Latest / Tone It Down / I Am Safe, I Am Grateful: How I Handle Morning Anxiety

Transcript

I Am Safe, I Am Grateful: How I Handle Morning Anxiety · Tone It Down

• 0:00
  As soon as you start to awaken, you actually have a cortisol spike.
• 0:05
  And we need to know that that is completely normal.
• 0:09
  This is your weekly girlfriend chat, the kind that we all crave, where we can show up exactly as we are, laugh until we cry, get honest about the things we're navigating, and all the private girl talk that we need more of.
• 0:22
  No pressure, no perfection, just real women like us, sharing real stories with real connections.
• 0:28
  Over the years of Tone It Down, I've learned that the most transformative moments don't always happen in a workout.
• 0:34
  They happen in those conversations before and after.
• 0:37
  When we realize we're all going through something, when we feel seen.
• 0:42
  And that's what Tone It Down is built on.
• 0:44
  My intention is simple, to help you tune back into yourself, to quiet the noise, and to remind you that you're allowed to evolve.
• 0:54
  This is Tone It Down.
• 1:00
  Hello, friend.
• 1:01
  Welcome back to Tone It Down.
• 1:03
  I am very excited to sit down with you for this episode.
• 1:07
  I've been getting a lot of DMs and messages and voicemails.
• 1:11
  How do I manage my anxiety?
• 1:13
  I know we've been talking a lot about anxiety.
• 1:16
  perimenopause, menopause, hormones, and really educating ourselves on that.
• 1:21
  And what I've learned through this whole journey is that once I educate myself more, my anxiety starts to lower.
• 1:31
  And I'm really happy once I learned what anxiety was, it was probably like in 2016, where I was having really bad panic attacks.
• 1:40
  learning now that I was actually, it's very common for us women that are going through perimenopause and menopause.
• 1:47
  So I'm guessing that you clicked on this episode because you too have morning anxiety.
• 1:54
  What does that feel like?
• 1:55
  I can tell you for me what it feels like.
• 1:59
  Sometimes I sleep really light, probably due to my hormones, which if you listen often and follow me, I did just start HRT, hormone replacement therapy.
• 2:11
  The doctors were like, how have you been surviving?
• 2:14
  My progesterone and my estrogen were so low.
• 2:16
  So for me, I chose to try to go on or not try.
• 2:20
  I am on HRT.
• 2:22
  I will let you know.
• 2:23
  Let me know, DM me.
• 2:24
  Like, how do you feel?
• 2:25
  I don't know what to expect.
• 2:27
  I mean, I am a pretty, I work well under stress, I guess, but I also am used to that, right?
• 2:32
  I had a very stressful childhood.
• 2:34
  And so I managed stress kind of, I'm a high functioning, stressful person.
• 2:41
  But I'm really trying to work on that and live my life in a way that I preach.
• 2:47
  That's why I have a meditation practice.
• 2:48
  That's why I'm trying to come down, figure out why am I not sleeping?
• 2:52
  Why am I waking up anxious?
• 2:53
  So back to that middle of the night symptoms, I sleep anxious.
• 2:57
  I don't know what the term is, but I'll know in the morning I'm going to have this anxiety in the morning.
• 3:01
  My stomach's going to hurt.
• 3:03
  As soon as you start to awaken, you actually have a cortisol spike.
• 3:08
  And we need to know that that is completely normal.
• 3:11
  For me, it's before my feet hit the floor.
• 3:15
  And there's no clear reason because...
• 3:18
  I know that I'm alive, I'm safe, I'm breathing, I'm home, I have a roof over my head.
• 3:25
  And I almost have learned to completely shut that thought off immediately.
• 3:31
  As soon as those thoughts try to sneak in my head because the cortisol awakening response
• 3:38
  I'm just like, nope.
• 3:39
  So I have this mantra, okay, that I do.
• 3:42
  And you can create your own mantra to really snap out of those thoughts immediately.
• 3:46
  Do not let these fake thoughts that your brain is making up in the morning control your day.
• 3:53
  Here's mine.
• 3:54
  If you wanna say it with me, I am grateful.
• 3:58
  I am safe.
• 4:00
  I am breathing.
• 4:02
  I woke up yesterday.
• 4:04
  I woke up today.
• 4:06
  I am alive.
• 4:08
  I am healthy.
• 4:09
  Those are facts.
• 4:11
  Okay.
• 4:12
  Snap yourself out.
• 4:13
  And it's that gratitude practice.
• 4:16
  Like just, even if I only say, I am grateful.
• 4:20
  My practice is gratitude all day long and really put your mindset in that because what your head tells you is how you will live.
• 4:29
  go about your day.
• 4:31
  So practice that gratitude practice throughout the day.
• 4:34
  Let those negative thoughts away.
• 4:37
  So we're going to start by saying bye-bye cortisol spike in the morning, but I want you to know it is normal.
• 4:44
  Okay.
• 4:44
  So there's a little science behind it.
• 4:46
  And I did some research here.
• 4:48
  So cortisol rises within the first hour after waking and researchers see it as the body
• 4:58
  Okay, an anxious mind can read that surge as danger.
• 5:03
  So it's linked to anxiety and several studies have found that elevated morning cortisol in people with anxiety disorders.
• 5:10
  So in one six-year study, a higher morning cortisol response strongly predicted a first-onset anxiety disorder.
• 5:18
  And you know, got to keep it honest here.
• 5:20
  I've read some mixed reviews on that too.
• 5:22
  All of my resources are in the show notes.
• 5:25
  But just know, morning cortisol is real.
• 5:28
  It's normal.
• 5:28
  You are not alone.
• 5:30
  We're here to just push, not push through it, but break through it and stop it in its tracks.
• 5:36
  Also, women versus men.
• 5:38
  Anxiety disorder rates 23.4% for women and 14.3% for men.
• 5:44
  So women's anxiety disorder rates run 1.5 or two times higher than men's.
• 5:51
  Aren't we just some lucky little ladies?
• 5:53
  Wow.
• 5:54
  We are just blessed with so many different hormones.
• 5:57
  So let's go back to talking about perimenopause.
• 6:01
  So 66% of perimenopausal women reported anxiety and or depressive symptoms versus 53% perimenopausal and 50% postmenopausal.
• 6:11
  More bothersome hot flashes and night sweats raised the odds.
• 6:16
  So when I went through all that, I had the night sweats, the brain fog, still kind of have a brain fog.
• 6:22
  So just know that if you're one of those women waking up at 3 a.m. drenched in sweat and anxiety, that's why.
• 6:30
  It's perimenopause.
• 6:31
  It's your hormones.
• 6:33
  All right, so what do we do to combat this anxiety in the morning?
• 6:38
  We've already got the mantras that I told you that I use.
• 6:41
  And you can always make a note, not in your phone, I was going to say in your phone, but no, maybe a piece of paper on your bedside table and a note of what your own mantras are, what you want to be reminded of each morning.
• 6:52
  Or you can totally use mine too.
• 6:54
  But in case you go straight into your squirrel brain in the morning, have that piece of paper
• 7:03
  to have your gratitude list and your mantras.
• 7:06
  So there's a study, 109 people with anxiety or depression kept a three-week gratitude diary.
• 7:12
  Afterward, they had lower depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep difficulty scores.
• 7:19
  And a follow-up, anxiety kept improving.
• 7:22
  So there you go.
• 7:24
  Where you write your mantras, perhaps it's in a little journal, and each morning or even at night, you can do a little gratitude journal.
• 7:31
  It's really interesting, the shift of gratitude.
• 7:33
  Maybe just take a moment right now during this podcast, whatever you're doing, if you're driving, if you're walking or you're at home doing chores or just hanging out, working out, list three things you're grateful for right now.
• 7:50
  I'll do three.
• 7:51
  I am grateful to be healthy and sitting here talking to you.
• 7:57
  I am grateful.
• 7:58
  I'm filming this on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
• 8:02
  And I'm grateful that after this, I'm going to go grill some salmon and have some sweet potato and a salad with Bobby.
• 8:09
  And I am grateful that I have my six little Pomeranians that give me all the love I need all day long.
• 8:17
  So when you're thinking of all the things that you're grateful for, how can you let that anxiousness feed?
• 8:24
  So definitely practice that.
• 8:25
  I do have a journal in the mornings after I get up and I'm having my tea.
• 8:30
  I have it on my coffee table and I do write a few sentences of gratitude.
• 8:35
  And also remember that it's a daily practice, like meditation, like working out, having this gratitude practice.
• 8:43
  And I know it might sound cliche.
• 8:44
  Everyone's like, be grateful, have a gratitude mantra is this, but I'm serious.
• 8:48
  It really works.
• 8:50
  I am living proof that this works.
• 8:53
  Gratitude journaling takes practice, right?
• 8:56
  Small little steps.
• 8:57
  You start your workout, your toned up workout in your app, small steps and you get stronger and stronger.
• 9:02
  Your meditation practice and training your mind to meditate, it takes practice.
• 9:07
  So with this anti-anxiety gratitude mantra practice, just keep doing it and you will see the small differences.
• 9:17
  All right, let's talk more ways that we can boost positive feelings.
• 9:22
  Breath work.
• 9:23
  Let's do this together.
• 9:24
  I want you to take two inhales in through your nose.
• 9:31
  Hold it there.
• 9:33
  And one long exhale out of your mouth.
• 9:36
  Do that again.
• 9:37
  Two deep inhales in.
• 9:42
  Hold it there.
• 9:44
  And a long exhale out.
• 9:45
  Whew.
• 9:48
  You can include that in your morning meditation, when you're laying in bed, after you've done your mantras and doing some breath work.
• 9:57
  And other tips too that I try to live by as well.
• 10:02
  Don't grab your phone first.
• 10:04
  I know that is so hard.
• 10:05
  For me, it's hard because I want to know what time it is because I don't set an alarm unless I know I have to be up early and be ready early.
• 10:13
  So maybe there's a digital clock that you can put by your bedside.
• 10:18
  One thing that has really helped me is to get up and get light and move.
• 10:23
  So typically in the morning, I will wake up, have some tea, do my meditation.
• 10:28
  But if I happen to wake up where the cortisol is spiking, it's cortisol and a little too much, I will make my tea and I will get outside and walk.
• 10:37
  I will get outside and get some light and movement.
• 10:41
  Because on the really bad days, you've already been, I am safe, I am alive, I am grateful.
• 10:47
  get outside and move through it.
• 10:50
  It's kind of like when you're feeling really bad on some days and you don't wanna work out, maybe you're angry, something bad happened and you just are so not motivated, but those are the days that you should be working out because I promise, what do we say, girls?
• 11:06
  You'll never regret a workout.
• 11:09
  So that is something that has really helped me.
• 11:12
  And having that morning routine before the routine, before the routine, right?
• 11:16
  Before you go to the gym, before you get ready for the day.
• 11:19
  And having that to lean on in the morning has really helped my anxiety.
• 11:24
  All right, let's talk caffeine.
• 11:26
  If I wake up anxious, it's a hecky-haw-nah to caffeine because that can increase your heart rate and kind of mimic anxiety in the stomach.
• 11:36
  And that's where I hold a lot of my anxiety when I sleep anxious.
• 11:39
  So I actually didn't have any caffeine in the stomach.
• 11:42
  for about two years.
• 11:44
  That was during when caretaking for my mom and when she passed away and my anxiety was very, very high.
• 11:50
  And also during that time, a lot of transitions through Tone It Up and through the private equities and all of this stuff.
• 11:58
  It was just a very anxious time.
• 11:59
  If you look back on my photos, you can actually see I wasn't really taking care of myself.
• 12:06
  I wasn't moving my body as much.
• 12:08
  I was letting cortisol take over my life.
• 12:11
  I was like
• 12:11
  it was a mix of cortisol face and perimenopause and weight gain.
• 12:15
  It was girl, girl.
• 12:17
  If you're going through it right now, I know that.
• 12:23
  how horrible it is and how you don't feel like yourself.
• 12:26
  And I'm finally coming back to myself in so many different ways through the way I feel, my strength, my mindset, but tone it up.
• 12:37
  Everything is coming back into this beautiful full circle.
• 12:41
  And just know that you too are going to get through this.
• 12:45
  And reach out to people in the community and other women.
• 12:48
  Maybe we need like a hashtag T-I-U Perry, hashtag T-I-U Minnow.
• 12:53
  I don't know, girls.
• 12:55
  You can start it.
• 12:56
  I'll see you there, that hashtag.
• 12:58
  But the caffeine thing, I actually do drink a little bit of caffeine now, but I'm also fine if I don't have caffeine.
• 13:06
  But definitely be wary of your caffeine intake when you're anxious.
• 13:10
  All right, the brain dump the night before.
• 13:13
  Okay, those nights when I say I sleep anxious, that's because usually I didn't schedule my day the following day.
• 13:21
  It's so important the night before to write tomorrow's to-do list.
• 13:25
  Because for myself, if I don't do that, what my brain works all night, keeping the list in my head.
• 13:33
  And trust me, you don't want to do that.
• 13:34
  So take the time, whether it's the end of your workday or before you go to bed, I would suggest maybe the end of your workday, always see what you got done on that checklist and make the priority list for the next day.
• 13:47
  And then what I do with my priority list, because you can have lists on lists on lists, I highlight in green the three to four things that need to be tackled.
• 13:56
  That's what I hit first the next day.
• 13:59
  And then I work through the rest of the list.
• 14:02
  So get that list done.
• 14:05
  All right, name it.
• 14:07
  Ah, that was like so freeing when I learned that I could give anxiety a name.
• 14:13
  Because I realized that even when I was growing up, I would have anxious mornings.
• 14:19
  I think I just like was I've always like lived a little highly anxious.
• 14:24
  And once you learn to give it a name, you actually can mentally block it or stop it.
• 14:30
  At least for me, I'm like, oh, here she is.
• 14:33
  Hello, anxiety.
• 14:34
  I feel you.
• 14:36
  I see you.
• 14:36
  You cannot get me because I am grateful.
• 14:39
  I am healthy.
• 14:39
  I am alive.
• 14:40
  I am here.
• 14:41
  I woke up today.
• 14:42
  I woke up yesterday and I am safe.
• 14:47
  And also, I think it's really important to point out, notice your life stage.
• 14:51
  We've talked about this a lot, but if it's a new morning anxiety in your 40s especially, mine started happening around 37, talk to your doctor because hormones may be a part of it.
• 15:05
  Literally, like I wanna hear, I keep going back to this HRT thing.
• 15:09
  I wanna know if you've been doing it and like how it's changed.
• 15:12
  I've had some voicemails from women who have been on it and it's like life changing.
• 15:17
  I can't wait.
• 15:18
  All right.
• 15:19
  So remember, gratitude and breathing are your friends and they're wonderful tools.
• 15:24
  Your journal, all of that.
• 15:26
  Also, if you still are journaling, you're practicing gratitude, you're working out, you're eating right, you're getting sleep, and you're still feeling anxious, remember that.
• 15:37
  Talking to a professional is strength, not failure.
• 15:40
  And also the Big Silence Foundation, we do have therapy for all program where you can email us and we can match you with a therapist.
• 15:49
  So you can head over to thebigsilence.com for that.
• 15:52
  And we have helped many of the Tone It Up community women with therapy for all.
• 15:56
  It is completely anonymous.
• 15:58
  It's a safe place, but know that getting professional help to work through whatever you're feeling, feelings are...
• 16:06
  worthy.
• 16:07
  So remember that.
• 16:09
  And I want to end this one more time with you.
• 16:13
  Let's do those mantras again.
• 16:15
  Ready?
• 16:15
  Repeat this with me.
• 16:18
  I am grateful.
• 16:20
  I am safe.
• 16:23
  I am breathing.
• 16:26
  I woke up yesterday.
• 16:27
  I woke up today.
• 16:31
  I got this and you got this girl.
• 16:34
  I am so excited that you're hanging out with me today.
• 16:37
  I hope this has been helpful.
• 16:39
  Also share with me some other practices that you do to overcome that morning cortisol.
• 16:45
  Bing!
• 16:46
  And I'll share it with the community too.
• 16:48
  All right, I love you.
• 16:49
  Have a beautiful day, a beautiful week.
• 16:52
  And keep checking in with me with your Tone It Up, Fall Back to the Beach.
• 16:56
  We just started yesterday, October 12th.
• 16:59
  But remember, any of the programs in your Tone It Up app, you can do anytime.
• 17:03
  And then, you know, sometimes during the year, we do programs together just to have a real community.
• 17:09
  Hee-haw, hoorah, hoorah.
• 17:10
  I don't know.
• 17:11
  It's just really great to keep each other accountable.
• 17:14
  Check in, hashtag TAU team and tag Tone It Up.
• 17:17
  Tag me, Karina Dawn.
• 17:19
  And let's keep each other healthy, happy, and safe this season.
• 17:23
  I love you.