Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes 👣 November 2023

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Everything in your life is connected.

We all know the song Head Shoulders Knees and Toes as a silly way for our toddlers to learn the basic parts of the body. But let’s take this song and apply it to life. Does it still work? Is everything really all connected?

As we approach this holiday season missing one of our major players in our family; Robert’s father Richard, we are starting to get a little sadder, a little more nostalgic. We’re also a bit achier, some old ailments are starting to flare up. Could this be connected, a coincidence or maybe simply the cooler weather?

Stress is looming in us all, at varying levels. Put there by the challenges of life and cleared away by our positive healthy routines of eating right, exercising and meditating. When routines slip, emotions are left un-checked and your mental and physical stress begins to build and your body starts manifesting disease.

 Stress is the biggest pre-curser to all of this. As specific hormones levels in the body start to rise throwing off your homeostasis and sending your body into panic mode. This stress can look like fretting about financials during the holidays, worrying about family interactions, desperately trying to keep the house clean for guests, watching the scale tick up as you eat all the treats. Or it can look like grieving the loss of a loved one, the physical exertion from hanging holiday decorations, the busy schedule of holiday events or even panic if the turkey isn’t dethawed. The point is that stress can look like a lot of different things and stress doesn’t always have to be negative. A simple busy schedule running from one thing to the next doesn’t allow your body to decompress, relax and recover from all of the input.

When we stress good or bad, our body reacts both physically can mentally. Symptoms can include: fatigue,, headaches, muscle tension, restlessness, trouble sleeping, chest pain, grumpiness or anger and sadness and depression. When these manifest, its puts more physical strain on our bodies leading to higher rates of injuries and build up of inflammation. And inflammation leads to disease.

To keep the stress from reaching from our heads to our shoulders and down to our knees and toes we can implement a few simple steps.

1. Move your body daily. Join a TOA workout or go for a walk/hike every day. The movement lowers your stress hormones and minimizes inflammation by getting the blood pumping.
2. Take time to breathe and connect. During times of stress is it important to release it, release the energy. This can be done through releasing the thoughts through a conversation, or memory share. It can also be done through meditation, a quiet moment to focus and become aware of your thoughts.
3. Eat a healthy diet consenting mostly of plants. Your goal should be to fill your plate with ¾ plants, all colors of the rainbow and ¼ lean protein. Keeping your body fueled with healthy nutrients keeps the inflammation down and therefore the stress.
4. Get adequate amount of sleep. 7-9 hours a night. Set a routine you follow every night. Head to bed early and set your alarm to rise early. Avoid sleep medication as it is a false sleep and not truly deep sleep.
5. Practice daily love and gratitude. During life, especially the holidays, it is important to keep love and gratitude the predominant feelings. There is so much commercialism and pressure to host the perfect holiday we forget the true meaning of the holidays and life. Love and gratitude, true connection. Take a moment each day to express gratitude in either verbal or written form. Bring the love and gratitude for simple things in life back to the forefront.

With these tactics you can keep the stress down and keep your head, shoulders, knees and toes all in order. Because life is all connected. Our body is directly connected to our mind, physically and emotionally. Our bodies are connected to the environments in which we live. Keep those connections healthy to keep your stress at bay to live life to the fullest, disease free and connected.

November 2023 ©BeSTRONGERFitness