The next section of the stress management plan is about building strong
bodies because when we have strong bodies we have stable calm minds and we're
able to solve problems. Within this category there are four things that
we're going to be doing. We're gonna be learning about the importance of
exercise, learning about the power of relaxation, and making sure that we're
eating right taking care of our nutrition and sleeping right. Let's start
with exercise. It goes back to stress biology remember that we are designed to
be able to run from the tiger. And when we are stressed, adrenalin goes through
our body, think of that as a turbocharged hormone, and it changes our body in so
many different ways. The first thing it does is we get butterflies because the
blood is leaving our belly to go to our muscles so that we can jump and run and
then our heart beats fast so we can pump that blood and we breathe fast so we can
get oxygen into our systems and we sweat so we can cool off and our pupils get
big so we can run from the tiger and we can't think clearly
because we're not supposed to talk it out. What is adrenaline telling us to do
or epinephrine telling us to do? It is telling us to run. And when we do, then
what we're communicating to our bodies is "I've escaped" and when we don't what
happens is those hormones continue to circulate unused and confused and
they're like "the tiger could still be there! It could be there! It could be
anywhere!" No wonder when we don't exercise, we have anxiety and an
inability to think stably. We know that exercise has been scientifically proven
to decrease rates of depression, lower anxiety, lower symptoms of ADHD. We also
know that schools that have put into place exercise programs have decreased
bullying decreased violence and most importantly increased grades and
attention in class. The next thing I want to talk
about is the power of relaxation, because you know what the truth is? The truth is
you can't run from all your problems. You know, if your teacher gives you a test
and it scares you, you can't go "gotta run!" So sometimes we have to be able to relax.
If only we could just decide when to relax. If only we all had little buttons
we could push or switches that we could flip into a relaxed state of mind then
we could think and we could problem-solve. We do have switches that
you can flip and it goes back to stress biology. When we're talking about the
nervous system, we're talking about the brain, the spinal cord, and the nerves
that tell you what to do. Within the nervous system, there are two halves. The
first half is voluntary. I choose to walk, I choose to talk, I choose to turn.
Anything you choose to do is voluntary but there's also an involuntary half: the
things you don't think about. You don't think about your heart beating. You don't
think about breathing. You don't think about dilating. You don't think about
digesting. It just is. Its involuntary within the involuntary half there are
two parallel halves. It breaks down one step further. Now what do you know about
parallel lines? They never meet. One half is the "I'm chillin" half, also known
scientifically as the parasympathetic half the other is "there's a tiger chasing
my butt!" known scientifically as the sympathetic half. It's one or the other
which means that if only we could find that switch and flip it to the "I'm chillin"
half, then our brain becomes restored because if you're chillin
you're also able to think and to problem-solve. Where are we gonna find
that switch? Let's go back to stress biology. What can I choose to do? Can I
choose to get the blood back to my belly? No. Sweat back into my armpits? Nope.
Can I slow down my heart rate? Nope. Shrink my pupils? Nope. The only thing you
can choose to do is to breathe. When you change your breathing from the breathing
we do when we're nervous or tense which is short and rapid,
when you change that breathing into the real kind of breathing, the
incredible calm kind of breathing, the entire system flips into the chillin
parasympathetic system and then we can think and we can problem solve. So what
do we need to do? We need to teach kids what that looks like. If you tell the
average young person to take a deep breath they're gonna do this. Because it
looks so good right but that's not what we're talking about. We're actually
talking about first the belly breath followed by the chest breath, the same
way we teach singers to sing so that they can carry their notes for a long
time. We're gonna have this kind of breath.
Belly out first followed by chest. The amount of air you move is hugely
increased and what is happening when you stimulate your lungs to stretch that far
is the "I'm chillin" part of your nervous system turns on. And in case you think I'm
inventing this, have you heard of yoga? Of mindfulness? Of so much of Eastern
medicine of meditation? It starts with breath and with our breath we can then
think. The next part of the stress management plan is nutrition. Strong
bodies are built from what goes into them. We get energy from three different
kinds of food: proteins, carbohydrates (also known as sugars), and fats. But your
brain gets energy only from the sugars, which means that how our brain receives
sugar makes a really big difference to our ability to focus to concentrate and
to problem-solve. So what do we need to teach our children? How to keep
themselves stable. That means that those quick sweet sugars that come in candies
or sugared cereals, your brain receives sugar like this a high and then a crash.
Not the way to manage stress. Not the way to focus.
But when we eat complex carbohydrates, meaning things that don't
taste quite as sweet like whole grains, fruits and vegetables, then our sugar
remains stable and we're able to think and to focus better. Good nutrition matters.
The last piece within this category of
taking care of your body is the importance of sleep. You know, when you've
got enough sleep, you can handle almost anything. When you're exhausted, big
problems feel like much bigger problems and small problems, that normally you
wouldn't even see as a problem, can really get to you and make you irritable.
Sleep matters. Let me tell you something: many young people consider it almost a
badge of honor to stay up late, especially if it's doing
schoolwork or working on some project. It's not a badge of honor. It's setting
them up for anxiety the next day. We need to tell our kids that there always needs
to be enough sleep in their life and if it means that they don't get to finish a
project, they'll do a better job getting new knowledge the next day. They always
have to get enough sleep. There's a couple of other things that are tricks
for them to know. We are designed to be awake during the light and to fall
asleep at nighttime and what happens is that system gets kind of messed up
because we have lights. It also gets messed up with our screens, our phones.
Our phones have mostly blue light and that keeps us up. So what we want to do
is, when we're preparing to go to sleep, is we want to be dimming the lights an hour or
two before we go to bed and we want to switch our phones to the night mode
which actually changes from the blue light to another hue which doesn't keep
your brain as stimulated. Next, we want our bodies to cool off as we're ready to
fall asleep. So we want to exercise. We just talked about exercise, but here's
what you need to know. Exercise heats your body up. So if you do it right
before you go to bed, you're not ready to fall asleep. Best time to exercise?
About four to five hours before you want fall asleep. If you haven't exercised and
you want to have that effect of cooling down, a hot shower or a bath about an
hour before you fall asleep is gonna get you to cool down, but here might be the
most important part. You don't want to take your problems to bed and that's
what people do. You know, their minds are spinning with all sorts of things and
they're going a thousand miles an hour and when do they slow down? In bed. But if
you begin thinking about your problems in bed, then you become activated. And
when you become activated, you're running from the tiger instead of sleeping. So
whatever strategy you end up using, which we're going to talk about in the next
section, whatever strategy you end up using to release it, to release your
emotions, do that before you go to bed. Actually think and say to yourself: "'m
done" Me? I'm a list-maker. I have a lot of
things to do and I'm always worried about the next day. I will make a list
sometimes on paper sometimes in the computer and I literally will look at it
and go "done." That way I don't have to wake up in the middle of night worried
about tomorrow. That's mine. There are all sorts of different ways of managing
emotions and managing stress but the point is you want to be able to go "done."
Now I'm ready for a restful night. And when you have a restful night, you can deal
with tomorrow.