Sarah's Health Notes: Calm your cortisol and carry on to Christmas!
However much you love everything to do with Christmas – and we absolutely do – it’s almost always a rush-y, stress-y time. The lead-up seems to gather speed like a bullet train. You know what it’s like: remembering presents is one thing but then there’s wrapping paper, ribbon and cards – and who’s had the Sellotape?!, the tree, the table, crackers, food for a week, and who will get on with whom – and the relatives who absolutely shouldn’t sit together, particularly after the mulled wine. And that’s on top of the stress that pervades our day-to-day living.
So it’s not surprising that cortisol, the main hormone that should be regulating your body’s response to stress, can spike wildly. And that can trigger immediate symptoms from pounding heart to headaches, upset cycles, sleep disruption and irritability. It’s not a comfortable feeling and it’s not constructive.
All that cortisol whizzing around out of control also has an effect on the skin. So we asked Annee de Mamiel, skin health and wellbeing expert, and founder of the de Mamiel collection of handmade natural formulas, for her tips on simple things we can do to keep calm and carry on…
Holistic therapist Annee de Mamiel, who we’ve long revered
Here are Annee’s tips:
• For instant first aid, breathe. The breath is the only conscious way to slow everything down and the key to reducing cortisol overproduction. And you can do it whatever madness is going on around you. Just stop, take a long slow breath in to a count of six and then exhale to the same count; this balances the nervous system.
• Use your sense of smell to soothe an overactive brain. the smell of orange has been clinically shown to help anxiety. Roll an orange in your hands to warm it and release the oils, then breathe in… We also love de Mamiel Altitude Oil/£35 for 10ml, which is both calming and invigorating; brilliant if you have a cold by the way and if you’re travelling.
• Keep the perfectionist at bay (whether that’s you or someone around you…). Make a conscious decision that you can’t do everything, so do the things you really enjoy.
• Make lists of what you really have to do: then tick off items as you do them (we love doing that!). Prep as much as you can in advance.
• Create small pockets of space to unwind and exercise: wrap up and walk outside, even for five or ten minutes - in your garden, a local park or anywhere green. Notice a tree, a bird, the air against your face.
• Do eat well and don’t miss meals. Do keep hydrated, too; warm drinks if it’s cold and damp. And don’t skimp on sleep. And have a wonderful time!
