The SIMPLEST Pre-Thanksgiving De-stresser

Between seeing your extended family & cooking a 4 course meal, Thanksgiving can sometimes be a tad…stressful.

Last week I shared research on the physiological sigh demonstrating what 5 minutes of breathing can do to boost your mood and reduce anxiety, but what can you do BEFORE you get stressed out to help build your resolve for the hectic holiday?

It's actually very simple.

Here's another scientifically validated tool that is simple, FREE and available to all:

Take a walk.  

Look at this study from 2017 in which researchers explored two questions:

1. How does your current physical fitness level prepare you for stress?

2. How does pre-stress physical activity change your reaction to psychosocial stressors later in the day?

They took two groups of people, had one group go on a walk and then gave them a social stress test.  The second group was a control which did nothing and then took the same social stress test.  

Afterwards they tested both groups' cortisol levels 7 times to check and see what happened to their physiological stress responses during and after the test.

Here's what they found:

1. Those with a lower HR during the walk (indicating better physical fitness) had lower cortisol levels during and after the stress.

Cool.

But what if it's too late to be crazy fit before Thursday?  Don't worry.

2. The group that went on the walk ALSO had lower cortisol levels during and following the stress test.

From this researchers concluded that:

 "Prior physical activity can reduce cortisol concentrations during psychosocial stress and are suggestive of a role of physical activity in reducing the impact of stress on health."

Even if that physical activity isn't a CrossFit workout or spin class, but just a simple pre-stressor WALK!

So once again, movement is medicine.

IMPORTANT NOTE.

These people, as far as I know, were not on their phones or listening to podcasts while walking. 

They were just walking.

So if you want to calm your body's stress response to mental and emotional stressors during your Thanksgiving, go on that pre-party walk WITHOUT input. 

Give it a try this week and let me know how it goes.

Hopefully it (along with the sigh!) can help build up your stress resilience to deal with any....ahem....moderate social stressors that come your way.

My name is Kevin and I want to help you live an intentional, resilient life.