In this post we are digging into mental and emotional stressors.
When we experience excess stress over long periods we get an increase in cortisol. This leads to more cortisol binding proteins to bind to excess cortisol. Unfortunately, these also bind to progesterone leading to lower progesterone levels, higher cortisol, and high estrogen.
Mental and emotional stressors can impact us the same way as a physical stressor like too much intense exercise, injury, surgery, chronic pain, etc.
There is always a huge focus on nutrition for hormone health, which I absolutely believe in, but focusing on mental and emotional health is just as important.
While we can use food to reduce stress and make our bodies more resilient, we can do the same thing by looking at our mental and emotional stressors.
Areas to consider when looking to improve mental and emotional health:
📱 How much screen time you’re getting.
🖥 How much information you’re taking in—constantly listening to a podcast, watching TV, or scrolling? This could be adding to your mental stress.
☀️ How much sunlight are you getting.
🏔 How much time you spend outside.
🤫 How much quiet time you have—true quiet time.
🙏🏽 Spiritual connection.
🤝 Community—how much time you are spending with people that matter to you.
Supporting your mental and emotional health will look different for everyone, but I hope this gives you a place to start.
If you are looking for resources on how to start working on your stress and even supporting your nervous system more, I have some great podcast episodes below:
reminder: i’m currently taking on 1:1 clients. if you’d like to explore what it would be like to work together and if we are a good fit, fill out this form to get more details!
