How to deal with stress during COVID-19

Just because you cannot work, or not work as much as before, and you are stuck at home, does not mean that you should completely turn your routines around, sleep in, stay up all night watching Netflix series, etc.

It is important to keep some sort of normalcy, regular schedule and don't deviate too much from your regular schedule.

I continue my morning routines to keep myself sane and keep as much as possible normal during these extraordinary times.

Many successful people have a strong morning routine they go through every day. It has been found multiple times that highly successful people have several traits in common - having a morning routine is one of them.

I believe in the saying "win the morning, win the day".

My morning routine, albeit a bit extreme for most, looks like this:

Wake up between 05:00 - 06:00
Hydrate (drink water)
Take a 3 min ice-cold shower
Meditate for 10-20 minutes
Journal
Wake up kids
Exercise (gym or walking in the forest or biking)
Work
Eat breakfast after 10:00

Hal Elrod's book Magical Morning is an amazing book on the topic of morning routines I recommend wholeheartedly to everyone! You can find it on Amazon here.

Stress will typically make your breath more shallow and rapid, our heartbeat rises and our muscles tense up. These are signals of stress, and stress will activate your fight or flight response. These physical signals tend to also influence your state of mind.

Box breathing is a technique to counter stress and calm down your body, align or balance yourself.

It is a very easy technique I use on a regular basis, not only now during the corona crises.

This is how it works:

Step 1: Breathe in slowly, but deep, for about 4-5 seconds.

Step 2: Hold your breath for 4-5 seconds.

Step 3: Breath out completely in 4-5 seconds.

Step 4: Hold/don't breathe in for another 4-5 seconds.

Then repeat as many times as needed. I typically do 3-5 times.

You will notice how your body calms down, your heartbeat slows down, your muscles start to relax.

When your body is calm, your mind tends to follow.

I mentioned a very good book on breathing. I have read it several times and I highly recommend it. It may serve as a crazy wake-up call for many. It certainly did for me.

Find it here on Amazon: The Oxygen Advantage by Patric McKeown

Meditation has been a central part of my morning routine for close to 2 years now.

Meditation is a subtle practice. Many try it and say "it does not work for me".

I was thinking the same, but I decided to stick to it, as I have heard so many say it really helps to calm them down, align them, and balance their mind.

So I stuck with it.

After a while, like 2-3 months, I did not do it for a few days.

To my surprise, I started feeling differently. More anxious, less balanced, more irritable, less focused and effective at work.

I asked myself, what is going on, why am I feeling like this.

It hit me; I just "quit" meditating a few days ago.

The next day, I was at it again, and instantly I started feeling better and more balanced, calmer and in a better mood.

The change in me due to meditation was very subtle, but it became super clear what it did for me once I took it away.

Normally I meditate around 10 min every morning, but during the current crises, I have increased that considerably. On some days I meditate up to 3 times per day, and up to 1h in total throughout the day.

I use the so-called "guided meditation" and I do so using an app called Headspace. It cost per April 2020 $69.99 for a year. You can get a 2-weeks free trial and test it out for yourself.

A tool I would not be without in my arsenal.

Another tip which is part of my morning routine.

Cold showers are, well... cold!

I do them in the morning, but there is nothing saying you must do them in the morning.

It takes great willpower to step into that ice-cold water. Doing a very difficult task first thing in the morning sets you up for the day mentally; you are ready to face any challenge head-on because it is probably not more uncomfortable than 3 minutes in ice-cold water...

But cold showers also has other health benefits - if you do them regularly, that is!

Reduced stress levels are one of the big ones (how convenient).

Imposing a small amount of stress on your body leads to a process called hardening. It basically means your nervous system gradually gets used to handling moderate levels of stress. Hardening helps you keep a cool head in times of increased stress.

Cold showers will also induce a higher state of alertness, as the cold stimulates you to take deeper breathes and in turn increase your CO2 levels throughout the body, helping you to concentrate.

Cold showers give you a more robust immune system. Scientific studies have found that taking cold showers increases the number of white blood cells in your body. A high level of white blood cells is typically a sign of a good immune response.

You would want to have a strong immune system you can facing this pandemic (and other deceases, bacteria and viruses as well during the year).

NB! Don't do cold showers if you are sick, or feel sick. You do not want to impose extra stress on the body and the immune system. We need our system to focus on getting well, and not use energy to respond to cold exposure.

Interested in learning more about the benefits of cold showers, cold exposure and various other technics you can learn to build your immune response?

I did not mention this on the podcast, but Wim Hof is an amazing guy in Amsterdam, Netherlands, that has offered his body to science to find out how he manages to harden his body and how he can control his immune response to fight out viruses, or to control his body so he can swim in Iceland during winter or run a marathon in the winter only wearing shorts.

You can find out about him and his courses here

Everyone should be active, do activities, sports, or something to keep them moving.

I know different people have different interests, are in various physical shape, etc. Some people exercise regularly, others do not.

No matter your fitness level, it is anyways important to move.

This is not a pep-talk about training, living a healthy lifestyle, exercise 10 times a week, eat vegan food or anything of that sort!

I do some exercise every day. I am far from a fit guy, but I go outside every day for a walk, at a bare minimum.

Before we all got locked down, I was starting to go to the gym 3-4 times per week, but still walking for a minimum of 30 min daily the other days.

Now that all the sports clubs have closed down, I go outside for a walk minimum of 60 min daily. I am lucky to live next to a forest and do "forest bathing" daily (yeah, that's a thing too, just read here). Basically, I just walk in the forest, but forest bathing sounds cool!

The point being, do not sit at home, eat, watch Netflix, and stay totally passive. If possible, and if you are allowed, go outside, get some fresh air, clear your head, enjoy the sun (if you have it), and just get your blood flowing.

If you are not even allowed outside, then go to youtube and find some home exercises. You will find a million and one videos on home training for any fitness level.

Just move!

TRE stands for Tension and Trauma Release Exercise.

What is it?

The very short of it is that it is a way to activate your built-in, but usually forgotten, bodily response to stress.

You basically activate the body's tremor system, or stress response system, to "shake off" stress.

I think it is easiest to just link to a few videos so you can see for yourself what it is.

Instructional video of how you can learn it too.

NB! WARNING!

If you know you have experienced some kind of trauma in your life, do not do this alone! Seek out a licensed TRE practitioner who is equipped to guide you through the trauma reactions that this exercise may, in fact, trigger in you!

Sleep is extremely important.

We all sleep!

But do we all sleep "properly"?

Sleep is super important and when we sleep, our body rests, it detoxes, and it recharges. It goes "back to zero" so to speak.

Another important function of sleep is resting the immune system, and giving it time to rebuild. We switch off many senses during sleep, so our system can focus on rebuilding the body and our immune system.

The easiest analogy I guess I can give is like you are the iPhone which gets charged during the night and is ready for a new day of texts, emails, Facebooking, and Instagramming.

During these trying times, I have a strong focus on sleep!

I actually meditate before sleep to calm down and empty my head and to try to go to bed not being stressed. I try to set myself up for a night of good night sleep.

I try to sleep upwards of 9 hours per night now, to give my body and immune system as much time to relax and rebuild as I possibly can.

I also mention that the body follows 1,5h sleep cycles, therefore you will feel better and have a better day if you sleep accordingly. I recommend sleeping 7,5 hours or 9 hours, but a bare minimum of 6.

I am no doctor and this is not professional advice. You can read more about sleep cycles at Psychology Today (link) if it interests you.

I follow the body's circadian rhythm and advise you to do the same - in short, follow the sun. Sleep when it is dark, be awake when it is light. Easy!

This reverts well back to what I said in point 1 about keeping your routines despite being on lockdown or working from home.

Another important thing to be mindful of, and a good way to prepare your head and body for sleep, is to quit all TV, computers, iPad's, phones, etc 2 hours before going to sleep.

I personally also switch off the wifi and put my phone on flight mode, and try to have a few signals disturbing my brain and head.

The devil here is the blue light and how it hinders your brain producing melatonin, the body's sleep hormone. It takes your brain about 2 hours after the last ray of blue light to start producing melatonin, and you want that good stuff as fast as possible flowing in your veins.

How to deal with stress (ep. 2)

Tip no. 1 - Morning routine

Tip no. 2 - Box breathing

Tip no. 3 - Meditation

Tip no. 4 - Cold showers

Tip no 5 - Activity / training

Tip no. 6 - TRE

Tip no. 7 - Sleep

Bonus tip: Do something new, something you postponed for a long time.