Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 48 - What You Should Know about Stress and Your Cortisol Level

February 26, 2020 Kitty Boitnott
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 48 - What You Should Know about Stress and Your Cortisol Level
Show Notes Transcript

Stress affects us in a variety of ways including mentally, physically, and emotionally. We sometimes feel the emotional and mental impact of stress, and we may be aware of some of the physical symptoms, but few people know about how stress impacts a variety of hormones.

One of the hormones that stress can wreak havoc on is cortisol. We need a healthy balance of cortisol in our system for quality sleep, to maintain a healthy blood pressure and sugar level and for many other reasons.

Cortisol out of balance can cause weight gain, interrupted sleep, cardiovascular issues, and many other physical maladies.

Listen to today's episode to learn more and download the newsletter that Kitty wrote this week about cortisol levels and why you need to be aware of the importance of healthy levels.

Also download Kitty's ebook on stress entitled, Stressed, Stretched, and Just Plain Overwhelmed:  A Guide to Managing Your Stress and Developing a Greater Sense of Work-Life Balance. To download the ebook, click here:  http://teachersintransition.com/ebook.

To download the newsletter article entitled "Do You Need to Lower Your Cortisol Level?" click here:  http://bit.ly/corisollevel

Speaker 1:

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition."

Kitty Boitnott:

Welcome back to Episode 48 of" Teachers in Transition." My name is Kitty Boitnott, the owner of Boitnott Coaching and"Teachers in Transition." If you've watched this YouTube channel or listened to this podcast for any length of time now, you already know that I alternate topics each week, one week talking about career transition strategies and the next week, talking about stress management or stress relief strategies. And the reason for that is that I have some level of expertise and training in both of those areas and I work in those areas. In the career transition space. I am a trained and experienced heart-centered career transition and job search coach. I specialize in working with teachers who are burnt out and ready to make a career change. They've just reached the point of no-no, not wanting to return to their classroom duties and find something new to do. So I work in that space. I'm also a certified stress management, life strategies, holistic life, and sleep science coach. And because I have that training and understanding of how stress impacts our bodies, our minds, and our spirits, I like to talk about how we can manage more effectively and more proactively the stress in our, which is ever present and as not going to go away. So if you can't make the stress go away, the thing to do is to learn how to manage it. And for each one of us that is um, something different probably, uh, there are some managed stress management techniques that definitely work better than others. And um, I want to share with you some of the best practices that I have an understanding of. So this week I wrote an article for my newsletter and if you'd like to sign up for the newsletter, you can let me know or go to TeachersinTransition.com and find a way to sign up there. Uh, this week the article that I wrote for my subscribers was all about our corti-, cortisol levels and how an elevated cortisol level can negatively impact your wellbeing and your overall physical health. And the sneaky part about cortisol is that we don't, we don't always know when it's elevated. And the fact of the matter is if you're stressed, it is probably elevated. So one of the things you need to do is to pinpoint the source of your stress. And you need to understand where the stress is coming from. Is it a stress or that you have any control over? You know, some things we just have to let go of. We, we don't have any control. We have to just trust that it'll all work out okay and try not to fret over it too much or to be too engaged with it because we have no control over it. I mean there are lots of things in life in today's world that we just have no control over. We can do the best we can do and then we have to let it go. That's easier said than done. And I know. And then there are those things that we do have control over that sometimes we have let go of, even though we should be trying to control it. And you have to be able to determine the difference between those things that you do have control over and those things that you do not control. With. All of that said, whether you are aware or not, whether you're controlling or making proactive attempt to control your stress, your body will be engaged or your mind, your body, your spirit will be engaged in ways that you may or may not even be aware of. And one of the ways that you are probably not aware of is the how your cortisol level. In fact, how all of your hormones are impacted by stress. We are, we are driven in large part in our physical experiences by our hormones. That's true from the time we were born through puberty, through for women, the menopausal years that so many of us have gotten through or have taken steps to try to manage to the, to the best degree that we can. Um, but managing our hormones and understanding the impact that our hormones have on us is critical to having a sense of wellbeing and managing our stress. In my stress workshop, I talk not just about cortisol but about epinephrin and nor, nor FNF is nor I forgotten the name of it. It starts with an N, O R norepinephrine. I think a dopamine for sure. Endorphins, uh, positively impact our sense of wellbeing. And of course then there's cortisol. So I want to talk a little bit about cortisol today. And one of the physical signs that your cortisol levels are out of whack is if you suddenly notice over the course of a few weeks or just you know, maybe a month or two, that suddenly you're putting on weight that you can't account for by having eaten more. I mean, you, you may be aware of your eating patterns, you may be watching your weight because you want to try to stay at a healthy weight and suddenly annex it seemingly inexplicably, you start to put on weight, especially around your middle section in your, your midriff. And it could well be that that added weight, that padding around your mids midsection is the result of elevated cortisol levels. Now when your cortisol is elevated, it also tends to affect your appetite. So you may be eating more, whether you're even aware of it or not. And then that shows up in your midsection. So what do you do? What do you do to control cortisol? I mean, how do you even attempt to manage your cortisol levels? Well, as luck would have it, you can order, you can go to a holistic wellness physician and have them test you or you can test yourself with a home kit and your, the recommendation of the home kit is that you, um, take saliva samples, spit into go test tube type thing several times a day, different times a day. And the test kit will recommend which times of day that you do this. And then you send the kid in after you've completed the saliva test and you'll receive your results and the results will actually show you what time of day your cortisol was elevated because it will show up in your saliva. Once you know the time of day that your cortisol level is elevated, then you can start identifying what's going on during that time of day. If it's in early in the morning, is your morning routine stressing you out? Are you getting up late and then having to rush to get ready for work? Are you having trouble getting the family organized and ready for their day? And you know, maybe maybe you want to take some steps to try to address that. Is the cortisol level up in the middle of the afternoon when you're engaged in work? So is your work causing the elevated cortisol level and as you identify what activities you're engaged in during the time when your levels are up higher than they should be, then you can start thinking about strategies for managing the stress that's going on during that time of day. Do you need to, do you need to get up earlier in the morning to manage the family getting ready for the day so that you're not as stressed? Or do you need to manage whatever's going on at work or proactively so that you're not so stressed? Whatever it is for you, there are things that you can do to help better manage your stress level. And we always go back to those seven strategies that are included in my ebook on stress and I'll include the link for that as well on the show notes. Staying hydrated can help. Eating for nutrition as opposed to eating comfort foods that are simply high in sugar and, and carbs and salt. Eating, um, healthier leafy vegetables, uh, for stress management. Getting the sleep that you need. Getting some exercise each day. Uh, doing the thing, the kinds of activities that are related to your self care, but also help you to manage your stress more proactively. These are things that you can do that will naturally help you to lower your cortisol level, which is what you need to do if you want to be able to lose the weight that gained you've gained in your midsection and to feel more at ease in your day to day life. So do pay attention to how you feel at different times of the day. You don't ha you don't have to invest and a cortisol kit if you don't want to. That's, that's just a, that's a possibility for you if you are interested in that kind of, um, clinical approach. The main thing is to be aware that our hormones are affected. Each of our hormones, regardless of, you know, where we are in our lives, what age we are, what stage of life we happen to be in our hormones, continue to impact us and to help us to be more productive during the day, to be more alert, to be more at ease in our lives and our bodies and our minds. And if we're not taking care of ourselves and our hormones are all out of whack, we won't feel our best. We won't be able to be as productive as we would like to be. We'll be scattered and absent minded, uh, unable to focus in part because our hormones are out of sorts and are not functioning at the peak level that they need to be. One main thing that you can do to help your hormones to stay in balance is to get the sleep that you need because your brain will actually replenish your body of the hormones that are depleted in a 24 hour cycle of those hormones like epinephrin and dopamine and the endorphins that you need in order to feel good about yourself. So be sure you're getting the sleep that you need. And if you need to adjust your sleep pattern so that you go to bed earlier, so that when you do need to wake up earlier to get the family off for their day, you'll feel more rested. You'll, you won't feel as, um, uh, stretched and stressed and overwhelmed with what needs to be done in the morning to get everybody else off for their day. So, take care of yourself, manage your stress to the extent that you are able to be aware of your stress, to the extent that you're able and if testing your cortisol level is something that is of interest to you, check it out. I'm sure you can find a kit somewhere online or locate a local holistic wellness physician who you can talk to, not only about your cortisol levels, but other hormones that may be impacting your overall health. So that's it for today. I hope that will have been helpful for you. I hope you have a great week. I'll be back next week. For now. This is Kitty Boitnott of"Teachers in Transition." Please leave a review, send me a note with a question or comment. I'd love to hear from you and, uh, hope that you are getting something of value from this podcast or the YouTube channel, whichever, when you may be watching or listening to have a great week.

Speaker 1:

So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. Hi, I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."