Module 9

SLEEP, STRESS + REST.

There are two types of stress, good stress and bad stress.

Good stress is the type we put on our body when we’re performing a workout. 

Bad stress is the type we get from a tough day at work or an argument with a friend.

It’s important to understand that your body cannot distinguish the difference between good stress and bad stress.

Any type of stress (whether good or bad) is something that we want to keep to a minimum in our life. Stress can be the root cause of mental and physical illness, it can cause poor decisions, bad habits, low vibrations and it can attract negative energy into your life. 

Since resistance-training is a form of stress on our bodies, we need to make sure that we take the time to de-stress after exercising and try to keep any other forms of stress out of our life. 

Here are some ways to help keep stress out of your life as much as possible.

1.  Get enough good quality sleep each night. If you wake up after a bad sleep, you will probably find things irritate you more than usual. Things just generally seem more hard work and your overall vibration isn’t as high. Try to prioritise your sleep as much as possible. After a good sleep, your vibration is higher and you’re less likely to let external “stressors” irritate you. You can’t always control everything that happens within your life, but you ALWAYS have control over how you let things affect you and how you react. With good sleep you have more power and control over your reactions.

2.  Practice mindfulness and awareness. You hold the power within you to choose how you react to any situation and whether or not you allow it to cause you stress. If you find yourself faced with a “stressful” situation, firstly look at what you can control. Make any changes you can to better the situation, and if there is nothing that you can control, let it go. 

It’s also important to understand that whatever is happening to you (whether you perceive it as positive or negative) is always happening for you. There is always a positive outcome from any “perceived negative” experience (even if that positive outcome is simply just a lesson learnt).

3.  Avoid people, places or things that you know cause you stress. Set your boundaries and honour them. You have to start prioritising your own health, happiness and mental state before anything or anybody else. A big part of honouring healthy boundaries and owning your F-MININE power is also saying no to not just places or situations, but people too. If there is somebody in your life who you know causes you unhappiness or stress then it might be best to distance yourself from them as much as you can. 

If you’re showing up to work every single day to a job that you hate, or you wake up with anxiety about going to work each day, then use that as a signal to make some changes within your workplace or change your job environment to something different. 

Stress at work is not a normal thing (as much as society has normalised “work stress”). You should not be feeling anxious or stressed about going to work in the morning, and you shouldn’t finish a work day feeling stressed or drained either! It’s really important that you understand you are not limited to any type of life. You are your only limit. You get to dictate your life, and you are not limited to your current life situation.

 If something in your life is causing you to feel stressed, exhausted and drained, then it’s worth acknowledging that whatever it is lowering your vibration probably isn’t meant to be in your life. 

4.  If you have a very busy life and often find that you’re stressed because you can’t keep up with everything going on or you don’t feel you have any time out to yourself, then it could be worth planning ahead, keeping a diary and becoming more organised with your time. 

As much as F-MININE energy is all about flowing and surrendering to life, you still need to set boundaries for your time. A balance of feminine and masculine energy is the key to becoming powerful. Don’t say yes to things you know you may not have the time for or that will lower your vibe. 

5.  Prioritise making time for pleasure. Babe, you are not a robot and you are not here to just work, go to the gym and count calories.

 A woman thriving in her F-MININE power enjoys pleasure within her life every single day. This could even just be in the form of taking a walk outside, feeling gratitude for life, breathing in the fresh air and soaking up the sun, it could be in the form of listening to your favourite music and dancing whilst behind the laptop at work. Pleasure each day doesn’t have to cost money and it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. 

You should also create space for the things that really set your soul on fire. And if you have no idea what those things are yet, start to tune in and follow your gut instincts, become aware of signals guiding you, try to remember your dreams, start to flow. Switch up your routine, take trips to different towns, start working at different coffee shops, try new experiences, be open to meeting new people.

6.  Prioritise and make the time for the things that help you to de-stress and relax (bubble bath, meditation, reading, getting a massage). We all find “peace” in different things. Find what really helps you unwind, relax and become present and start making time within your week to do more of these.

WHAT NOT TO DO IF YOU’RE STRESSED OUT

If you’ve had a stressful day, you may have thought that going to the gym and “unloading” all of that stress with some heavy weights or sprints will help. If you’re already full of the “bad stress” you don’t want to pile “good stress” on top of that! Remember, your body cannot distinguish between the two types.

If you are full of bad stress, then moving your body and releasing that negative energy can definitely help. But instead of an intense gym workout or high intensity interval sprints, try exercising in the form of walking, jogging, swimming, yoga, pilates… any low intensity types of exercise that won’t cause more stress on your body. 

There are 3 workouts a week on the burn phase and 4 workouts a week on the sculpt phase, this is to ensure your body is not constantly under a state of stress each day. You have enough rest days from the gym to de-stress and maximally recover your body from your workouts.

If you find that you thrive better with less workouts, then honour your body. If you already have a busy life and you’re struggling to complete all of the workouts, relax. Don’t feel the need to complete all of the prescribed workouts on this program (especially if you are a complete beginner to exercising). It might be a case of doing just one or two of the workouts each week and practicing yoga on your other days until your body adapts to the new changes.

Going from 0 to 100 all at once can be a shock and stress to your body. ALWAYS listen to and honour your body. Always choose to do what allows you to feel your best.

SLEEP

Without sleep, thriving is impossible. There is literally no element of your life that is not drastically improved by getting enough sleep. So, if you’re a woman wanting to thrive within your goddess power, you’re going to need to start prioritising getting good quality sleep.

When it comes to transforming your health and your physique, getting good quality sleep often will help:

If you get poor quality sleep too often you will develop a reduction in your energy levels. And if you lack energy, you will soon start to notice that your healthy habits will stop flowing and bad habits may start to creep in.

Everybody has different “optimal” sleep ranges, but usually this varies between 7-9 hours each night. Make sure you are also not under-estimating the amount of sleep you’re getting. Just because you are in bed for 9 hours doesn’t mean you are getting 9 hours of quality sleep.

TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP QUALITY:

1.   Put your phone or laptop away at least 45 minutes before you go to bed. Being exposed to light has a huge impact on the quality of your sleep. Throughout the day, being exposed to light sends signals to our body which causes alertness (it keeps us awake and productive). At night, reducing exposure to light (as it goes dark) causes our body to release melatonin, which is the hormone responsible for helping your body fall into a deep sleep. If we are exposing ourselves to light through our laptop, phone, or television screens before bed, we prevent our body from releasing melatonin effectively and we may struggle to fall into a deep sleep.

If you have to work before bed then it could be worth investing in blue light glasses. Blue light emitted from laptops and phones is actually way more potent for preventing the release of melatonin, and so wearing blue light glasses can help reduce the effect blue light has on your body.

A good routine to have before going to sleep can include setting your room up in darkness or light a couple of candles, put some relaxing music or healing frequency music on, read a book, journal or meditate.

2.  Try to have a consistent sleep-wake cycle where you wake up at the same time each morning and go to bed at the same time each night.

3.  Sleep with the window open rather than in a hot stuffy room. When you sleep, your body temperature naturally lowers, so by introducing your body to a cool environment you can stimulate sleep and also keep your sleep cycle going throughout the night.

4.  Journaling before you go to sleep can actually drastically improve your sleep quality. This is because journaling will clear your mind, it can help you let go of everything that happened in your day cleaning the slate for a new day ahead. When you sit down to journal before falling asleep, you have the chance to…

5.  Invest in a good mattress, pillow and duvet. The more comfortable you are in bed, the better sleep you’re going to have.

6.  Meditate. Meditation can help quieten and relax both the mind and the body. Putting you in a state of inner peace, helping you drift off into a deep sleep. If you are completely new to meditating, there are so many Youtube meditations that you can play before you go to bed, the guided ones are great if you’re new to meditating as they literally tell you exactly what to do and what to focus on, from your posture to your breathing.

7.  Listen to some relaxing frequency meditation music. Here is a link to a youtube sleep chakra meditation on balancing the feminine and releasing the goddess within. You can set this up on your laptop by your bedside or play it through your headphones whilst you sleep.

Chakra Meditation