“Drink more water,” they say.
Be in the bathroom more, you say.
“Drink more water,” they say. Drink more water. Such sage advice, right? Yet, even if you’re drinking a conservative amount of water, you can find yourself in the bathroom too often. Certainly medications can play a part, but even if you’re not taking anything with a diuretic effect, there’s another reason why increasing water puts you in search of a restroom more often. And its the same reason you can still be dehydrated. You can become dehydrated when you’re stressed even while compliant with recommendations to drink up because stress causes frequent urination. Slowly cutting back and then gradually adding sounds like logical advice. It won’t help if you’re still stressed when you reintroduce.
The root cause of the problem is stress.
So what will keep you out of the bathroom and in bed or in the meetings you’re supposed to be in and allow you to drink more water? Ironically, frequent need to urinate has got less to do with drinking water and more to do with your biometrics related to stress. You need to slow things down a bit inside. In fact, I’m using a new tool to monitor my own biometrics… and suggesting it for all my VIP clients. (Flipping50 if you’d like to start tracking too).
Any of the following may work for you in minutes. The key is to find one or two, and be consistent.
Mindful Breathing. Cover your right nostril and breath in. Cover your left nostril and breath out. Take the breath in fully like your thirsty and quenching that thirst. Hold it in briefly before you let it go. Fully let it out. Notice that you’re expanding your belly – your diaphragm and not elevating your shoulders as you breath in. Feel a slight contraction as you exhale, and do that as if you were blowing out a straw. Take the next few breaths in through that straw as well. Notice how it’s a more cooling breath. Inhale through the straw and then exhale through your nose.
You’ve likely slowed your breath rate and reduced your blood pressure. If your breath rate goes down, so do your stress hormones, and your mood improves. These are all measureable and trackable! (use Flipping50 to get started)
Meditate. Even if you don’t meditate, just be still. Allow yourself time to close your eyes. Focus on deeper breaths. Clear your mind. When shoulds, and other distracting or negative thoughts enter your mind, just let them pass through. Tell them, no thank you, you’re not serving me right now.
List and Imagine. Write down 5-10 things you are grateful for right now. If time is short, reduce it to three things and do this throughout the day. When you bring your mind to your “whys” and a place of gratitude, you raise your energy and stress can’t live there as easily. Your stressors don’t disappear. But the you that handles them optimally does appear. In the reality of your love and gratitude petty nuances don’t touch you.
Play Music you love. Something uplifting will probably do you more good than heavy metal. There’s a reason we can easily get tears in our eyes when the processional begins or Amazing Grace starts. We each need to choose our own. You can play this while you breath, meditate, list, or while you’re working. The music I’m suggesting is a higher vibration than you. If you’re stressed and feeling weighed down and overwhelmed, your vibrational energy may be low. Exposing yourself to things of higher vibrational energy (Hz frequency) can raise your vibration. You’ll know because it makes you feel lighter, or you spontaneously smile. Love and gratitude have higher vibrations than anger and jealousy for example. Music has been known to help cure disease. It certainly won’t hurt.
Eat carbs. They make you release serotonin and that relaxes and calms you. You’ll sleep better. You’ll lose weight. Carbs are not your enemy. If you’re doing a keto diet or intermittent fasting, you need to know first not just the science of whether these work. You need to know if they will work for you. Are you already stressed? Wired? Not sleeping? Reducing carbs or long times without food might further disrupt you. Learn about the continuum of fasting that doesn’t leave you totally void of carbs.
The right carbs at the right time will help you burn more fat during exercise, feel happier and more calm, and yes, ultimately sleep better. So the key is, which carbs are the right carbs?
I’ll include more on that Thursday when I update you on my training – hormone journey. The volume is up this week so it’s a good time to peek at changes.
Interestingly enough this post began with the “drink more water” challenge and ended entirely discussing stress. There is no ignoring the powerful impact stress has, but also on a hopeful note, the power you have in simple mindful practices to change it if you choose to do so.
Do drink more water, as it’s the single most affordable and simple way to boost the health of every single cell in you. Whether you exercise, take prescription or over-the-counter meds, want improved skin tone, enhanced digestion, help your body naturally detox every day..drink more water. [Yes, there is a condition called hypernutremia, where too much water is consumed and it is also a health threat. This? effects about 3% of the population and they tend to have a disordered relationship with food and or be athletes severely depleted of nutrients during training. The other 97% of us? Not so much.]
If you have a question about my tracking device, Helo, post it below or connect with me. We’ve been tracking heart rate and intensity during exercise for a long time. It’s time we began tracking our ability to reduce heart rate and blood pressure, reduce stress levels, and detect mood changes if we’re really going to look at the big picture. If you decide to do this for your family or yourself, I’m offering support to share your tracking with me so you can get advice on how to improve your measures and live practices that will help. This is not necessarily a training device for athletes, it’s an every day health tracker for everyone. (username Flipping50)
