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WEB DESK: Troubled with work load? Stressed due to hard routine? Having rough, tough and harsh routine is common these days. Every single person around is battling to manage time and go with the things running around in a fast pace.
In all this hurry, we all have been trying to get a right balance between work, rest and play.
But every time we stay a little later at work, decide an extra hour at a party won't hurt or stay up working on an assignment until late, we are putting additional pressure on our bodies.
The lifestyle which we have opted made it difficult for us to take out time for ourselves and leading us to adrenal fatigue. This in particular can lead to everything from weight gain and fatigue, to insomnia and mood swings.
There are some small swaps everyone can make to ensure we're in the best position to keep ourselves healthy.
It's not something we are very conscious of in our daily lives but how frequently, how deeply, and how effectively we breathe can impact our muscles and our health.
Breathing correctly means that our bodies are being supplied with the right amount of oxygen, replenishing our brain and other vital organs with essential nutrients.
If you are not breathing correctly, your skin can suffer as it is not receiving enough fresh oxygenated blood,
Your muscles can tire easily during a workout as they are not getting the right amount of oxygen and you can feel constantly tired and lethargic because there are not enough vital nutrients being carried in the blood.
You might be familiar with the term 'apical breathing' - a pattern of breathing which takes place in the upper chest.
Prolonged periods of stress mean we constantly breathe in sorter breathes, only ever using the top third of our lungs. This causes us to breathe as if we were permanently hyperventilating.
Try diaphragmatic breathing, which uses the muscles from your lungs and abdomen. With so many muscles working together, intake and outtake of air are much more effective.'
Salt is an essential part of all human life. Our body uses salt to maintain some of its essential functions.
For starters, it helps our body to maintain its water balance, and is necessary for nerve signals to travel around the body.
However, too much salt can be harmful. It's particularly easy to get too much if you’re eating processed foods, which often contain hidden salt.
So the number one step you can take is to switch to 'real' foods and home-prepared meals made with fresh ingredients.
It can also be helpful to swap your standard table salt for Himalayan pink salt. Whereas table salt is a refined form of sodium chloride, Himalayan pink salt is an unrefined salt, which also contains small amounts of other valuable minerals.
These minerals can help your body in numerous ways, including supporting adrenal function and bone strength.
The alarm goes off. You're not ready to get up so you hit the snooze button. You drift back to sleep. Repeat.
For those of us who set the alarm for the same time every day, our bodies get used to waking an hour before our alarms go off.
Our sleep becomes lighter, our bodies get warmer, and cortisol our stress hormone starts kicking in.
Cortisol gives us the momentum to get up and go in the morning but by hitting snooze and falling back to sleep, we are denying our bodies the hour they need to wake up, therefore confusing our stress hormone.
Instead of hitting snooze for 20 minutes, why not get up and take 20 minutes for yourself.
Caffeine doesn't have to be bad for you; you just need to be smart about where you get your intake from.
Most of us have plenty of stress in our lives. When we feel tired or drained – often as a result of the stress itself – we reach for coffee to give ourselves an energy boost.
But high doses of caffeine and other stimulating substances found in coffee can actually cause our body to make more stress hormones, further increasing the stress response.
Nutritionist Cassandra Barns says: 'Green tea does contain some caffeine, but less than coffee.
'But the primary reason that tea can be a better choice when we're stressed is thanks to its content of a natural substance called L-theanine, which is virtually unique to the tea plant.
'L-theanine has been found to have a relaxing effect on the mind, reduce anxiety, and help with focus and concentration.
'It's thought to do this by increasing alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with being 'calm but alert'.'
