.
Um, and please don't pass out.
There you go.
That's the only the only thingto watch out for.
Uh, digital detox.
I highly recommend this,especially for kids.
I give the kids a three hourwindow before bedtime, but for
everyone that the rule is onehour of off screens before bed,
(09:30):
no light staring at the eye, andthat screens mean everything
televisions, ipads, phones nolight directly into the eye.
So as soon as the sun sets andit starts to become dark, you
have to give yourself an hour,before you go to sleep, of just
a complete digital detox,nothing being downloaded in your
(09:50):
brain, no light, no audio, novisual stimulation.
And you'll see, as you continuethis, night in and night out in
consecutive days, how you justfeel more relaxed because you're
detaching yourself andunplugging yourself from the
chaotic world of media to beingin yourself, in your own skin
(10:12):
and realizing how peaceful yourlife really is.
You're just a body in space,getting a chance to experience
life in the time that you'regiven here on earth, and once
you get back to those roots,nothing else really matters.
So that's the whole point ofthat.
But really, the science for theone hour detox is really just
(10:33):
giving yourself a chance to calmdown the brain and get a better
night's sleep.
And then movement, snacks, 10minute walks two to three times
a day, just breaking up withyour daily routine and just
going for a 10 minute walk.
If it's indoors, it's indoors.
If it's in a building, it's ina building.
If it's outside, it's outside.
That's fine.
But just 10 minute walks two tothree times a day where you
(10:53):
just break up your day, that's agreat thing to do too.
Cold exposure versus lightstretching.
So we've all heard of the coldplunges, the cold exposures, the
cold baths, the cold showersand then some light stretching.
This has a great effect again,calming down the cardiovascular
system into a normal rhythm,which is fantastic.
And then natural supplementsyou can use for stress are, you
(11:15):
know, adaptogens, magnesium,l-theanine?
These are all great things tomaybe look at to see if they
could help you with stress.
The body can't heal in a stressstate.
Remember that.
So we have to do these things.
You have to do these things tomanage stress, so that you can
heal.
You know, I've kept this verysimple and as the years are
(11:39):
going by, we're getting moredetailed into these
conversations, which is great, Imean that's.
I think that's where it needsto go.
I thought keeping it simple andbe like hey, you need to sleep,
you need to eat fruits andvegetables and you need to
exercise and you'll have a goodlife, and I thought everyone
would just start doing it.
But then a lot of questionscome up.
They're like I'm not feelingany better, I'm not doing this,
I'm not doing that.
It's because the body cannotheal in a stress state.
(11:59):
And even though most thingscan't be reversed when it comes
to stress because the stress isthere for a legitimate reason
for most of us we can do theselittle things to help us
mitigate the stress response andhow our bodies adapt to it.
(12:20):
Another tip is creating a homeculture of calm, and it's the
only place in the universe whereyou have perpetual safety is in
your home, and making it atranquil space can be a
long-term goal for you.
You're not going to turn thisinto a tranquil space overnight,
but getting back to tranquilitymeans making your home not only
a place where you sleep and eat, but a place of a true haven of
safety, which means you createa tranquil ambience that you're
(12:44):
not only happy to be in, butalso a place where you can heal.
This doesn't mean feng shui,art and painted walls and you
know decorations and furniture.
What it does mean is creatingan ambiance of tranquility for
your nervous system, for yourbody.
This is what we want to do.
Doesn't sound wishy-washy?
Just listen out here for asecond.
(13:05):
What we want to do is create anenvironment where our nervous
systems can respond in a healthyway.
And here's some tips Dimmingthe lights in the evening Again,
reducing light.
We've got to think about ourancestors before electricity,
before modern plumbing, beforeall the modern stuff that we had
.
When the sun came up in themorning, they could see and
(13:26):
they'd start to work, and whenthe sun started to go down at
night, they prepared to go backinto their homes.
There's a reason for that.
You can't see at night.
You can't do much when youcan't see.
So dimming those lights tellsour nervous system it's time to
wind down.
If the sun's going down outside, we have all the lights on on
the inside.
Think of it like going to youknow, I go to the Tampa Bay
Lightning games.
All the time Thousands oflights are on.
(13:48):
It's 9.30 at night, pitch blackoutside, but inside it's like
you don't know whether it's 2o'clock in the afternoon or 2
o'clock in the morning, and thatreally throws off our nervous
system because it doesn't reallyfollow the circadian rhythm of
the day.
So by controlling lights inyour own home, you can control
your own circadian rhythms andyour family's.
By dimming the lights it'spretty cool Little trick there,
(14:13):
families.
By dimming the lights it'spretty cool Little trick there.
Using calming music or completesilence at dinner is a great tip
too.
Our family does.
That.
Turns off the TV, completequiet.
And if we want to talk to oneanother, that's a great way to
unwind and recap the day andtalk about the wins and the
things that we're grateful forJournaling or gratitude routine
that you can teach your kids ordo yourself or even with your
spouse.
Journaling is a great way toget your thoughts on paper.
(14:35):
It's almost like getting themout of your body and onto
something else, which is a greatway to de-stress.
There's other things tooaromatherapy, nighttime tea
habits you can get intochamomiles and herbal teas and
then understanding that whatyour nervous system wants and
craves is safety.
That's what your nervous systemtruly wants.
(14:56):
It doesn't know what you know,and what I mean by that is your
nervous system is a primal thingthat was given to you and it
works on the originalprogramming systems of this
computer.
It doesn't have all the updatesover the years.
It doesn't have Windows XP,windows 7, windows 10, windows
11.
It doesn't have all theoperating system updates.
It's on its primal.
There are no updates on itsprimal software, and the primal
(15:20):
software knows nothing about theoutside world.
As far as technology material,plastic stuff, cars, yada, yada,
yada All it knows is we needfood from the ground and from
animals to eat and digest and asafe place to rest at night so
that we don't get eaten by otherthings.
That's really how our nervoussystems are designed so the
(15:42):
primitive stress is.
Safety is to be away from thethreats, away from our predators
, which, you know.
Being a human and being on thetop of the food chain is nice,
but still there's bigger thingsthan us that can get out there
and get us, and that's it.
That's the primal way ofthinking when it comes to our
nervous system craves safety.
Remember that that's the mottoof today's podcast Our nervous
(16:04):
system craves safety.
So if you're in the Tampa Bayarea, we're here for you.
If you're not and you'relistening from afar, it's great.
We're still here for you viadigital email.
You can ask questions in anyway.
We can help support you throughsupplements or things that we
can do of what we can do, and wealso starting a workshop series
because of the growth of thepodcast, having it and bringing
(16:26):
back inside, workshops wherepeople can actually get together
.
Maybe we'll save them or recordthem and post them virtually
for everyone to enjoy.
But if you're in the Tampa area,we're starting off with a
program of physical, mental,emotional and we're going to
cycle through that all the time.
So coming up is somethingcalled Unwind and it's a stress
workshop.
That's going to be next week,may 15th, at 6.30 pm in Tampa
(16:52):
here at our Full LifeChiropractic office.
If you guys want to come by andyou're listening to the podcast
and it's not past May 15th,you're more than welcome to come
to it.
Stay in the loop on thesethings on our website and you'll
see all of our events movingforward, or online on our social
media.
Even better, it gets updatedlive.
We're there and keep tuned thatway as well, in tune, dated
(17:13):
live.
We're there and keep tuned thatway as well, in tune, and then
you can see some of thefollow-ups that we do there as
well.
Thanks for tuning in this week.
Remember, stress is pretty muchthe ultimate disease maker in
the body.
So the things that you can doare some of the tips that we
talked about in this podcast.
Take them home, try them, bringthem to your family, get the
kids on board, get the spouse onboard and if someone is
suffering from you know elusivestress in the moment, hold their
(17:36):
hand, tell them you know it'sall going to be okay and there
are some things that they can doto help themselves in the
meantime, temporarily, to helptheir nervous systems
accommodate to the stress,because we can't change the
outside stressors that areaffecting us, but what we can do
is help our nervous systemregulate as best as we can.
Stay well, stay healthy.
Have a great week.
Hey everyone, I'm Dr Enrico Del Toro and welcome to
another episode of Living a FullLife this week.
What's weighing us down and howto stay healthy through it?
It's the stressed out editionof 2025.
I mean, we've talked a lotabout stress over the two years
that this podcast has been goingon and I feel like you can't
talk enough about it.
It's around us all the time.
(00:23):
It's physical, it's chemical,it's emotional.
It's around us all the time.
It's physical, it's chemical,it's emotional.
It's around us every singletime and it's one of the biggest
health threats that we face ona day-to-day basis.
It's chronic stress.
So I've seen more stressed outpatients lately than I think
ever I mean since covid, maybein 2020, when everyone was
apprehensive and unweary ofwhat's going on.
(00:44):
That was a different type ofstressary of what's going on.
That was a different type ofstress, and now it's just.
People are just.
The stress is just piling upfrom all different dynamics
financial, economical,relationship.
I feel like there's moredivorce happening right now than
I can remember.
There's a lot going on and it'staking a toll on our health.
It's taking a toll on ourrelationships.
(01:04):
It's taking a toll on ourfamilies.
It's taking a toll on ourrelationships.
It's taking a toll on ourfamilies, it's taking a toll on
our communities, and it's timeto speak up, get loud, motivate
in the right way.
In the world that we live in,with so many influencers online,
it's almost diluted to beingnumb, to actually influencing
anyone and it's things likethese good podcasts, good
interviews, good resources, goodinformation that helps people
(01:28):
feel confident about whatthey're doing and make steps to
move in the right direction whenit comes to their health.
So that's what today is goingto be all about.
What's stressing us out in 2025?
What is going on in the worldthat's really stressing us out
and, as a practitioner that seeshundreds of people a week, I
mean we get some volume.
We get to see people.
Sometimes we see people twice aweek, sometimes we see them
(01:49):
once a week, sometimes we seepeople once a month.
So, to see hundreds of peoplehave conversations each and
every week, you start to putyour thumb down on things and
start to say, well, hang on,there's a tendency going on here
.
Then I get to talk to my peersthat work in all corners of the
earth and the country itself andask them hey, are you having
this out in Washington state.
Is this happening?
(02:09):
They're like, yeah, same thinghere.
I'm like holy smokes, so let'stalk about it.
The top things affecting peopleright now is economic
uncertainty.
Wherever you are in yourfinances, wherever you are in
your career and your life andmaking money, economic
uncertainty is really hurtingpeople right now.
They just don't know what'sgoing to come up next week.
I mean, the administration thathas been elected is volatile.
(02:31):
Let's keep it at that.
And we just don't know what'sgoing on.
Inflation just keeps going up.
It's crazy.
The cost of life has gone upsince 2021.
We've seen record inflation insome things 21% and other things
35%, some things 50%.
So when they tell you there'sbeen 4% inflation, I can't
believe that Housing debt isskyrocketing.
(02:53):
So we have a financial stress,and finance is energy, and
finance is how we exchangeservice and energy for the
things that we need each day forfood services, mortgages, rents
.
Everything revolves aroundmoney.
So that's a huge stress point.
Health and anxiety.
Lots of stuff, virus surges,media overload, conflicting info
(03:14):
.
Since COVID, we've had morescares about the next
COVID-esque type virus that'sgoing to come out.
We've got random viruses.
We've got long COVID syndromethat people are now dealing with
since 2020, when this was allgoing around COVID vaccine, long
COVID syndromes, lots of thingsgoing on.
A lot of people did get thevaccine, a lot of people did get
COVID, a lot of people got thenatural virus and now we're left
(03:36):
with that stress, work-lifeimbalance, with the hybrid work
model, and then go home for twoweeks and flatten the curve to
now.
Well, now you've got to comeback to work and guess what?
This government sector is goingto be laid off and fired and
we're going to cut here.
That's a lot of stress.
We've got work-life imbalance,we've got burnout.
We're caregiving to our illfamily members.
(03:57):
That's stressful.
Parenting stress.
There's academic pressure andtech addiction right now with
our students and our kids, andthat tech addiction is really
putting more pressure on theacademic, pursual of focus,
behavioral issues, mindfulness,gratitude in our children and
(04:17):
that's a lot of feedback I getfrom the parents raising kids
today.
And then global unrest Holysmokes.
There's been this many wars atthe same time before.
There's a lot going on Travelplanes I mean there's been.
It's a weird year, isn't it?
So I thought we'd take sometime and go over this and review
it and kind of build a villageand a community together and
(04:37):
know that we're all heretogether, we're all thinking the
same things, we're all in ourdifferent boats, but we're all
in the same ocean together,right?
So the weather and theturbulence and the jet streams
and the flows affect us all.
It's a cool quote I read theother day.
You know, it's no wonder we'refeeling overwhelmed.
Our nervous systems were notbuilt for constant alert and
crisis mode.
(04:58):
And I read that.
I'm like man.
That is so true.
Our nervous systems are notbuilt for constant alerts and
crisis mode.
It's built to adapt to certaincrises at certain time and
alerts, but it's not built to bein a chronic state of chronic
stress.
And that's what we need to talkabout how chronic stress makes
(05:20):
you sick, and that's the wholepoint of this podcast.
You know, cortisol, long-term,whether it's high or low, has
drastic effects on the entirehormonal cascade.
It weakens our immune system.
To be cortisol spiked, itwrecks our digestion and our
sleep.
It increases inflammationaround the heart and our
(05:42):
autoimmunity.
It shrinks areas of the brainresponsible for memory or in the
prefrontal cortex that affectour memory and decision-making.
So then we become irrational,then we become tempered, then we
become moody and our responsebecomes very stress-induced,
very stress-rebounded over time,and chronic stress does that to
(06:05):
us.
It alters our mood, ourbehavior, our daily habits and
it trickles down and affectseveryone around you.
If you're a father, a mother, akid, it affects your family.
Then it can spread out andaffect your community, your
peers, your coworkers, whereveryour place of work is, and it
has a trickle down effect intoour communities and the more and
(06:26):
more people that are stressed,the more and more trickle down
effect that we have.
So if I'm wrong, you know, sendme an email, say I don't know
what you're talking about.
These are the greatest twoyears I've lived ever.
Uh, then I'll scratch my headand wonder what rock you just
came out of.
But that that's great.
Uh, but let me know what'sgoing on.
So here's the, here's the tipsthat you know.
We try and make these podcastsquick.
(06:47):
You digest them, you get someinformation, you get a little
bit of inspiration and you get,most importantly, something to
think about or to do to moveyour health needle in the right
direction.
Health is not an objectivething, it's not a number.
Health is something youpreserve.
You're either well or you'reill, and you move along that
spectrum day to day, week toweek, month to month, year to
(07:08):
year in your life, and if theneedle starts moving towards
illness, you need to doeverything you can to push that
needle back towards wellness andthat's your job.
Is the balance to maintainhealth.
It's the homeostasis of thebody and let's move into the
homeostasis of the nervoussystem, of sympathetic versus
parasympathetic.
There's some quick ways tode-stress and I recommend doing
(07:37):
these almost every day if youcan.
Box breathing, another way.
We talked about breath andbreathing before, but let's give
you some specific ways to dothis Box breathing or the
4-4-4-4 method or the 4-7-8method, whichever one you want
to look up online.
Look up the box breathingmethod, where you take a deep
breath in and you take fourseconds to pull that in and you
wait four seconds and then youbreathe it out for four seconds
(07:58):
and then you wait for fourseconds and then you continue
that cycle again.
Slowing down your breath has adirect effect on the prefrontal
cortex, calming down the effectsof that hyperactive stress area
of the brain which relays aproper vagal tone back to the
body and can help maintainbreath, respiration, cardiac
(08:23):
rhythm and the gut, and thesethings can help you feel better
immediately the gut and thesethings can help you feel better
immediately.
Pretty cool stuff to just useyour breath and slow it down and
expand the diaphragm and expandthe lungs and then slowly
breathe it back out.
Try that Even right now, asyou're listening to this podcast
(08:43):
.
Do four seconds of a big depth,deep breath in four seconds of
holding, breathe it all out niceand slow, with a four count in
your head, and then hold anempty lung for one, two, three,
four, good job.
And then repeat, and you dothis four times, seven times,
(09:08):
eight times.
It doesn't take that much timeand you don't have to do it that
long.
Um, and please don't pass out.
There you go.
That's the only the only thingto watch out for.
Uh, digital detox.
I highly recommend this,especially for kids.
I give the kids a three hourwindow before bedtime, but for
everyone that the rule is onehour of off screens before bed,
(09:30):
no light staring at the eye, andthat screens mean everything
televisions, ipads, phones nolight directly into the eye.
So as soon as the sun sets andit starts to become dark, you
have to give yourself an hour,before you go to sleep, of just
a complete digital detox,nothing being downloaded in your
(09:50):
brain, no light, no audio, novisual stimulation.
And you'll see, as you continuethis, night in and night out in
consecutive days, how you justfeel more relaxed because you're
detaching yourself andunplugging yourself from the
chaotic world of media to beingin yourself, in your own skin
(10:12):
and realizing how peaceful yourlife really is.
You're just a body in space,getting a chance to experience
life in the time that you'regiven here on earth, and once
you get back to those roots,nothing else really matters.
So that's the whole point ofthat.
But really, the science for theone hour detox is really just
(10:33):
giving yourself a chance to calmdown the brain and get a better
night's sleep.
And then movement, snacks, 10minute walks two to three times
a day, just breaking up withyour daily routine and just
going for a 10 minute walk.
If it's indoors, it's indoors.
If it's in a building, it's ina building.
If it's outside, it's outside.
That's fine.
But just 10 minute walks two tothree times a day where you
(10:53):
just break up your day, that's agreat thing to do too.
Cold exposure versus lightstretching.
So we've all heard of the coldplunges, the cold exposures, the
cold baths, the cold showersand then some light stretching.
This has a great effect again,calming down the cardiovascular
system into a normal rhythm,which is fantastic.
And then natural supplementsyou can use for stress are, you
(11:15):
know, adaptogens, magnesium,l-theanine?
These are all great things tomaybe look at to see if they
could help you with stress.
The body can't heal in a stressstate.
Remember that.
So we have to do these things.
You have to do these things tomanage stress, so that you can
heal.
You know, I've kept this verysimple and as the years are
(11:39):
going by, we're getting moredetailed into these
conversations, which is great, Imean that's.
I think that's where it needsto go.
I thought keeping it simple andbe like hey, you need to sleep,
you need to eat fruits andvegetables and you need to
exercise and you'll have a goodlife, and I thought everyone
would just start doing it.
But then a lot of questionscome up.
They're like I'm not feelingany better, I'm not doing this,
I'm not doing that.
It's because the body cannotheal in a stress state.
(11:59):
And even though most thingscan't be reversed when it comes
to stress because the stress isthere for a legitimate reason
for most of us we can do theselittle things to help us
mitigate the stress response andhow our bodies adapt to it.
(12:20):
Another tip is creating a homeculture of calm, and it's the
only place in the universe whereyou have perpetual safety is in
your home, and making it atranquil space can be a
long-term goal for you.
You're not going to turn thisinto a tranquil space overnight,
but getting back to tranquilitymeans making your home not only
a place where you sleep and eat, but a place of a true haven of
safety, which means you createa tranquil ambience that you're
(12:44):
not only happy to be in, butalso a place where you can heal.
This doesn't mean feng shui,art and painted walls and you
know decorations and furniture.
What it does mean is creatingan ambiance of tranquility for
your nervous system, for yourbody.
This is what we want to do.
Doesn't sound wishy-washy?
Just listen out here for asecond.
(13:05):
What we want to do is create anenvironment where our nervous
systems can respond in a healthyway.
And here's some tips Dimmingthe lights in the evening Again,
reducing light.
We've got to think about ourancestors before electricity,
before modern plumbing, beforeall the modern stuff that we had
.
When the sun came up in themorning, they could see and
(13:26):
they'd start to work, and whenthe sun started to go down at
night, they prepared to go backinto their homes.
There's a reason for that.
You can't see at night.
You can't do much when youcan't see.
So dimming those lights tellsour nervous system it's time to
wind down.
If the sun's going down outside, we have all the lights on on
the inside.
Think of it like going to youknow, I go to the Tampa Bay
Lightning games.
All the time Thousands oflights are on.
(13:48):
It's 9.30 at night, pitch blackoutside, but inside it's like
you don't know whether it's 2o'clock in the afternoon or 2
o'clock in the morning, and thatreally throws off our nervous
system because it doesn't reallyfollow the circadian rhythm of
the day.
So by controlling lights inyour own home, you can control
your own circadian rhythms andyour family's.
By dimming the lights it'spretty cool Little trick there,
(14:13):
families.
By dimming the lights it'spretty cool Little trick there.
Using calming music or completesilence at dinner is a great tip
too.
Our family does.
That.
Turns off the TV, completequiet.
And if we want to talk to oneanother, that's a great way to
unwind and recap the day andtalk about the wins and the
things that we're grateful forJournaling or gratitude routine
that you can teach your kids ordo yourself or even with your
spouse.
Journaling is a great way toget your thoughts on paper.
(14:35):
It's almost like getting themout of your body and onto
something else, which is a greatway to de-stress.
There's other things tooaromatherapy, nighttime tea
habits you can get intochamomiles and herbal teas and
then understanding that whatyour nervous system wants and
craves is safety.
That's what your nervous systemtruly wants.
(14:56):
It doesn't know what you know,and what I mean by that is your
nervous system is a primal thingthat was given to you and it
works on the originalprogramming systems of this
computer.
It doesn't have all the updatesover the years.
It doesn't have Windows XP,windows 7, windows 10, windows
11.
It doesn't have all theoperating system updates.
It's on its primal.
There are no updates on itsprimal software, and the primal
(15:20):
software knows nothing about theoutside world.
As far as technology material,plastic stuff, cars, yada, yada,
yada All it knows is we needfood from the ground and from
animals to eat and digest and asafe place to rest at night so
that we don't get eaten by otherthings.
That's really how our nervoussystems are designed so the
(15:42):
primitive stress is.
Safety is to be away from thethreats, away from our predators
, which, you know.
Being a human and being on thetop of the food chain is nice,
but still there's bigger thingsthan us that can get out there
and get us, and that's it.
That's the primal way ofthinking when it comes to our
nervous system craves safety.
Remember that that's the mottoof today's podcast Our nervous
(16:04):
system craves safety.
So if you're in the Tampa Bayarea, we're here for you.
If you're not and you'relistening from afar, it's great.
We're still here for you viadigital email.
You can ask questions in anyway.
We can help support you throughsupplements or things that we
can do of what we can do, and wealso starting a workshop series
because of the growth of thepodcast, having it and bringing
(16:26):
back inside, workshops wherepeople can actually get together
.
Maybe we'll save them or recordthem and post them virtually
for everyone to enjoy.
But if you're in the Tampa area,we're starting off with a
program of physical, mental,emotional and we're going to
cycle through that all the time.
So coming up is somethingcalled Unwind and it's a stress
workshop.
That's going to be next week,may 15th, at 6.30 pm in Tampa
(16:52):
here at our Full LifeChiropractic office.
If you guys want to come by andyou're listening to the podcast
and it's not past May 15th,you're more than welcome to come
to it.
Stay in the loop on thesethings on our website and you'll
see all of our events movingforward, or online on our social
media.
Even better, it gets updatedlive.
We're there and keep tuned thatway as well, in tune, dated
(17:13):
live.
We're there and keep tuned thatway as well, in tune, and then
you can see some of thefollow-ups that we do there as
well.
Thanks for tuning in this week.
Remember, stress is pretty muchthe ultimate disease maker in
the body.
So the things that you can doare some of the tips that we
talked about in this podcast.
Take them home, try them, bringthem to your family, get the
kids on board, get the spouse onboard and if someone is
suffering from you know elusivestress in the moment, hold their
(17:36):
hand, tell them you know it'sall going to be okay and there
are some things that they can doto help themselves in the
meantime, temporarily, to helptheir nervous systems
accommodate to the stress,because we can't change the
outside stressors that areaffecting us, but what we can do
is help our nervous systemregulate as best as we can.
Stay well, stay healthy.
Have a great week.
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