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Hello and welcome to another episode of The Mom-entum Podcast, the show dedicated to inspiring, uplifting and empowering women on their journey through motherhood.  I’m your host, Tanya Valentine, and I am so grateful that you are taking what I believe to be the most valuable thing in this world, your time, to tune in and listen today!

 

So I want to begin this episode today with a request.  If you are enjoying listening to this podcast and if you would like to be apart of helping this podcast grow, would you mind doing one or 2 of the following.  A big way you can help this podcast survive and thrive is to subscribe.  It doesn’t cost anything, all you do is simply hit the “follow” button and then you are updated anytime a new episode airs.  But this tells the podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify that people are liking the show, and then these platforms are more likely to promote or recommend the Mom-entum Podcast, giving it a chance to reach new listeners.

 

So how do you do this?  If you are listening on Apple podcast, simply open up your app and go to where you are listening to the show right now, you will see my podcast logo and a list of episodes underneath.  In the top right corner you will see 3 dots.  Click on the 3 dots and a drop down menu will appear.  The first option at the top should say “follow show”, simply click on the “follow show” button and you are done!  You are officially subscribed and you will be notified anytime a new episode airs.  It’s that simple.

 

And if you are listening on Spotify, it’s even easier.  On spotify, go to where you are listening to this podcast, and at the top, right under the podcast logo you will see the “follow” button.  Simply click the follow button and you will be subscribed.

 

Ok, so the other thing you can do if you want to help this podcast grow is to rate and/or leave a review.  So on Apple Podcasts, go to where you are listening to The Mom-entum Podcast, scroll down a little bit until you see the “ratings & reviews” section. It is here where all you have to do is tap on the number of stars to rate this podcast.  And if I could be so bold as to request a 5 star rating, I would greatly appreciate it, because the 5 star reviews are what help this show to be discovered.  

 

And if you have the time, and if it resonates in your heart to do so, would you mind writing a review?  All you have to do is simply click on the “write a review” link which is in purple letters and you will find it just under the previous reviews that have been written.  And then you can write your own review here.

 

And if you are listening on spotify, you will see the 3 dot button just under the show logo and to the right, click on these 3 dots and a menu will appear where you will see an option to rate show, click on that, leave your rating and you are done!

 

So I understand you all are living busy lives and you have a lot on your mind, but if you could find it in your heart to do this, really, I would greatly appreciate it and these actions will help this podcast reach more people!

 

Now, onto today’s show.  So recently I was invited to take part in a women’s wellness event to raise money for the Susan G Komen foundation whose mission it is to end breast cancer as a life-threatening disease. 

 

 And it was so fun and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in this event.  And for this event, I had prepared a trifold that I spent so much time and effort on and it was so pretty.  I went out to the craft store and purchased pretty, glittery pink craft paper and pink letter stickers.  I cut the craft paper out into these cute, little pink ribbons, which was so tedious, and then I glued each one meticulously onto my poster.  

 

And I had decided my theme was going to be emotional well-being.  So my poster focused on the effects of stress on our health and how a major cause of our stress is our thinking, and then ways we can cope and manage our mind and our emotions so that we can then minimize and deal with stress better, which then positively impacts our health, our relationships, and basically everything in our  lives.  

 

So I had information on this trifold about this and then in the center I had 5 envelopes and each envelope was labeled with a category.  So the 5 categories were “affirmations”, “courage and growth”, “inspirational quotes”, “self-care”, and “Connection and Relationships”.  And then inside each envelope were cards that either had an affirmation, quote, or challenge that related to the corresponding category.  

 

And then I bought one of those spinning wheels, you know like the one you see on the wheel of fortune, and then labeled each section of the wheel with one of these categories.  And essentially, I was going to have the women spin the wheel and then whatever category they landed on, they would then pull a card from the corresponding envelope. 

 

 I thought this would just be a fun and engaging activity.  But, I didn’t end up doing any of it.  I admittedly fell into that comparison trap. I was so proud of this thing I had created, and then when I left my home, left my kids behind, hopped on a plane to Atlanta, I was so out of my element.  And when the day came, I looked around at all of these other businesses around me with their beautiful displays and their professionally designed banners, and I looked at my trifold which I knew I had spent countless hours thinking about and creating.  And then there I was, comparing it to the other booths around me and I felt utterly deflated. 

 

Not to mention, the event was outside on an unseasonably cold and windy day in Atlanta. Everything kept blowing over, so eventually, I thought, ‘Forget it. I’m not doing this.’ By the end of the day, I had a simple booth set up with just my brochures, business cards, a couple of flyers, and a special guide I created for the women attending. This guide was designed to help them identify, feel, and process their emotions—something essential for overall well-being.  

 

You see, if we do not process through our emotions, we end up doing things to avoid or numb them, often unhealthy things like eating when we are not hungry, drinking alcohol, or scrolling through social media and wasting what I believe to be our most valuable asset, our time.  

 

But also, when we suppress emotions and we don’t process them and let them flow through us, the emotions get stored in our body and create this stuck energy which can lead to disease and manifest in unhealthy ways, affecting both the relationship we have with ourselves and the relationships we have with others.

 

So this guide was created for those moments when you feel out of control—when you’re about to snap at someone, reach for food when you’re not hungry, or pour a glass of wine to unwind. It’s designed to bring you back to the present, reconnect with your emotions, and allow yourself to fully experience them. This helps the feelings pass naturally, so you can avoid unhealthy habits and keep your energy flowing freely. By doing this, you’ll break the cycle of stress hormones that can drive those impulses, which I’ll dive into next. If you’d like a copy, you can find it in the show notes by visiting tanyavalentinecoaching.com/58.

 

The guide includes a feelings wheel to help you better identify and name your emotions, and it’s also a powerful tool you can use to help your children raise their emotional intelligence.

 

Daniel Goleman, a renowned psychologist and author of Emotional Intelligence, which spent a year and a half on the New York Times Best Seller list, has said, ‘As much as 80% of adult “success” comes from EQ.’ His research also shows that, across all job types, emotional intelligence is twice as crucial for outstanding performance as cognitive ability and technical skills combined. So this definitely is something that is well worth our while to work on.

 

So since I did not display my work at the women’s wellness event, I thought I would share all of the research I did with you all.  So tune in, get comfy, and grab a paper and pen to take notes because I believe you will be fascinated to hear what I learned about stress, how most of us are actually addicted to it, how to know if you are addicted, and then what you can do about it to help optimize your health and well-being.  

 

And BONUS, you can use this information to help your children.  Get them started young. I believe that if we can instill these concepts and strategies in our children at a young age, when they are like sponges and just absorb new information so effortlessly, the more it will be like second nature to them and it will just come easier, which I believe will help them to live a healthier, happier, and more successful life.  And that’s what we all want, right?

 

OK, so let’s jump right in.  First off, what are stress hormones, and what role do they play in our bodies and in our lives?

 

Well mainly there are 3 key players when it comes to stress hormones and they are cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine.  And the purpose of stress hormones is essentially to keep us alive.  They basically help us do what we need to do when we are in dangerous situations.  So if we are being chased by a tiger, our stress hormones are responsible for giving us the jolt of energy we need to fight or run away.  So the key point here is that they are good for us in acute, stressful situations, that means short-term.  Conversely, long term (also known as chronic) exposure to these stress hormones can negatively impact your health.  Here’s a breakdown of each hormone and their short term benefits vs. their long term effects.

 

So first up,we’ll talk about cortisol.  Short term, it regulates blood sugar so that we have enough energy to be able to fight back or run from a dangerous situation.  It also reduces inflammation, and boosts energy to handle stress.  Lots of times in the hospital when we have a patient who has inflammation in their body, like for example someone with a respiratory condition who is having a hard time breathing due to the inflammation in their lungs, we will give them a medication called solu-medrol, which is a corticosteroid (and corticosteroids are the medicinal versions of the hormone, cortisol.  So we will give them what is essentially the medicinal version of cortisol, and it will help to reduce the inflammation in their lungs, which then helps them to breathe easier, however it does come with some side effects, like for example it can increase their blood sugar levels.  And that leads me into the negative effects of this hormone which are, when you have

chronically high levels of cortisol, it can lead to weight gain (especially belly fat), immune suppression (meaning you are more likely to get sick, and experience an illness more intensely than you would if your immune system was functioning properly, and you take longer to recover).  Chronic high levels can also cause insomnia, memory issues, and increased risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

 

Next up is adrenaline. Short term, adrenaline Increases heart rate to pump more blood to your peripheral tissues to get you ready to fight or run.  It boosts energy, sharpens focus, and prepares the body for immediate action.

 

Chronic exposure to adrenaline, however, can lead to anxiety, heart problems, high blood pressure, and again, weakened immune function.

 

Lastly, we’ve got norepinephrine.  In a hospital setting, norepinephrine is often used as a critical medication during a “code,” particularly in cases of severe low blood pressure and shock.  Norepinephrine is a vasoconstrictor, meaning it narrows the blood vessels.  And this helps to increase blood pressure, which in situations when someone’s blood pressure has dropped to life-threatening low levels, this ensures adequate blood flow to the vital organs.  So it improves blood flow to vital organs,  and increases the force of heart contractions, helping the heart pump blood more effectively.

 

Now prolonged elevation to norepinephrine, however, can result in anxiety disorders, hypertension, and cognitive impairments.

 

So in summary, short term stress hormones are good, while long term exposure is no bueno.

 

So now that we understand what these stress hormones are, their purpose and impact on our health, let’s find out:

 

 Are you addicted to the hormones of stress? 

 

I’m going to share with you right now the 5 ways to know if you are addicted to the hormones of stress, so pay attention.  And don’t worry, if you answer yes to any of these, number 1 you are definitely not alone.  Millions worldwide are impacted by chronic stress. In fact, studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest that high-stress levels are a factor in 60-80% of doctor visits, highlighting how stress contributes to illnesses from heart disease to depression. 

 

And number 2, take a deep breath, there are solutions.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  Seriously, for every problem there is a solution.  And at the end of this episode I will go over things that you can do to detox from your stress hormone addiction.

 

OK, so here are the 5 ways to know if you are addicted to the hormones of stress:

 

1. You constantly feel on edge.

If you feel perpetually anxious, tense, or irritable, even in calm situations, it may be a sign that your body has become accustomed to high levels of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

 

1.  You have a hard time relaxing.

When you struggle to unwind, enjoy downtime, or feel guilty for taking breaks, your body might be stuck in a heightened state of stress. This inability to relax is a strong indicator of stress hormone dependency.

 

1.  Craving drama or chaos.

If you find yourself seeking out or creating stressful situations—whether through work, relationships, or even over-scheduling your life—you might be unconsciously feeding an addiction to stress hormones.  

 

Now, this is one I have noticed myself doing.  For instance, If you have been listening to my podcast for the past few weeks you will know that I had made the decision to scale back to allow for more breathing room so that I could be more fully present with my family.  So guess what happened after I made that decision?  My calendar filled in.  I overscheduled myself.  And it became like ok I just have to pour my focus into getting these things done and then once this is over, then I will have the time to relax and enjoy my kids.  

 

But I stressed myself out so much that I was on edge with my kids, and to be honest a lot of the time I was feeling guilty because there was this voice in my head saying this is not in alignment.  You promised yourself you were going to scale back.  And so I had this internal conflict going on in my mind because what I had promised myself I was going to do, vs. what I was actually doing were not in alignment, and it was just perpetuating this feeling of stress.

 

And I notice, too, that when things are going so smoothly and it feels like I am all caught up, it almost feels weird to me.  I get this urge to squeeze one more thing in.  Because you know that to do list is infinite and never ending, and of course there is always going to be something that needs to be done, and also, I think its ok and even healthy to just be sometimes.  You’ve all heard of that saying we are human beings not human doings right?  This is something that I definitely struggle with, and according to the research I’ve done, it can very well be related to this addiction to stress hormones.

 

1. Sleep issues.

Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep can be caused by elevated stress hormone levels. If you’re constantly tired but your mind races at night, your body might be locked into a stress response.

 

1.  Health problems.

Frequent headaches, digestive issues, weight gain (especially around the midsection), or frequent illness can all be signs that your body is overloaded with stress hormones, which suppress the immune system and affect overall health.

 

OK, so that was it?  How did you do?  Are you addicted to stress hormones?  If so, don’t sweat.  You are not alone.  And I am going to give you a list of things that you can implement right away to help you detox from your stress addiction.

 

But before we get into that I think that it’s first important to talk about the connection between this stress response and our thoughts.

 

According to the research done by Dr. Joe Dispenza, we have 60,000-80,000 thoughts per day, and 70-90% are negative and repetitive. This keeps us stuck in cycles of stress, as our body becomes addicted to stress hormones. 

While these hormones help in short-term stress, chronic stress leads to imbalances that harm our health.

When the body craves stress hormones, it prompts the mind to trigger stressful thoughts. And we can activate stress by thought alone, and without tools to rebalance, this can lead to illness. And the translation of this all is: Thoughts can make us sick.

 

Haven’t you ever been worried about something that may or may not happen?  Like for example, have you ever had a swollen gland and your mind immediately goes to the “c” word?  You think the worst and then it’s like you experience these feelings of despair as if that worst case scenario were true.  You are a nervous wreck, your trembling, you are on edge, maybe your sweating.  And maybe you go to the Doctors, and you have diagnostic testing done and it all comes out normal, and you take a deep breath and then you realize you got all worked up for nothing.  

All of that stress was created by your thinking.  Because, know, there is someone else out there in this world who might experience the very same symptom of a swollen gland and they wouldn’t be bothered in the least bit.  How can this be true?  They have the same symptom, the swollen gland.  But their thoughts about it are different, they may literally think nothing of it like, “oh, it’s just a swollen gland, my body must be fighting off some virus or something, it’ll go away.”  So then it’s not this all consuming thought, and they get to go about their day and their life as if that swollen gland wasn’t there.

This literally happened to me.  I remember when I was pregnant with Rocco, towards the end of my pregnancy I noticed an enlarged lymph node in my arm pit.  It became something that consumed my thoughts, and I worried about it often.  I brought it up at one of my check ups and was told it most likely was related to shaving and was put on an antibiotic.  But then I remember we scheduled a ultrasound just like days after I had Rocco, and it was like I was so happy about this new baby, but it was almost like I wasn’t allowing myself to experience the full potential of that joy because I had this thought, this worry in my mind, that something was wrong, this lymph node, what if it was I dont even want to say the word.  But what would I do?  My family needed me.  I had a 22 month old at the time and a newborn and they needed their mother.  Thank goodness, everything was fine, it was nothing.  I think I remember being told that it was all related to the pregnancy and my body getting ready to produce milk.  But anyway this is all to say, you know, of course still be cautious, take care of yourself and your health, don’t necessarily ignore a symptom.  But really, I share this story only to demonstrate how powerful our thoughts are and how they can completely change our state of being and our experience of life if we don’t learn to manage them.

The CAUSE of stress is NOT the CIRCUMSTANCES of our life, it’s our THOUGHTS about them.

This is the BEST NEWS, because you have the power to choose your thoughts.

Sure we have thoughts that appear out of no where.  But we are not our thoughts.  And we do have the option to decide whether or not we believe that thought, whether or not to give that thought any air time, we can question the thought, and we can decide on purpose to believe something new.  Now this is something that is simple, yes, but not easy.

 

So how do we intervene?  What can we do to stop this cycle of negativity that then feeds our addiction to stress?  The truth is there are many ways, we have so many options.  But one important step in the process I believe to be true is having an awareness practice, and being consistent with this practice.

 

What do I mean by this?  Awareness practice.  I mean developing a practice of becoming aware of your thoughts and recognizing the effect those thoughts have on you.  This means taking time to sit down and contemplate.  

Taking time to wonder why did you react that way?  Why are you ruminating about what this person said to you or what you said to them?  Why did you eat that brownie?  

It’s knowing that every action we take is fueled by a feeling, an emotion.  And every emotion is caused by a thought.  

Now this is why I say that it’s a simple practice, but it’s not easy.  It’s not easy because we all live very busy lives and we think that we don’t have the time to sit down and think about our thinking.  I know, I do this, too.  

But the way to interrupt this pattern, the things that we do unconsciously, when we snap on our kids, or say things in the heat of the moment that we later regret, or we eat when we are not hungry or we drink wine to take the edge off.  

These are patterns of behavior, it’s the programs our brains have downloaded from the world around us, our parents, caregivers, teachers, friends, society, culture, in order to keep us safe.  It’s these things that we do to cope, to help us feel better.  But these things only give us temporary relief, they give us temporary pleasure, but many times can lead to long term negative consequences.  

Our brains say, keep doing this because this way of thinking, feeling and behaving has kept us alive so far.  But when you have an awareness practice, you see that this programming is maladaptive, you begin to see the negative effects and how it all began with a thought, a belief that you picked up somewhere along the way.  And through this awareness practice, you work on deciding on purpose, consciously how you want to think and feel in order to show up in the world the way you want to.

 

So I’m quite sure that I have gone over this awareness process before on the podcast, but it is worth repeating becuase the more I repeat it, the more likely you are to remember it.  And knowing it, and remembering it is just the first step,  the next step and the step that you will get the best results from is by actually putting it into practice.

  So before I go over this practice, and in case I forget to say this later, if you are serious about making a change in your life, if you are tired of feeling this chronic stress all of the time, and you want to take charge of your health, you’ve gotta take the time to schedule it.

the only way I can guarantee I will do something is by scheduling it on the calendar.  Once I put it on the calendar, it’s as good as done.  The other part of that is just following through.  It’s obeying what is on your calendar.  Learn and practice this skill, and you are golden.  Think of all that you can accomplish and the level of trust you would have with yourself if you knew that whatever you put on your calendar, it’s as good as done.  It’s such a good feeling.  So anyway, if you are serious about this, then step one is scheduling the time to do it.  Now you don’t need to take a very long time to do this, it can be as little as 5 minutes.  But the key is doing it, and doing it consistently.  So why not start today?  After you are done listening to this podcast, why don’t you get a paper and pen, set a timer on your phone for 5 minutes to do this work.  Then when you are done, think about how you feel? Do you feel lighter?  Clearer?  More open and expansive?  You may not feel the effects right away, but begin to practice this consistently and you will gradually lessen your dependence on that rush you get from stress hormones.

 

So we are going to call this awareness practice, this practice of becoming aware of your thoughts and the effects they have on your life, we are going to call it thought work.  So when you are scheduling it on your calendar just write or type if you are using a digital calendar “thoughtwork”  and then schedule the amount of time that you want to put towards completing it.  Now this part is important, I want you to schedule a duration that would make it most likely for you to do consistently.  If you schedule yourself too much time for this, you are probably going to be less likely to do it.  5 minutes is better than nothing, especially when it is done consistently.  So you want to think about what you will most likely get yourself to do even on your worst day.  How about 5 minutes?  If you can commit to just 5 minutes and you do this consistently, then you start to develop this trust and confidence in yourself that you do what you say you are going to do,  and that’s one of the strategic byproducts of this practice.  And then on your good days, maybe you spend more time on it.  

So if all you have is 5 minutes, you are going to do what we call at the Life Coach School, a thought download.  And you are basically emptying your brain of all of your thoughts.  Don’t edit yourself, don’t judge what you are writing.  Think of it like you are writing for the trash can, as if after you are through, you are just gonna toss this piece of paper in the trash can.  Which, by all means, you can do.  But the point is, don’t overthink it, just write and don’t pick up that pen until the timer goes off.

This act is interrupting the loop of negative thinking in your brain.  And it’s almost like cleaning out your closet.  It’s the decluttering process of your brain.

Now if and when you have more than 5 minutes to dedicate towards this, then I am going to briefly teach you about the foundational awareness tool that we use at the Life Coach School and its called the model.

 

So the model goes like this, there are 5 lines in the model.  So on the first line of your paper, write down the letter C, then you would skip down to the line below it and write the letter “t”, then below the letter “t” write the letter “f”, then below “f” write the letter “a”, below “a” write the letter “r”.  So now you will see on your paper written going from top to bottom “CTFAR”  Each of these letters stands for something.  The “C” stands for circumstance, the “T” stands for thought, F is for feeling, A is for action, and R is for result.  

 Anything in life can be categorized into the model, it’s either a circumstance, thought, feeling, action or result.

To begin, much awareness can be gained simply by differentiating thought from circumstance.

Circumstances are the facts in our lives and they are always neutral.  They are things that could be proven in a court of law to be true and anyone at anytime would agree upon.  I talked about this concept more in depth in episode number “55” that aired October 2nd titled “Understanding this concept changed my life” so if you want to gain a deeper understanding of this idea I suggest you give that one a listen, it’s only 16 minutes long.  I’ll be sure to link to this in the show notes, as well.

So in the C line you would write whatever factual circumstance you believe to be the cause of your problem.  It could be the words someone said to you, the weather, your eye color, your weight. For example, let’s say your husband forgot to get you a gift for your birthday.  In the C line you would write “No gift received from husband on my birthday”

Moving down to the “T” line, which stands for thought. Thoughts are the sentences in our mind, what we think about the circumstance, and this is what determines our experience of a circumstance, whether it is positive or negative. So on this T line, write whatever your thought about the circumstance is.  So in the previous example of your husband not giving you a gift on your birthday, let’s just say the thought is, “he doesn’t care about me”. So you would write that on the T line.

Moving down to the F line.  F stands for feeling and feelings are just the vibrational experience we have when we think a thought.  And we can all agree that different emotions cause their own unique vibrational experience in our body.  I mean there’s a difference between sad and glad, excited and depressed, motivated and unmotivated.  It’s low vibe vs. high vibe.  So let’s just say that the thought, “he doesn’t care about me” produces a feeling of self pity.  So you would write self pity in the F line.  Now the vibrations in our body then drive us to take certain actions or inactions which leads into our next line, the A line.

A stands for action and it is here where you will list all of the things you do or don’t do when you are feeling the emotion you wrote down in your F line.  So when you are feeling self-pity because you are thinking the thought “he doesn’t care about me” because he didn’t give you a gift on your birthday, what do you do?  Write down all of the things that you do or don’t do on this A line.  So in this example, maybe you give him the cold shoulder, maybe you think of all of the things your husband does or doesn’t do that proves this thought “he doesn’t care about me” to be true, like you keep score, like all of the times he didn’t say I love you, maybe you compare him to someone else’s husband or you compare him to this ideal version of the man you want him to be, you feel sorry for yourself, you decide you are going to stop doing thoughtful things for him, why should you, he doesn’t care about you, why should you care about him. Which leads me into the next line of the model which is your R line.

And R stands for result.  So what is the result of all of those actions or inactions?  Sticking with the example, your result is that you don’t care about your husband.  Do you see how your result is a direct reflection of the thought you had about him?  He doesn’t care about you, then the result is you don’t care about him.

So that was an example of an unintentional model.  And the unintentional model is your default mode.  Its what you do automatically.

So now, if you have time.  Decide the result you would like to create on purpose related to this circumstance.  So now we are building what we call the intentional model.

So you can actually start with the R line, the result line, and work your way up the model. And know that the C line will be the same, so for example the C (circumstance) is No gift received from husband on my birthday.

So decide what is the result that I want to create on purpose when my husband doesn’t give me a gift on my birthday.  Maybe the result you want to create is a deeper connection with your husband.  Well, you can think to yourself, what actions could I take to create that result.  You could have an open communication with him, not blaming him, not calling names, just explain exactly how you feel. You could give him the benefit of the doubt. You could get curious and ask him why he didn’t get you a gift on your birthday.  The answer could be that he did, it just hasn’t come in the mail yet.  Maybe he didn’t know what to get you.  Maybe his mind has been so consumed with stresses and deadlines he’s had at work that it completely slipped his mind, you never know until you ask.  

And by opening up lines of communication and being honest about how it makes you feel and what you are making it mean when you don’t get a gift from him, it creates more intimacy and creates that result you want of a deeper connection, as long as it’s done thoughtfully, and intentionally and its not emotionally charged.  So maybe in order to ensure that type of environment you spend some time before having the conversation cleaning up your thinking and preparing yourself to have a calm, mature conversation.  And doing this thought work helps with this.

So then moving up this intentional model you would say to yourself, now how would i have to feel in order to take these actions.  Maybe the answer is curious.  Curious enough to wonder what else could be true besides the conclusion you jumped to that he doesn’t care about you.

Then you would move up to the thought line and you would ask yourself what would I have to believe in order to feel curious.  The thought could be as simple as it is possible that he has a very good reason for not buying me a birthday gift.  So then by doing this exercise, you see how your experience of the circumstance changed when you changed your thought about it.

 

Using these two models helps you notice your default reactions and create new, intentional responses for results that align with the life you want. Try this as a daily or weekly practice to see how shifting your thinking can change your experience.

 

Alright, so let’s wrap this up by recapping how to recognize if you’re addicted to stress hormones and the steps you can take to break free.

 

Stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine are meant to help us in short, high-stress situations, but when we’re constantly flooded with these chemicals, our health suffers. When you’re addicted to these stress hormones, you might feel constantly on edge, unable to relax, seek out chaotic situations, struggle with sleep, or experience frequent health issues. If you resonated with any of these signs, remember, it’s common and there are ways to reset.

 

The first step to breaking free is becoming aware of your thoughts and noticing patterns that feed your stress. Recognizing how powerful your thoughts are in creating and sustaining your stress is key. Begin a simple awareness practice—start by taking a few minutes daily to reflect on why you reacted a certain way or notice what triggers stress responses in you. This can gradually help you to choose healthier thought patterns and reduce your dependency on stress hormones.

 

So, how’d you do? Are you addicted to stress hormones? I’d love to know how many of us are in this together! Head over to the show notes for my Processing Emotions Guide to get started, and tag me @tanyavalentinecoaching on social with a “yes” or “no” to let me know if you found yourself in these patterns. Let’s see how many of us are ready to shift from stress-driven to calm and centered!  All right, that’s it for today’s show!  Thank you all so much for tuning in!  I appreciate each and everyone of you!  I can’t wait to hear how many of you try this exercise out and how it transforms your life like it has mine.  And remember, it doesn’t have to be done perfectly.  It’s all about progress, learning from our setbacks, and trying to do better every day.  You’ve got this!  I’ll talk to you in 2 weeks! Bye!