Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 150 // Exploring Abide to Reduce Stress [Hashimoto's Health Lab]

Transcript

150 // Exploring Abide to Reduce Stress [Hashimoto's Health Lab] · Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease

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  Welcome to Health with Hashimoto's. I am your host, Esther Yunkin.
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  I'm a registered nurse helping women uncover root causes and regain energy.
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  And this summer, I am excited to bring you the Hashimoto's Health Lab.
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  This will be a series where we explore simple tools and strategies to support your health.
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  Every week, I'm going to share a quick 10-minute episode about a specific tool
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  or practice. We're going to cover everything from environmental detox to stress
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  reduction to energy boosters and biohacks.
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  Every single thing is designed to support you in your quest for better health with Hashimoto's.
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  And of course, if you're ready for a deeper transformation, check out my Holistic Hashimoto's course.
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  It is designed to guide you through identifying your unique triggers and root
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  causes so you can focus your energy on what really matters.
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  Are you ready to explore a new strategy for thriving with Hashimoto's?
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  Let's dive in. This is the Hashimoto's Health Lab.
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  Over the 150 episodes of this podcast, one thing comes up over and over, and that is stress.
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  When you have an autoimmune condition, stress can be a trigger and it can exacerbate
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  anything that's going on.
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  Stress increases your inflammation. Stress increases all of the problems associated with our health.
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  Stress is our enemy. You have to have a little bit of stress in order to be
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  alive. like that is how your body functions.
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  But stress is huge. And that is why I have talked about it over and over on the podcast.
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  That is why my guests keep bringing it up.
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  Because lowering your stress is a huge thing that you can do to impact your overall health.
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  And of course, when I talk about health, I am talking the whole you,
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  body, mind, spirit, diet, environment, stress impacts all five of those.
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  And so if we want one thing to focus on.
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  Let's look at stress. And so in this first episode of the Hashimoto's Health
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  Lab, let's talk about an app that can help us lower stress.
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  There's a lot of apps out there. And the reason why I'm saying an app today
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  is because when I got my Hashimoto's labs done last over the winter, my antibodies went up.
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  And for me, I know that my stress increases every single winter.
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  One of my stressors is the cold. Now, there is not an app. There's nothing I
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  can do that will change the weather.
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  But that said to me, I need to focus more on slowing down.
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  I need to have something that keeps me accountable for sitting down and just
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  being for, you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes a day.
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  I need to spend time breathing. I need to spend time lowering my stress,
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  not scrolling on my phone, but actually lowering my stress.
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  Because when you're scrolling on your phone, your brain does not disengage.
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  Your brain, it is a stressor for your brain.
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  So I was looking for something that would keep me accountable and that would help me de-stress.
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  And I found the Abide app.
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  Now there's a lot of apps online on the app stores that help you lower stress.
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  There's apps to help you with breathing, there's meditation apps,
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  there's a lot of different ones.
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  Now I found the Abide one specifically because I was looking for something that was biblically based.
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  Doing your diaphragmatic breathing and doing meditation, those will lower your stress.
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  I wanted something that also speaks truth and that has a foundation of eternal
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  peace and joy. I wanted to incorporate that because your whole person,
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  body, mind, spirit, they're all connected.
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  So in that time where I was spending just being, I also wanted a foundation of truth and peace.
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  So I found the Abide app, like I said, And, you know, 94% of the people who
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  responded to their survey, they said that this app is
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  reduced their stress. 94% of the people. And they had all rated their stress at mild to chronic.
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  So 94% of people reduced their stress. And more than half said it was significant.
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  80% of people with mild to chronic insomnia said that it helped them sleep better.
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  And this is awesome. We need better sleep. Have you ever woken up in the middle
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  of the night and your mind is just racing?
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  That has happened to me twice since I got this Abide app.
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  My mind is just racing. I lay in bed for 20-30 minutes and at least the first
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  night. I was like this is silly.
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  I just I have this app. I need to turn it on. So I took my phone off of airplane
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  mode. I was squinting so that I didn't get a lot of blue light.
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  Of course my screen was dim and I turned on the app and they have sleep stories.
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  And I was like I don't know what the sleep story is. I just picked one and it was so soothing.
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  It wasn't weird, because that was one of my worries that I don't want something
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  to be speaking to my subconscious while I'm falling asleep or while I'm sleeping.
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  But it was so peaceful and wonderful.
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  And I did wake up a couple of times. And I think that it just kind of repeated some pieces.
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  And because it was a 90 minute app, I want to say, or story.
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  Anyway, I used it that first night. And then the second time it happened where
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  I woke up and my mind was just racing,
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  I immediately thought okay I need to turn on that
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  app and I fell asleep so much faster
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  because it was just something to focus my
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  mind instead of letting my thoughts race it was wonderful I got so much better
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  sleep so I can attest to that one I don't have insomnia typically but it definitely
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  helped me sleep better and I have heard from other people who use this app that
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  it helps them sleep better.
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  One person who answered the Abide survey said that it provides an atmosphere of peace and serenity.
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  Another person said it provides peace and tranquility during stressful commutes.
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  I've not used it during a commute, but I have used it while I'm sitting in my sauna.
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  I have used it, like I said, at night. And it is a game changer because it makes you focus.
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  And I do have a commitment to myself that when I open the Abide app,
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  I will not do anything else on my phone.
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  Sometimes when I'm listening to an audiobook, I will play a game or something,
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  but this is not an audiobook. I have made a commitment to myself that
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  that I will be still, that all I'm doing is this app.
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  I'm just doing this biblical meditation, and I am breathing.
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  Now let's talk about biblical meditation.
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  Let's talk about meditation in general.
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  Meditation is like worrying. When you're worrying, you are thinking about something
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  over and over, approaching it from all different angles.
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  You just keep replaying it in your mind. That is what meditation is, but the opposite.
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  In meditation, you're thinking about a specific thing.
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  Biblical meditation, you'd be thinking about a verse or a concept or something
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  about God, and you would be mulling it over from different angles over and over.
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  You'd be repeating it throughout the day. That's biblical meditation,
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  and that's what the Abide app does.
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  It has a biblical meditation tab, and so every day you can go and do the biblical
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  meditation in this one verse, and it's 15 minutes of talking about it from different
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  angles, and it's not an education thing.
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  I do a lot of podcasts and things that are education. This is not an educational thing.
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  This is not going into the Greek or the Latin or breaking down the Hebrew or
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  tying different parts of scripture to this verse.
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  It's going deep on that verse, letting you figure out what is the word speaking to you today.
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  So for the listeners of this podcast, Abide gave me a link for you,
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  and you have a free 30-day premium subscription by clicking on the link down in the show notes.
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  It is abide.com slash REF, like referral, REF slash Hashimoto's podcast, all one word.
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  And the link is down in the show notes. So I suggest pairing these meditations
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  in the Abide app with a morning or evening routine.
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  You always want to do a new habit with an existing routine. Or if you're trying
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  to create a new habit, right?
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  Because that's when you're going to be able to do it. So what does your morning look like?
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  Do you have time where you can hit play on one of these biblical meditations?
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  Or during your commute? Or during the evening, you're going to put on something?
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  The app has a lot of different options, and I can't wait to hear how you use
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  it in your life to reduce stress, to increase sleep, and to help your overall health.
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  That is what this summer series is all about helping you have tools to improve your health.
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  This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
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  Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
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  To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
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  You do not have to figure your health out alone.
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  So that is school, S-K-O-O-L.com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
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  I'll see you next time on the Health with Hashimoto's podcast.