EPISODE 97: Best 3 Exercises for Crushing Stress & Boosting Energy

Episode 97: Andrea Marcellus

Andrea Marcellus, the founder of ANDLife and health coach to celebs, has seen this herself. And so, she now specializes in practical well-being and fitness strategies for people with time-challenged and intensity-challenged lifestyles.

Andrea zeroes in on what happens in the body when we encounter stress triggers. We have become so de-conditioned to being uncomfortable. We’ve played victims to our Default Mode Network. As I discussed at length in my book Thrive State, this DMN is designed to respond and shift to survival mode. This makes our life reactionary rather than being in the driver’s seat.

But we have the power of choice to shift our biology. We have the power to break that autopilot and cycle. And some techniques can be very simple!

We gotta get out of that and train positive brain sensors until the default operates on safety and not scarcity. Crush stress and boost your energy with simple but cycle-breaking techniques with Andrea Marcellus. Only here at the Thrive State Podcast!

Get to know more about Andrea’s work at andlife.com

Show notes

Combating stress in the corporate world

• It starts with understanding what’s happening in you: Your stress level and ability to handle circumstances you didn’t choose determine what your day is going to be like. Chronic stress eats you up at the cellular level.
• Stress is triggered by either scarcity or threat. Today, scarcity and threat come in different faces—not-enoughness of time, money, energy or knowledge.
• We’re so de-conditioned to be uncomfortable. But we can correct this with brain training steps. Incorporating brain training and stress management strategies with easy and fast strategies for nutrition and exercise can get people more consistent and leveling up way better physically and mentally at the same time.

Simple Brain Training Techniques

1. Balance + Breath: This technique takes an amount of focus and energy that shut off the amygdala (part of the brain that was confronting the stress). It brings your body back to a more relaxed state, bringing your nervous system a notch down and lets your breath and lungs rescue you.

   How to do it: Keep your eyes closed for some time and think of that thing/situation that makes you feel annoyed. Let it brew for a second. Feel that little sensations of stress.

   Then stand up, hold on to a chair (stand on your own), and try to balance when you take one leg and hold your heel up and touch your toe back down while breathing for four counts. Shift to the other foot.

   Initially, when you feel stress, do not resist. Be there with it first. Focusing on balance and breath allows a synergistic movement and activates the vagus nerve.

2. Modified Chair Pose

   Isometric contractions build pure strength but do not create hypertrophy or muscle shape. But this exercise can give you a burst of energy and train your brain to handle stress better.

   How to do it: Go into a chair pose (in yoga), like you’re about to sit to your chair but keep standing 5-6 inches away from the chair, legs apart and arms raised along the side of your ears with palms facing each other.

   Your brain cannot differentiate physical, emotional or circumstantial stress. It’s just strain. And it thinks that it needs to protect you. But because you breathed and tried to went through it, you are essentially telling your amygdala you got it. You gave your body a chance to be uncomfortable and not respond – not overrespond to stress. You just practiced resilience.

3. Practice a ritual

   A ritual is a sacred time. Generally, it is a practice when you’re really paying attention to what you do in that moment.

   What to do: It can be a very simple thing. Rituals are things we repeat mindfully over and over. This can be things that you always do anyway.

   It’s the attention that you bring to it that matters. Our amygdala is lit up all day long by news, other people’s stuff, emails, text messages. It trains you to focus on places that really count. It tells your brain that you don’t need any protection and starts to drop that guard down, helping you to start the day from a calm place.

Q&A

• On workout apps: Adrea created AndLife, being a huge believer of health and technology. But they just have to be strategized workouts; it has to be an everyday thing.
• On sleep quality: You have to shut down before going to sleep. Move away from blue light. But if you do, learn something, like a TedTalk video or article. When you hold your phone, you have to have an endpoint so you can feel completion. If something feels less complete, it’s hard for our brain to shut down. This will signal your brain that when you’re done, you can now rest. Have a routine.

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