Let’s clear something up right now: your hormones aren’t the enemy. But if you’ve been told that slapping on some hormone therapy (HRT) or hopping on the latest GLP-1 drug will “fix everything,” I’ve got news for you…

Hormones are a web, not a magic wand.

Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone—they get the spotlight. But behind the scenes? Insulin, cortisol, and your entire metabolic orchestra are pulling the strings. If your foundation isn’t solid, no hormone protocol will “work” the way you want it to.

The Real Hormone Hierarchy

Before you drop money on labs, prescriptions, or programs promising to balance your hormones in 30 days, let’s talk about what actually matters:

1. Start with Metabolic Health

Blood sugar swings, insulin resistance, and poor sleep are throwing your entire system off. Get those in check first. You can’t out-supplement a stressed-out system.

2. HRT Is a Tool, Not a Fix-All

If your stress is sky-high and your body’s inflamed, layering in HRT might not help—and can sometimes make things worse. HRT works best when your lifestyle supports it.

3. Stress and Sleep Are Not Optional

That 2 PM crash? That wired-but-tired feeling? That’s your body yelling, “Please stop running on caffeine and cortisol!” Your hormones need rhythm, not chaos.

4. Protein Quality over Protein Quantity

You can’t protein-bar your way to hormone health. Real food—eggs, beef, chicken—should be the foundation. Supplements? They’re backup dancers, not the main act.

5. Change It Up

That keto thing that worked for 3 months but crashed by month six? Not your imagination. Your body thrives on variation. Adjust your nutrition to your cycle, your season, and your life.

The Bottom Line

Hormones aren’t villains. They’re messengers. And if your body feels like it’s “fighting” you, it’s probably trying to tell you something.

There’s no quick fix. But there is a strategy.

Start with the foundation. Address sleep, stress, blood sugar, inflammation, and real food first. THEN layer in tools like HRT or supplements—with guidance, not Google.

Because when you understand your body’s rules, you stop playing someone else’s game.

Want help figuring out where to start?

Leave a comment below or email the word “RESET.” I’ll send you a quick guide to help you assess where your foundation might be leaking.

You’ve got this. Your hormones are not out to get you.

They just want a little love and leadership.

Links 

http://www.fitmomlife.com

Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic

Free Resources: https://www.fitgirlmagic.com/freeresources_podcast

Website:  http://www.kimbarnesjefferson.com 

FREE Guilt Free Alcohol Guide https://www.fitgirlmagic.com/alcohol_evergreen_2025podcast

The post Inflammation, Hormones, and Perimenopause Truths appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

I’m talking: Mental load madness (when you are the magic fairy of the house making sure everything gets done) Constant low-key alert mode (hi, cortisol ) Sleep sabotage That glass of wine that’s secretly out here killing your metabolism Saying “yes” when you meant “hell no” Wearing the ‘strong one’ crown… and slowly cracking under it Perfectionism pretending to be “high standards” And don’t worry—I’m not just here to point out the poop on the carpet. You’ll walk away with real-world, realistic-as-hell tools to:

Ask for help without micromanaging (yes, really) Set boundaries like a boss (no long-winded excuses required) Reclaim downtime (no, Netflix doesn’t count)  Get a good night sleep and ditch sneaky stress triggers like a pro Because here’s the real deal: Progress doesn’t start with hustle. It starts with honesty. And no, you don’t need to quit your job and move to an ashram. You just need to get real about what’s quietly draining you… and start creating space for the version of you who’s not held together by duct tape and caffeine.

Share this episode with a friend who may be rocking burnout like it’s her favorite Louis Vuitton purse  —and let’s break up with “this is just how it is” together.

Ready to turn the stress dial down and the magic up? Hit play. Let’s do this. Drop a screenshot in your stories and tag me @kimjeffersoncoach to let me know what hidden stressor hit you like a rogue kettlebell.

5 Ways To Crack The Belly Fat Code Website:  

The post Sneaky Stressors Keeping On The Belly Fat appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

JPB is a stress resilience coach on a mission to change the way we understand and approach mental health by providing practical approaches to understanding and managing stress. Struggling with stress-related illness most of her life she set out to address a real gap in accessible, alternative mind care and wellness education. Translation: she teaches practical ways to manage stress so you can get out of your own way, stress less, and live more!!

What got you on this topic of talking about stress as a coach?
In my 20s I had multiple doctors’ visits for things and they would just say it was from stress, and I should stress less.  I left angry wondering how the hell could I do that?

Doctor’s telling women to stress less isn’t helpful because seriously.. What does that even look like??

At the time, Jessica was working 2 jobs going to school, her life was stressful.  It was not a possibility for her, and she assumed that this was how it would be.

Fast forward, she had an interest in psychology and this was where she started with human behavior, why we do what we do, why we think things are okay, and what makes us tick.

The underlying mechanisms of why we do things and human behavior were so interesting was so interesting to her.

So, I started looking through scientific articles that I had access to at work. What is stress?  What is the stress cycle? What is this in the body? Really getting into the physiology of it and it clicked and made sense to me. What I really wanted was to share this information with people who could use it instead of being in a lab.  It’s useful information that everyone can use to help us navigate a little better in life. We are humans and stress is a part of that!

JCB wanted to be able to help people who heard, “Oh it is just stress.” What they could do! Everything is stressful….  We’ve been taught that doctors know more than us, they write us a prescription and we are like ok thanks! We think we cannot question things or have autonomy over ourselves.  This power structure says the doctor knows more than you and has more power and doesn’t question it. They don’t know your body; they don’t know your life. They went to school to take an educated guess as to what is going on with you.  You are your own experience. We are not the same as other patients. We DO have autonomy. Wellness takes our own participation. How we live, how we feed ourselves, our environment and our experiences create our health and stress levels.

First thing, we need to know a little bit more about how we work and understand the basics. Your nervous system controls everything, if it doesn’t feel safe it shuts down a lot of other systems. Flight or fight.  This affects the brain, digestion, breath, menstrual cycle, muscles, and every other system of our body is dependent on this.  When we look at what stress looks like, we have to open our perspective on that because it looks different for each person and isn’t one particular thing. And it can be throughout your body.

If I went to the doctor today and they said it was stress, I would say ok let’s check in with my breathing.  The breath is the link between your brain and body; it influences so much of the function of our other systems.  It can change the physiology and help to calm the mind, that’s why it’s so important.

The second thing would be the basics. After breathing check, the basics. Are you sleeping? – Lack of sleep is detrimental to brain function. Nutrition? – I am not talking about any specific diet for weight loss. Feed your body proteins, carbs and fats. Your brain is made of fats, runs on carbs, it makes proteins. You need all of those things. And eat your vegetables to support your nervous system.  For function, you are stressed out if your body and brain don’t get what it needs to work.

Movement? – Not one specific thing for weight loss, but our body functions better when we move. Our brains grew when we started moving more. Movement is such an incredible stress reducer.
Time, silence, and self-compassion. – We don’t need more; we need to take things away!

We need to press pause. We are always going and going, and we don’t know how to just breathe and pause.  And so sometimes your body needs a break and that doesn’t mean you sit around on the couch and don’t do anything. And then you’re like, “Ooh, I’m such a loser.” Go for a walk, it doesn’t have to be a power walk. Take some time to just be where your feet are. You are still moving.

For many of us who are high achievers, we are killing ourselves and holding ourselves accountable to have this unknown judge in our mind that we are never going to meet the expectations that the invisible judge sets on us.  We have these strong internal critics, especially women. We try to do everything by ourselves.  We forget we have a community for support, and we think if we don’t do it all alone there is something wrong with us.  We need to smash that because that perpetuates your stress.  We have to take care of ourselves and saying I need help, or I can’t do this right now comes back to that expectation that we are supposed to do everything all the time.

Routine.
Busy…. Is that what it looks like to so many of us? So much comparison, a lot of our stress comes from social comparison. They can do all this, etc.  You don’t have the same life which means you won’t have the same experiences and the same time, energy or focus to do that.  Are these goals even yours or are they borrowed? Or are you doing it because you THINK you should? We each have this current time to live.  We are in this moment, life is short, so make it yours.

When you are trying to keep busy and compare with all these things you think you should be doing, ask yourself if this is what you really want. Is this for me?  What are you doing in your day? Is there something you can say NO to? Can you squeeze the grocery shopping in between this or that, can someone else, do it?

Our nervous system is always seeking safety. Being able to predict what is going to happen in a routine is part of that and it’s a huge lower to our stress.  But what I see happening with routines is they get really rigid, and I have to do this exactly the same.  You are not a robot.  Things can look different on the day based on how I am feeling, what I am needing, and how much energy I have to focus on this one day and it has to be flexible.

So many people get caught up in THESE ARE THE RULES and if it doesn’t look like this, I can’t do it. You need to do it bare bones.  Who makes those rules?  Your routine has to stay flexible or it’s never going to be sustainable.  Consistency is doing something over time that looks similar, it’s not doing the SAME thing every day. Who makes those rules?

You can change those rules. You can change your mind at any moment to make this better.  If you just have 2 or 3 minutes, it is enough time to make a difference. Use the time you have.  Use WHAT you have!

Most people when they think of routine, it’s rinse and repeat VS I do this for 30 minutes, but I only have 5 minutes, so I will do it for 5 minutes and BE OKAY with doing it for 5 minutes.  We expect ourselves to do the same thing over and over again day in and day out in the same pattern and rhythm. And for many people, this is stressful if they can’t do it.  But we have LIFE! Some days don’t work. You have to roll with it.  We can’t try and control every little piece of everything.

We are of nature, and we are constantly changing.  So, thinking we are constant every day is just not sustainable.  It’s not realistic. Keep in mind that we are constantly changing. The energy you have, the time you have, life happens. We have to be able to work with it and not against it.  We are trying to fight against things we wish were a different way or control everything.  The only things we can control are the things that we do. Our effort, how we choose to show up, how we choose to look at something.  That takes training and patience and self-compassion.

For those who are listening to those who say they can’t keep up with this pace or don’t want to keep up with it, Jessica can help you break free of just stop being stressed.  It’s so important to talk about these things.  There’s this idea that if we can’t handle this there is something wrong with me and that is not the case.  If we talk about this, we are opening up the idea for you guys that you are not alone this is not a “you” issue!  This is something we all struggle with.  Then we can start to address it and normalize different things instead of not sleeping etc.  Normalize sleeping, normalize resting, and take care of yourself first so you have the capacity to care for others! If you have 2 minutes to breathe and take care of yourself, do it.  Show up for yourself today and normalize that!

Taking care of yourself and showing up for yourself doesn’t always mean you’re adding something. Maybe it is just subtracting something from the list!

Your brain, body, and nervous system have patterns. And what is familiar feels safe, because it’s predictable, because it’s what it knows how to do. That doesn’t mean it’s what’s the best thing for you. It just means what you’ve been doing. And so, if the pattern that you build is to be stressed out, to be overworking yourself and saying yes to everything, start by saying no. And taking rest is going to feel scary. It’s going to feel unsafe for your nervous system. That doesn’t mean that it’s actually dangerous. It means that it’s new. And what’s new is unpredictable. And so I think that that is a huge part of all of this!.

My goal after every podcast is for you to have one little nugget and take action from that one little nugget. What was it for you?

What is one thing that makes you feel magical?
Nature. Being out in nature is a little piece of magic for me.

LINKS

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach

Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/

Website:
https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/

Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661

Perform Amino Acid Supplement:
https://aminoco.com/pages/FGM?rfsn=6974334.3325c5b

JPB Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jpb.brainbodyresilience/
JPB Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-patching-bunch-724489187/

Learn more about Jessica (JPB): http://www.brain-bodyresilience.com/quick-links — Brain-Body Resilience

The post How To Successfully Deal With Stress appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

Dominiece is the founder of Move And Still™, & Nourish Wellness Collective™, a hybrid wellness community for women entrepreneurs and working professionals.

How did you begin on this journey to working in the Wellness industry?
We typically teach what we need in life. I never imagined myself being in the wellness space because my background is in Grant Writing and Event Planning.  But 3 and a half years ago I had a newborn baby and a 3-year-old.  I was so stressed out after having walked away from a job for extended maternity leave, then COVID hit and it just all hit me like a ton of bricks.  I was stressed at the moment, but I have lived my life as being stressed and always worrying about things.

I was overweight most of my life and wore that stress IN & ON my body.  Once I started focusing on myself, which looked like really nurturing and nourishing my mind, body, and spirit every day, the weight started to fall off easier and much easier than all the other times in the past when I had just focused on crash diets and nutrition. I had this “aha moment”, I had always focused on just the physical, and it was really when I focused on nourishing all the parts of myself and healing those parts is when I saw a change.

When I focused on letting go of things that I was holding on to energetically and physically the weight came off and stayed off. This journey made me really passionate about sharing that with other people, so that is when I became a nutrition and wellness coach!

Dominiece saw this pattern in the women that she was working with. They were always stressed out, overwhelmed, busy career women who had lives so stressed out!!

Many clients come looking for a meal plan, instead Dominiece started asking how can I better support my clients? You cannot focus on weight loss or a meal plan if the house (your body) is literally on fire right now.  A light bulb went off in the patterns she was seeing firsthand. With any of these things, disease, illness, overweight, violence, there is unaddressed stress in common with all of those things!

It’s time to learn as a society to manage our stress in a healthy way. You have to learn that you cannot control everything, you can only control ourselves.  You cannot STRESS over things that you CANNOT control. But you CAN control yourself and how you respond to things.  That mindset shift has been a game-changer for me.  I had to let go of what all of my body was holding on to.  I had to RELEASE IT. I had to let go of the baggage on my body.  I had to release what I was holding internally.

What I always tell people is if you can relate to any part of my story and you have had a hard time maintaining or losing weight, it’s not a magic diet pill that is going to change you.  You need to sit with yourself and figure out what are the emotions behind the eating. What is making me resort to this behavior? Get to the root of it.  Weight loss is a byproduct of you doing the healing work.  How do you get to his place?  You have to find the courage to try something different. Be curious!   What would happen if I did it this way?

Surrendering.
This is a big piece of that during that time I did make changes to my diet.  It wasn’t just meditation, I also cut out sugar, processed foods, etc from my diet. But the only reason I was able to stick to this was because I was meditating, and I was moving my body and I was able to release it!!  My body said finally!  Surrender and release.  So again, it’s so much more than just a nutrition plan or a diet, it is mind, body, and spirit because you have to get all of those parts on board together for lasting change to occur.

Start to ask questions as to why I believe that.
This is generational trauma for some of us.  The need and desire to always have to struggle, that things need to be hard.  Peel back the layers of the onions to the journey, where did I learn this with my behaviors and patterns and how I respond to stress?  Who taught me this?  Why am I still holding onto it?  Give yourself permission to put down what is no longer yours to carry.

Meditation.
Meditation gives you the power to make different choices.  It builds self-awareness within yourself.  It’s not about being perfect every time.  But it will give you more authority over your life.  When you become more self-aware, you can see things more clearly.  You can see how you respond the stress etc,

Breathwork. Breathwork helped me find quietness more so than meditation, do you find with some people it’s either or, or whatever your preference is?
Nothing is a one size fits all approach.  You have to give yourself permission to play around with things and see what works for them.  Play around with creating a soul-care toy box.  When you think about toys it’s adventurous and fun and if it doesn’t work for you get rid of them.  It’s not necessarily about fixing ourselves, tools fix things.  It’s about getting curious and having fun with it. Aka a toy box!!!

I love breathwork because you get the benefits of meditation, but you are also allowing yourself to release from the body.  It’s almost like getting a 2-for-1 deal. Breathwork is this beautiful healing modality that we have access to any time of the day.  The breath moves throughout the body and is able to heal on a really deep level.

●      Helps release stress
●      Helps to release past trauma
●      Allows for mental clarity
●      Tapping into your intuition
●      Helps quiet the mind

And so on and so forth, there are so many benefits!! There are just so many benefits because it’s the act of conscious breathing.

There are 2 types of breathwork, integrated which is 8 min or fewer sessions. And meditative which is longer and deeper and helps to tap into intuition.  We recommend laying down during this time.  Over time a consistent breathwork practice helps you to reset your breathing patterns.  Taking deep breaths begins to allow us to shit off that stress response that our bodies are constantly in and turns on rest, digestion, and restore which activates the Parasympathetic Nervous System.

Our body is always communicating with us, and we have to stop and listen to it.  We have to let our bodies know that it is safe. And when we respond to stress, all of these hormones, cortisol, etc. are released into our bloodstream from our nervous system. And when this happens it shuts down other parts of our body during this response. Too much of this happening is the catalyst for disease and illness.

“The body holds the truth” is what I like to say.  And our bodies are literally walking libraries of all of our experiences. And what I tell people when it comes to stress is that you might be dealing with stress today, you might be dealing with stress from last week, you might be still holding stress in your body from last month, you might be holding stress in your body from two years ago when the pandemic hit,  and you might be holding stress in your body from 10 years ago!  But unless you signal to your body that it is safe to release, your body’s holding on to all of that stress and doesn’t know what to do with it.

I always encourage people that healing is a multi-pronged process.  Let’s approach it from the mind and let’s talk through it and understand it. Sometimes talking through and understanding is important, so we need to have those conversations. But let’s always breathe and do yoga. Go for a walk. It doesn’t have to be hard.   Let it be easy, it doesn’t have to be hard. But you do have to release the energy.

Building self-awareness.
You have to start to notice that your body is communicating with you. So many people are stressed every day and don’t even notice the indicators of stress. People think they are cured, but they are never cured. It’s an ongoing process of working on things. An ongoing road trips.  Most of us think that once something happens it’s in our rearview mirror, but it will pop up. And it will happen over and over again until you slay that dragon.

It may take longer for some to let go of things that have happened. It may take a couple of days or a couple of months to feel relief. But if you have been holding onto something for a while, it can also take longer. Having grace and compassion for yourself is so important in the healing and releasing process. Also understand that if you have been dealing with ongoing stress and trauma for years, your nervous system is not resetting overnight. It is going to take some time for you to feel different.  Our bodies will heal themselves, but it does take time. Give your body grace, give it time to reset.

This is a journey, but this doesn’t have to be long and hard to be impactful for you.  But you need to start going inward and tuning into what is going on in your body and building that self-awareness.  We will always be working on this, it’s not cured with 2 pills. But we have the power within us to do this and to make a change, to feel less stressed and more at ease with life. WE CAN DO THIS!  One of my favorite poems is Our Deepest Fear, and it says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond belief.”

All right, matchmakers!  Make sure you listen and check out Dominiece from the links below.  Don’t forget to take a nice deep breath and do me a favor, follow her because she gives some great, nice, easy, practical advice because we all need to stop being stressed balls. Stress is not just how life is!!

What is one thing that makes you feel magical?
In this moment, owning the power that I have been so afraid to own for such a long time. I have run away from being seen because of my own traumas being heard, and I have sat on goals that have been on my heart for a long time because I’ve been afraid to be seen and heard by the world and literally just afraid of my own power. And so what makes me feel magical at this moment, is that I am finally at a space in my life where I’m open to the magic, the power that I’m holding.

And so, I’m writing a book right now and I am almost finished. I’m working through the self-publishing and printing process. But I’m writing a book, I’m launching a membership for women who are focused on really wanting to nourish themselves more in this somatic and whole way. And I’m doing all of these things that are big and scary, and it feels amazing and magical.

LINKS

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach

Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/

Website:
https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/

Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661

Cracking The Belly Fat Code:
https://kimbarnesjefferson.lpages.co/bfcmarch_this2023/

Dominiece Website:
https://movexstill.com/

Stress-Free Living; Dominiece Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/dominiecerclifton/?hl=en

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominiece-r-clifton-288b20b3/

The School Of Healing Podcast:
https://movexstill.com/healing-podcast

Our Deepest Fear Poem
https://youtu.be/2_fDhqRk_Ro

The post The Secrets To Practical Stress Management appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

This week’s Fit Girl Magic podcast guest, Susan Choi, is an expert in stress management and is giving you some tips on how to get started eliminating stress and hopefully help us to stop being a complete stress ball!

Seriously, why does it take people getting punched 50 times in the face to say huh, I need to make a change” Well, I am hoping this is your sign to make a change, friends!

Susan Choi is a High-Performance Stress Management Coach and she is the founder of the Stressproof Method‘, a program that helps stressed out and sensitive Leaders finally break free from emotional and mental limitations.

As women, I feel like we take on so much more and stress and it quickly starts to pile on. You think that you can take on so much and that you have to show up with a cape on our back and solve everything in one fell swope. Some people are wired to handle more stress than others, while some are wired to be a lot more sensitive to stress but with the capacity to handle so much.

On one hand, you’ve learned to handle so much more in our lives. But on the other hand, what you haven’t learned is where is that balance for us in terms of how much stress can you handle and how many results are you actually creating in your life’
Seriously, how much stress is caused by your own mind that creates no productivity’ When you are stressed out are you getting stuff done’

This is where people seem to think self-care will solve everything. But in reality, it’s not. One of the biggest stress relief myths out there is to do more self-care. Come on, how many massages does it actually take to feel better” Let’s keep if reallyAnd when Monday rolls around does all that stress comes right back. 12121′ It just goes to show that what we have been doing is putting a band aid over the symptoms and not getting to the root cause of the stress!

I am speaking from experience on this. All of the other things didn’t work for me. Until my coach wanted me to journal, and I was like PSSHHH I am certainly not a journaling girl! But that is why I needed it’. My coach asked me to just take 5 minutes a day to write down how I was feeling. Then I was to write down what these feelings make me believe. This exploded my world! Those 2 questions’. What am I feeling vs how do I push through…’ How about you’ Are you thinking about it or reacting’

When Susan asks people where their stress is coming from it’s like a trick question’
What she is really asking is what is going on inside your brain’ What part of your brain is freaking out and what thought do you have that is driving you crazy’ Everything out there is a mirror to what is going on in here! A projection about what we currently believe about ourselves and life!

Asking ourselves those questions is really important because we should be thinking about these things that trigger this automatic response of stress because it’s actually a little breadcrumb of where we should be looking within ourselves. So, if you are in the thick of it, how do we start asking ourselves better questions’! How do I ask myself the question, ‘Am I making this up in my head, or is it really happening in front of me”

Try this next time you are in a stressful situation. You want to ask the question, ‘Who is telling the story right now” Let’s say for example, I don’t have time to work out’
You take an action, or you have a response.
A response is a conscious awareness that I am choosing to say this and do this.
A reaction is the urge in us to hurry up and do something to relieve this tension we are feeling in our body.

Here is where it is huge to stop and pause. Lean in and determine What are you feeling right now’
Some people are not able to respond, and it can take minutes, because they literally do not know what they are feeling. It can take time to really realize what you are feeling when you stop to think about it.

It takes time, but with enough practice your train your mind and body to feel an emotion, what ends up happening is you are then able to recognize faster and quicker in every single moment in the future. This is actually worry, not stress. Let me check in with my brain and see what part of my brain is actually worrying.

Remember, you should not be afraid of your emotions. Believe it or not there is a part of you that wants to feel worried. You know that emotion you’ve become friends with that emotion and it feels comfortable and certain. AS you are doing this work, you begin to realize that worry is an unnecessary to feel that way. It’s ok to feel that!! Acknowledge the emotion, then release it. Let it go. If we are constantly in resistance to it, what happens with resistance’ It always comes back!!

One thing we run into a lot is this question. How do I work through major things when it comes to stress’ Job loss, family health, finances’

There is not that much of a difference because this is still unnecessary stress. How is telling yourself you have no money over and over again, actually helping you’ Ask yourself, is that really true’ It is more important that you focus on what needs to get done and how you’re going to get there and who you’re becoming versus constantly repeating the old thing you keep telling yourself in your mind. This will only prolong the energy of stuckness! Energy is lacking!

I want you to think about stress as give and take. Just like how you treat your bank account and relationships. You cannot continuously take take take and not give anything into it. You can drive the car as hard as you want, but you still have to give it an oil change and take care of it. Otherwise, the quality of how this vessel operates will not be how you want it to be ultimately. This vessel won’t last too long!

This work is not overnight’ A big part of getting to know that part of yourself and really having stress managed well, is you’re actually cultivating a deeper compassion and love for yourself. Are you worthy to take the time off’ Do you love yourself enough to know even if this one thing that feels so important in the moment were to fall way, you know that you’re going to be okay’ It always kind of boils down to this really deep hole that we are trying to cover up within ourselves. When we can get to that hole and really heal it, that unnecessary stress will start to melt away!

If you are having a hard time really loving yourself.. I want you to think about it from this perspective.

How many times do you look at someone you love, a child or partner, and say you are more worthy if you do that! You don’t do that!! NOOO! Instead, you say that you are so enough because you love them and want to continuously lift them up! So’.. Do you say that to yourself every day’ Do you actually believe in yourself that you are enough’

People strive for things because they think they will have a better quality of life if they get there. But if you let that go and just tell yourself that you are so enough, everything that you do after that, people will feel that energy coming off of you! And you will be that much more into your work and your fitness and the things you do in your life!

Stop and ask yourself if this is how life is’ How can I have fun right now’ Because really, what’s really happening is yes, we need to learn how to manage stress, but for most people, it’s you who really don’t know how to be happy. You don’t know how to be content; you don’t know how to love yourself, just the way that things are! Because you continue to look to the past and how things were or how stressful things were and you don’t stop and think about the now, what is going on right here. How can I be happy right now and remove these stressful worries from my life right now’

Honestly, it’s just so important to grasp onto the macro-level concept. Ask the core questions.
What part of me is thinking and believing this right now’
What is a fact’
What is the story I am telling myself’
Ask yourself these questions, as you’re feeling the feeling. What is this feeling trying to tell me’ How is it trying to protect me’ And just sit with that’The feeling is not out to get you, it’s actually here for a reason and we need to understand that.

If you want to get rid of stress, you have to start getting real. Sit down and just figure it out. There is no pat answer. It’s a lot of deep work and when people are ready to do the deep work, you will come out a different person on the other side of it! You are actually changing and shifting the things you believe inside so the way you see the world and interact with the world completely becomes transformed.

Then ask yourself the hard question. Do I want to live this life’
I highly recommend checking our Susan and her podcast. She is binge worthy and has so much helpful information! You can access all of her info from the links below! And be sure to reach out to her with any questions you may have for her!

LINKS

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/

Website: https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/

10 Days To Reboot and Refocus
https://kimbarnesjefferson.lpages.co/10day_rebootandrefocus

Susan Choi Wellness
www.instagram.com/susanchoiwellness

www.facebook.com/susanchoiwellness

Free Stressproof master class
www.stressproofpodcast.com/freemasterclass.

Stressproof Podcast.
www.Stressproofpodcast.com

The post You can be stress free even if you are a stress ball appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.

Breia White has been a dedicated practitioner of breathwork since 2013. Her fascination with breathing techniques first became apparent through her experiences with Kundalini Yoga. She was able to see how something as simple as a breath could quickly affect her mood, thoughts, and actions, and she began to incorporate breathing meditations into her routine as a method for increasing focus, creating a deep sense of mental clarity, and managing stress levels in high-pressure environments.

After receiving her certification in Kundalini Yoga, Breia wanted to expand her knowledge base of breath practices outside of Kundalini. Since then, Breia has attained her Level 4 certification of the Pranayama Two-Stage Breath technique as taught by David Elliott, a celebrated healer and leading force in the breath community.

Breia has traveled as far as the foothills of the Himalayas in India to work with masters and learn techniques for navigating life with more ease, grace, and love. She even spent time in Poland with world-renowned breath expert and Guinness World Record holder, Wim Hof; and is a part of the first official instructor class to teach the Wim Hof Method in the United States.

Her ultimate goal is to share all she has learned from her training and empower others to create more days of feeling healthy, happy, and strong. And you guys, she is so amazing at what she does. So, let’s jump right into what breathwork is all about

What is breathwork’

Breathwork is known as pranayama in the yoga world. It is the art of breath control. Prana means life force and energy. Yama means to stretch, expand, lengthen. And underneath this Pranayama umbrella are different breathing techniques to help with emotional clarity and emotional release. In yoga, there are different practices within it. And Breathwork falls into one of the different practices in yoga.

Breath directly affects your central nervous system. Through breathing, you are controlling how your nervous system reacts. The parasympathetic state is the rest and digest state. A sympathetic nervous state is where you are getting attacked by a bear, as in heightened emotions. So, what breathwork does is it allows us to tape into those systems. Breathwork can also increase your vascular plasticity, veins, and stuff in your body. Breathwork can work like a muscle and controls your nervous system and helps to work your nervous system like a lever, switching back into these symptoms to help control them.

Imagine we are walking around like an overinflated tire and at any moment we can just pop. We are on edge all the time, stressed, frustrated, not happy. But with breathwork, it helps to express that tire before you blow up. Take the pressure out of the tire by breathing and allowing your body to release those emotions and energy.

Now Breia had gone through some shit to get to where she is today in her breathwork journey. From injuries to leaving her career to not knowing what path she was supposed to follow in life. She ended up finding herself at a breathwork seminar. Not even an hour into learning about the Pranayama 2 Stage Breathwork and practicing it, she was stopped right in her tracks. This breathwork right there immensely changed the trajectory of what she was doing.

All the self-doubt, self-imposed limitations, insecurities just left and were no longer there. She found the oneness. She found a clear vision of who she was. She found true peace, like the peace you only read about.
She truly felt free for the first time. And where this has been her entire life.

After this she learned about Wim Hof and the method, he used for breathwork. This began her journey into the next part of her life. So, for those of you who don’t know him, Wim Hof is the master at what he does. He is serious in his belief that breathwork and cold can solve a whole host of ailments, mental and physical. And after working with him and doing what he teaches, you truly feel inspired by what he is doing to help people.

Wim Hof is able to have total control over his body. He is able to have control over his body and able to regulate his core temperature by developing a specific breathing system of breathwork. This system of breathing is one that is taught all around the world and really works! And Breia teaches this to her clients out in LA.

(Check at the bottom of the blog for all of this information and more!)

So what is it about breathwork that can help you get to that place’

The breath bypasses the mind. And that is why this is her number one go-to when she cannot get her mind to calm down. When the thoughts are taking over. Use the breath as a tool to bypass it. And for those of you who struggle with meditation, this is why when you do the breathing, it is easier for you to get into meditation. When you do the breathwork and use the counting, you are basically giving your mind something to focus on instead of sitting in quiet and having your mind constantly wandering off.

If you want to give breathwork a try, head over to the podcast because we jumped into sample breathwork with Breia that was truly amazing! Like I felt soooooo freaking good afterwards! So, give it a try and let me know what you thought of it! (Below is what we did in the breathwork.)

1 round of the Wim Hof method
30 breaths. Inhale through the nose exhale through the mouth
On the 30th breath take in a big inhale and exhale the breath out.
Hold it out as long as you can
As soon as you feel the need to take a breath, you take a big inhale in and hold that for 15 seconds
3 rounds of this is the best. Which would take around 10-15 minutes

Give this a try! Some of us are stressed to the max and it doesn’t have to be like this. Go find the practices that vibe with you because there isn’t just one way. Every effort counts no matter how small. Even if it’s just 5 minutes it counts.

Give breathwork a try and give us a shout-out! Tag Breia and me and let her know how it went! Instagram: @breathwithbreia Facebook: Breath With Breia

What makes you feel magical”

I have 2 magical powers. And the first one is I have got amazing people around me. My support is my magical power. My inner circle, my family, they are always striving to be the best possible versions of themselves, always seeking, learning, sharing their knowledge. They keep me in check and have my back. That’s invaluable.

The second one is this breathwork. This helps me lead my life with more grace, more ease, and more love. Full stop. We can make life so complicated, and it doesn’t need to be that way. And all I wish for is to love, be loved, and be at peace. And who I surround myself with those tools I use help me to achieve that. I am looking for powers that can keep me at peace no matter the circumstances. Love up on all people and receive that love in return.

LINKS
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FabFitSquad
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/
Website: https://kimbarnesjefferson.com/
Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661

Books mentioned

Wim Hoff Method https://amzn.to/33tWzIU
Cold therapy video
The Happy Life Blue Tub

Website: BreathwithBreia.com
Instagram: @breathwithbreia
Facebook: Breath With Breia

Wim Hof Method Fundamentals and Advanced workshop
Date: May 22 and 23rd
Location: VCF Athletics Van Nuys California
Sign up on the Wim Hof main site under instructor Chuck McGee III. We are cohosting the event.
WHM Fundamentals Link https://www.wimhofmethod.com/activities/whm-fundamentals-workshop-los-angeles-chuck-mcgee-iii/28760

WHM Fundamentals Workshop by Chuck McGee III at VCF Athletics, Hayvenhur…
Join Chuck McGee III for the WHM Fundamentals Workshop at VCF Athletics, Hayvenhurst Avenue, Van Nuys, CA, USA. …
WHM Advanced Link https://www.wimhofmethod.

The post Breathwork It’s Easy If You Do Just Start appeared first on Kim Barnes Jefferson.