OK — confession time, I am not actually going on holiday — and we all know why — but I am taking a week away from teaching any Live classes from Monday to the following Saturday all inclusive.
I had already planned this week as a break, but I have to confess that last weekend I had thought to myself, “oh it will be ok, I will just continue to teach, I’m at home, I don’t have to go out … it will be fine”.
But then on Monday morning when I woke up feeling tired even after a good night’s sleep, I recognised that I probably needed to give my mind and my body a bit of a break.
The thing is that I realise I have been running at high speed since February, and my cortisol levels have been sky rocketing in that time. Cortisol is a stress hormone released by the adrenal glands, it is important to help the body deal with stressful situations, and the brain triggers its release in response to many different kinds of stress.
While this is the function of this hormone, if levels stay too high for too long it can harm more than it helps. Cortisol levels start to rise approximately 2-3 hours after sleep onset and can continue to rise into the early waking hours. Cortisol can increase light sleep and frequent waking …. so when I say ‘after a good night’s sleep’ what I mean is I haven’t woken up quite so frequently as I have been doing. This lack of sleep has been building up, so fatigue has been building up and I
know that I need to take a step back and get some proper rest and relaxation …. if I can.
I think we have all been affected by an increase in cortisol levels during COVID, if you think about what has happened. The total shut down and isolation rules and regulations that were enforced, quite rightly so, and suddenly everything had to change. A change of routine and lifestyle. Not being able to go out at all for some people, not seeing friends, family, no cuddles from grandchildren, or children if they were living away from home. The lack of contact with others, being isolated
from work, parents becoming teachers, being furloughed, having any kind of other illness during lock down, and sadly some people losing family members and not being able to mourn the loss.
I am sure that every single one of us can name other things that have been part of the last few months of lockdown that have caused us stress in some way, and we have to deal with it somehow — so cortisol kicks in. I know that many of you haven’t been sleeping well and feeling tired on a daily basis even though we feel we probably aren’t doing as much as before, so it is probably the cortisol that is the culprit, but the real culprit is the stress that we are all feeling.
So what is the answer, because we have to be able to take care of ourselves holistically in order for balance in our wellbeing? Finding ways of relaxing and switching off are key to controlling cortisol levels. Doing the things that we love, whether it be gardening, writing, playing musical instruments, singing, cooking, baking … things that need focus and concentration but not related to any potential stress triggers. Use these different times to discover what does this for you and invest
in those activities, and look forward to more restful sleeps.
So I will be having a week in the garden, weather permitting, sorting out the spare room and making it a bedroom again rather than a storage room, writing and reading and generally turning my cortisol levels down a little.
Have a week of staying safe, moving frequently, and good sleeps.
Jane xxxx
