4 stress-relieving hacks for busy mums

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Hi guys, Wendy here. Welcome to the healthy and thriving career moms podcast, your weekly dose of inspiration and motivation for thriving with your healthy habits, especially in the midst of the crazy mom juggle. I get that you're busy and that taking time for you is not always easy, but I'm here to help.

So let's jump in.

So hi everyone. And welcome to episode. By the way I am

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very excited to share for stress reducers for busy moms, because nowadays more than ever, we are bombarded with too many people needing too much from us. I have definitely struggled in the past with trying to meet everyone's expectations, resulting in burnout and being over stress.

But doesn't, it just feel like some days it's just all very relentless. You know, the WhatsApp groups are pinging while you're trying to answer work emails and your children are asking you for snacks or help with their homework

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or live somewhere. And then your boss and your clients are chasing you up.

It's just an impossible task to concentrate on everyone and their needs and get it all. And you want to literally scream because something's got to give, and that's usually our sanity as busy working mums, but it doesn't have to be this way, which is why I'm sharing my four stress reducers I use in my life to refocus me in times of stress, because I'll be honest with you.

It's not like my life's all

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peachy and roses and I don't have days that are stressful. Absolutely. But having these hacks, these tactics, these habits that I come back to to ground me is what keeps me from spiraling into the stress mode and the shame mode and everything else that comes with being sort of very highly emotional, because let's talk really quickly about stress.

Yeah. Don't worry. I'm not going to tell you all about what stress is because most of us know what that is, but you know what I mean, when we can feel

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that emotion and that physical tension in that. And we all know that feeling. We all know whether it feels like we can feel it rising in us. But what I really want to talk to you about today is what happens with the continued stress and what that does to us.

Because as busy moms, we have got so much coming at us, literally all the tigers, all the lions are leaping out of the bushes at us all the time, you know, and as your body perceives

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stress, No EEG, the day-to-day of being a working mom. It releases cortisol, which increases your heart rate and your blood pressure.

Now this is great for fight or flight and not a problem for the odd occasion. Like when you have a deadline and you need to punch it out. But when you keep your body in a permanent state of stress, Which is not difficult. Given off boss pays lives. They are some very real and serious side effects that we need to think about.

So let's talk about some of the stress we might experience.

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So there's the common stresses, the ones that accumulate on us, day-to-day like work and childcare relationships. Becoming a parent loss of a pregnancy finances, the list goes on and on, and then life just continues to throw things at us. And then there's the sudden changes things such as the family loss or job loss.

And then there are those traumatic stress events, things that, which occur due to extreme trauma as a result of maybe a severe accidents or an

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assault, or even an environmental disaster, those kinds of things, those traumatic stress events and the side effects of those are things we've all heard before, but just really quickly, you know, fatigue, irritability, headaches, intestinal problems, such as constipation, bloating, and diarrhea.

Oh, even more seriously, it can lead to things like irritable bowel disease or it's full bowel syndrome as it's commonly known. So a lot of people nowadays struggling with a lot of illnesses and things and conditions

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that actually relate back to gut health and, you know, the compromise that we put on our whole sort of gut intestinal environment.

There's also things like anxiety or depression, which, oh, my goodness has been massively ramped up by the events of the last 18 months. Even like myself who I wouldn't have said, I'm a particularly, well, I wouldn't say I'm an anxious person at all have found themselves prone to these perhaps of anxiety and, and catastrophizing and thinking, oh my goodness.

And then just having to catch myself and go,

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when do you, why, why, why are you going there? There's also side effects, like weight gain. I see this all the time. Actually just as opposed to a story just to share with you recently have seen this and you get a laugh, but any dog lovers out there will appreciate the story.

I've actually seen this with my gorgeous seven year old puggle. Ledley who some of you may have noticed and see on social media, because I do share about him, but he has gained a lot of weights over the last year. And actually

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when we spoke to sort of, cause I was getting really, quite worried about it and I was like, look, I'm feeding him well, and we're exercising and well, and we're doing all the things.

What what's going on. And actually when I spoke to a dog trainer, dog specialist, what actually, it came down to, with some quite stressful things in his environment that he perceived as stressful, such as you know, recently, my mom's come to live with us. Her dogs have come, but that's not just the only reason.

Cause he's been like this for a little while, but it's, it's things like going out for walks. He was feeling quite stressed. There were other dogs, there was so many factors. Okay.

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So I won't go into all the details, but essentially he was gaining weight as a result of. So if you're in a position where you're maybe someone who's gaining weights and you're like, what's going on, I'm doing all the things, right.

I'm eating well, I'm exercising, but you've got that weight gain that could be a side effect of continued extreme stress. The other side effects, things like increased blood pressure, low libido. I mean, it's not just a working moms thing that we're too tired to engage in extra curricular

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activities with our partners, et cetera.

It does like it can really, you know, stress can have an effect on that. There could be problems with regular ovulation or menstrual periods or the knock on effect. Peri-menopause moving into menopause. Difficulty recovering from exercise. So if you're finding that, you know, you do exercise and then you're actually quite struggling to get over it, or you're hurting yourself and injuring yourself.

And then even things like poor sleep, poor sleep is such a big indicator of your body being under extreme stress.

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Maybe you did not identify with any of those. Maybe you identify with all of those, but think in those side effects I'm talking about with continued extreme stress, what maybe you could work on or perhaps need to look at.

Could you be somebody who's struggling with chronic? So what I would always say with anything with making changes and reducing stress, because we all know we've got to reduce stress. We've got to, to improve our overall health by reducing stress, but it becomes quite a mountain to

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climb. Doesn't it? When you've got so much on your plates?

So my top tip is always to focus on one or two small and achievable. That can easily become a habits. Do not start big, start small. Otherwise you will overwhelm yourself, manage your expectations of what is achievable as an already stressed mum. Small steps forward are better than no steps at all. Trust me, but before I get into the fall stress, reducing hacks for you today, I just wanted to check quickly

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whether you take in my, what kind of busy mum are you quiz just yet?

Fun two minute quiz, which will identify whether you're the working mom, the overwhelmed mom, the zombie mom, or the want to be healthy mom. You'll get your results emailed to you, plus some extra free resources to support you with what you need, but where you're at right now. So check out the link in my show notes and take yours now and extra points.

If you share with me what you came out as, as I would absolutely love to know now I would

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really love to get stuck into those four stress. Reducing. So number one today for the note takers, all that, you know, if you're driving right now, obviously you won't be taking notes, but number one is sleep. Yes. I know this is the most precious commodity as a busy working mom.

And it's that whole balance sometimes isn't it between wanting to stay up late because it's the only time the house is quiet and you've got Headspace and you can actually.

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Do things that you want to do, but also that balance of, I really need to get to bed because I'm going to be working up in the middle of the night or I'm going to be waking up early, or I have to get up early because I've got a busy day or whatever it is.

But just as a reminder about what is going on in your body, when you're sleeping and how sleep can genuinely make a significant indent on your day yesterday. So I've actually got a blog on this where I go into a lot more detail on the subject of sleep, and we will be talking about this confusion

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episodes, but, but now I'll put the link in my show notes.

So you can refer back to that, but just very quickly, key ones, cortisol levels. So, this is important because cortisol is that stress hormone. So this drop in cortisol will assist you in managing your day-to-day stress. Number two, your hormones go to work. So there are multitude of hormones that get released while you sleep in these hormones assist in many processes.

Including regulating your sleep, repairing and growing muscles and controlling your

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appetite. So why do you think it is that you literally want to eat the entire contents of your fridge the next day after a bad night's sleep, or you tend to reach for the carbohydrates, which are more the sugary things that are going to give you that hits of energy when you're feeling so tired.

The other thing that sleep does is improve our concentration and productivity, which again, you might think, well, that's, that's not new information to me, but think about it when we are deprived of sleep, we're not making the best decisions we

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are not performing. While at work, we are shouting at our kids.

We are snappy with our partners or our family. It's just gives you that lack of coordination, that lack of motivation, that reduced memory and problem solving. Just to name a few. If that's not a plug for why you want to have some more sleep. And then the final thing is moods, moods, moods. So when you're sleeping, your brain is processing emotions.

So when you're not getting enough sleep, you have more negative thoughts and emotional

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reactions and mental health issues are strongly linked to poor quality sleep. So if you're somebody that struggles with anxiety, depression, ADHD, These are things that you really need to bear in mind with your sleep, but yeah, just generally the mood of not wanting to bite your kids' heads off and be the shouty mom and really sleep is such a cornerstone of all of this and helping you reduce stress.

So, as I said, check out the link in my show notes for the blog, where I go into a lot more detail on the subject. And absolutely

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you might be, you might come out as the zombie mom in the quiz, and I've got loads of useful resources for you on that subject. So number two in my four stress reducing hacks today is to enjoy the small things.

So I know this is one that we probably get told so much as busy moms, you know, be more present in your life, take time, sit down, chew your food, all these sorts of things. And you just, you literally just. These people giving this advice, or maybe right

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now you're rolling your eyes at me and thinking, okay.

Really easier said than done Wendy, but it is so important. It's something I'm working on a lot more because I'm someone who likes to be busy, who likes to have things on the go. It's just the way my personality, my brain, my body works. I'm go, go, go. So for me, this is one that I have to work particularly hard on is to actually slow down.

And not do all the time because as somebody who loves what they do, who loves their work and he loves being a

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mom and all the things I just, I would just keep going and I just wouldn't stop. So for me, it is really about how I schedule that downtime to be more present, even if it's the case of going for a walk.

Without listening to a podcast, for example. And I know I'm saying, please listen to my podcast, please share it. Please tell your friends, but at the same time, sometimes you just need to go out and walk without having anything in your ears. But in saying that if listening to a

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great podcast, hopefully you include this in one of those, then that's your thing.

Then do that. If that's going to allow you to enjoy the small things, whatever that looks like for me. I'm really focusing on being mindful when I eat. So not necessarily taking my lunch to my desk and eating while I'm working or even watching telly and eating my dinner, like actually being more present, chewing my food.

It just tastes so much better. Trust me on. But

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doing things, we enjoy guys sparks, dopamine and serotonin, which helps keep the cortisol, the stress hormone in check. So as much as I'd love to tell you that I meditate for half an hour a day. I rarely don't that doesn't work for me personally. But instead as I say, I might take my dog for a walk, which clears my head and that time and nature really helps me to restate.

So, whatever those small things, or even if it's just to enjoy a hot cup of tea at work, to get away

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from your kids, it's taking the time to be really present in those moments. So number three for you today is to watch the sugar spike. Okay, so this is not going to be a nutrition lesson for you right now, because we are going to get into nutrition habits in future episodes.

But just to touch on when we get stressed, we can often overeat or via towards grabbing fast, highly saturated or sugar filled goodies that are calorific.

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And these usually lead to spot. And then dips and our blood sugar and mood. And this is not sustainable in the long run. I call this the sugar roller coaster Europe.

You're down in Europe, you're down, you're up beat down most importantly, because nutrition is key to managing stress. And I actually have a detailed blog on this too, which you can check out in the show notes, but essentially we want to be fueling our bodies with the right types of food that sustain our energy, not crashing.

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We also as a top tip, want to be drinking loads more than we do. So do you take stock of how many times you go to the toilet in the day that will give you a good indication of how much you're actually hydrating your body? So I'm someone who would say, would go to the toilet quite regularly and maybe my recent tip on doing squats.

When you go to the loo, uh, has, um, previous episodes has made you think more about doing this and drinking more, but really, and truly keeping think about. Your body and

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balance. You don't want to be on that sugar roller coaster, because as much as it's fun at, in the time when you're eating that delicious, lovely, fresh croissant, actually it's thinking about, or how is this actually going to make me feel in the next hour?

I'm going to be blurted. I'm going to feel groggy and tired as opposed to maybe having something that's more. Nutrient dense that is going to sustain your blood sugar, which is why I love protein, rich snacks. So, you know, Even if you

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vegan, there's plenty of protein options. I love my protein bars that I have.

I love handful of homemade granola or having that with some fruit as well. So you get that little bit of a sweet hits, but then equally you've got, you know, the denseness of the granola, there's all sorts of healthy snacks and ideas that you can get. And as I say, you can go read more in the blog that I have on this, but yeah, it's just really to watch the sugar spikes as my third top tip for adjacent.

And then my final one that I want to share with

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you today is exercise. Oh no, I can already see you. Don't you now don't, you know, Trust me just listen, bear with me because as much as busy is, you know, we are so naked. We know we need to do the exercise, but we can't even think about it sometimes in our day.

Like we don't even have time to do all the things we have to do by law to care for our children and do our jobs and all those things let alone.

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Finding time. We can't even think about going for a walk, let alone run. And initially we do have to force ourselves and I don't really like the word force, but I suppose there's no other really good way to describe it, but we do have to cajole ourselves.

Maybe that's a better word into taking those initial first steps into a good exercise routine. Wow. Because thankfully our bodies will respond and produce more happy hormones and lower our

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cortisol, which helps us to sleep better. So I'm really gonna recommend that with exercise. You do what you enjoy.

It's about moving. Not about subscribing to a fitness program. So if is your thing great, if not, don't worry. I've recently in the summer in particular taken up paddleboarding and I love it. I look forward to doing it, which makes me want to stick with it. But if you think, if running's not your thing, Walking is so underrated as far as I'm

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concerned.

And we are going to do a whole podcast episode on exercise. Cause I could just go into so much more detail about the subject, but we will never be completely rid of stress, but we can introduce the habits that help us cope and keep chronic stress at bay and exercise. It's almost like a Dustbuster coming in there and.

Sucking up all the stress in your body like that. I just see that mental image of it. So as much as I don't feel like going and doing the

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exercise, once I do move my body, and that means, you know, it could mean standing while you on your zoom calls or walking around the office, instead of emailing someone or walking up a flight of stairs at work, for example, not taking the Lyft.

Rather than thinking, oh, I must do. And then you lambaste yourself because you've not done three to four exercise sessions a week of a minimum of 30 minutes. And all the things think about all the ways that you're moving. Some days on my apple watch, it will show me as not having done any exercise, but I've expended calories more than my daily

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quota, because I've been moving and walking and doing things as part of my day-to-day life.

So that is not to be scoffed at and absolutely counts towards exercise and moving. So I've given you four stress reducers to. But I'm going to encourage you to simply pick one to two, to focus on for now as a new habits, we don't want to be trying to boil the ocean and do all the things. We just want to focus on the consistency on working on one of these, but now for at

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least the next 60 to 90 days in order to see those huge improvements in your stress.

And I'd love to personally hear from you about what habit you're focusing on. So please do let me know, DM me or drop me any. Oh, you can screenshot this episode and share it on social media and declare it. So you're accountable to me and your followers to, and another top tip. I just want to leave you with is to track it.

So recently I sent out to my community. So if you're on my email list, you would've got those two all be

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using it probably. And that's the habit trackers. It's actually giving yourself the grace to know that you're not always going to stick with things every single day, but actually when you can mark off and check off on the track out, when you have.

Executed against that healthy habit commitment that you've set for yourself that builds such self-esteem. And I actually had my habit tracker on my fridge because I want to be accountable to my family and my little girl who looks up to me and who talks about healthy eating and healthy

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exercising, because she sees me doing it.

And I want to show her yet mommy's done an exercise today, or mommy's done her movement as we call it. Right. And yeah, just having that visual tracker on your fridge. So you could just get a blank piece of paper and do this and, you know, write up X amount of square, 60 squares or even 30 squares. And then just say, if you're going to commit to moving your body two to three times a week, cross off every time you do that.

And actually that self-esteem, that you build within

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yourself that you're sticking to your commitments. We'll just pay off immensely either way. We just want to stop. And remember that we take it one day at a time. Do you struggle for time to prioritize your health and self-care as a busy mom or maybe you're just so tired of starting new habits, diets, and plans, and never sticking with any of them.

It could be that you need help with. Diet and exercise or more sleep

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and dealing with the mental clutter and mum guilt. And you're frustrated with how to create healthy habits that actually stick in these areas of your life because you're fed up, are feeling overwhelmed and you want more energy, Headspace and joy to thrive and not just survive busy.

My healthy habits. Toolkit is a digital guide, which gives you the tools and practical examples to identify two to three healthier habits, which you need to thrive in your life. Right. But mostly it

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will teach you how to get them to find the stick. Even on the days when you feel your most uninspired, this is not just another guide you get download and never look at because I bring this to life with a masterclass to teach you how to finally become the month who has healthy habits.

I know this is a crazy time of year when we need support with our healthy habits, more than ever, which is why I'm offering my toolkit as part of a black Friday special at over 50%. So, but less than a quick shop at Tesco's, you can get all

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my knowledge and experience as a DIY version of working with the one-to-one.

It would even make a lovely Christmas gift for a stressed busy mom. You know, you can get yours from the link in my show notes, or go to my website, wendygriffith.co.uk.