How Entrepreneurs Can Better Manage Stress Featuring Dr. Donese Worden - Genius Network Episode #177

I think it's recognizing when you're getting to that point. During the day we're going, going, going, but we're not breathing, we're not in connection with our body. To know that brain has gone out of control, that releases that cortisol and the stress hormones.

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We'Re all seeing, and I see in my patients, it's uncertainty about everything. Our jobs, our families, our health, it's the uncertainty. And you know entrepreneurs, you think that we could roll with those punches a little bit better because everything's always uncertain. As soon as it becomes certain, we create something else that makes it uncertain. So we should have better coping skills. But the problem is as entrepreneurs and busy mind people is we never shut down. You wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is hit the ground running. And you haven't given your body time, time to adjust to day and night. When we look at labs, we can see the cortisol level is supposed to be a certain level when you wake up in the morning and within 30 minutes it's supposed to go up about 400%. And then within 60 minutes it calms back down. So in that first hour we are supposed to mount a response, calm back down and slowly come back down the rest of the day. So at night we can sleep. Entrepreneurs many times are flipped, hit the ground running, hit it all day long, and cortisol is high. But what happens is you do it only so long and then your adrenal glands go, I don't care if there's a bear and I even need to survive. I'm out of gas, car's empty, got a Ferrari, but there's no gas and it can't do it anymore. The most important things we can remember is sleep. Sleep is very, very important. If you're waking up in the middle of the night or at different times of night, try controlled release melatonin, something natural and it will keep you down a little bit better throughout the night. But sleep is very important. Your immune system can't function, it can't regulate. Neither can your brain chemistry. And that means your chemistry that keeps you calm and happy and okay and not stressed out. Because if you continue to do that two way street, the brain is too active and stressed. It affects the gut. Now the gut doesn't help you make the neurotransmitters and it is a bad Vicious cycle that you can get into work with practitioners or people that help you know how to do that. But if you get up in the morning and at night, take those moments, meditation time, peaceful time, not the time to go do your most expansive workout. That is not the time. We have got to be able to transition night and day. And I think that is a big piece right now. I think it is recognizing when you are getting to that point during the day we are going, going, going, but we're not breathing, we're not in connection with our body. To know that brain has gone out of control, that releases that cortisol and the stress hormones. Getting to know your body well enough to say I'm starting to head there in the afternoon, take a five minute vacation, listen to that music, do the breathing, do whatever it is that takes you to a happy place. But the point is you've got to recognize it and most people don't. They just plow through to the end of the day. So learning to recognize it, getting to sleep, blacking out your curtains, make sure that bedroom is cold and dark. Those are basics. And make sure you have a good bowel movement and that you rate yourself. Where is your health right now? Where is your energy level? Where's your relationships, your spirituality? Where are you? Don't wait for a lab. Labs only show us this much of health. And your doctor says everything's OK but you don't feel ok. Listen to that. Listen. Rate yourself in different areas and then find out where's the root of the problem. We want our heart to be variable. It's supposed to speed up when we need it to and slow down when it needs to. And that var the more variable it is, the better off we are. We are healthier. It's a great way to look at post MI risk. That's what it was developed for out of Columbia. But it's a good way to look at your overall ability of you to adapt. That means your body, your immune system, your heart rate variability. Your body knows how to adapt when it needs to. And the HRV that's being looked at in the oura ring, it's not the full picture and as deep as we want, but it's enough until you learn how to know when you wake up in the morning. Today's a day to go out and really push myself and exercise hard. Or today's, oh, you know what, I should go take a walk in nature and not push it. That aura ring and other technologies say you're ready, you're not until you learn how to feel it yourself, which is always the best. I would just say go by the numbers of when you feel best. You say, listen, my husband may be here, but I'm here, but I feel okay at this number.

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