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what causes stress

The One And Only Cause of Stress – Can You Guess What It Is?

WebMD and many other “authorities” are pointing many people searching for the cause of their stress in the completely wrong direction. It’s time to get this one right.

Unfortunately, WebMD has two of the most popular articles on the causes of emotional and psychological stress and they are offering some of the worst information, how ironic right?

Article 1 and Article 2 are blaming nearly everything outside of you, essentially claiming you are a victim of circumstance most of the time. No wonder so many people are stressed, with thoughts like that you are doomed to live a life of chronic emotional and psychological stress.

I guess I should give them credit for their feeble attempt at sourcing the only cause of stress when they said this “Sometimes the stress comes from inside, rather than outside.”.

What Does WebMD Claim To Cause All Of Our Emotional and Psychological Stress?

To bring you closer to the truth of the one and only cause of stress I will bring truth each and every so-called stressor that is listed in both of WebMD’s articles.

As you read on you may resonate with some of the so-called stressors and I want you to know that by no means am I minimizing the challenge of each situation.

I have experienced several of these stressful situations myself, the difference is that I now experience them much differently, and you can too once you understand the one and only cause of your stress.

Your health

Example:  Diabetes

The lie: Diabetes is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on you having diabetes are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“I cannot eat my favourite foods as often as I want now”

“I have no more freedom with food”

“My chances of dying at an earlier age have now increased”

Your relationships

Example:  Feeling lack of friendships or support

The lie: The feeling of this lack is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts that lead to this feeling of lack are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“My friends should call me more often”

“I am the one putting in all the work”

“Now is when I need people the most and they aren’t there”

Major life changes

Example:  Losing your job

The lie: The loss of your job is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on you losing your job are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“How am I going to pay the bills?”

“I can’t believe they fired me instead of that low life”

“See, I’m not good enough for this, this proves it”

Stress in your family

Example:  Being a caregiver (which I currently am)

The lie: Being a caregiver is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on being a caregiver are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“I don’t want to lose this person”

“Taking care of this person is such a burden on my life”

“They don’t appreciate what I do for them”

Conflicts with your beliefs and values

Example:  You value spending time with your family but don’t spend as much time with them as you would prefer

The lie: Not spending enough time with your family is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on not spending enough time with your family are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“I should be spending more time with my family”

“If I stop working overtime then I won’t be able to pay the bills, and then we will lose the house, and then my spouse will divorce me, and then I won’t see my kids as often….AHHHHH”

“I am missing my kids growing up by not being there”

Your surroundings

Example: You live in a crowded city

The lie: The crowded city is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on you living in a crowded city are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“I can’t stand being able to walk to the store while being elbowed 20 times”

“The traffic in this city makes my blood boil”

“I feel like I have no privacy around here”

Your shitty job

Example:  Being unhappy with your job

The lie: Your shitty job is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on how shitty your job is are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“I hate my boss he’s an asshole”

“Everyone at work is so pretentious”

“I cannot believe they haven’t promoted me yet”

Public Speaking

Example:  Having to give speeches in front of colleagues

The lie: Giving speeches in front of your colleagues is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on giving speeches in front of your colleagues are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“What if they don’t like my speech?”

“Now everyone sees how much of a failure I am”

“This will tarnish my flawless reputation if I screw up”

The death of a loved one

Example:  You lost your spouse

The lie: The loss of your spouse is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on losing your spouse are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“Why them? They didn’t deserve it”

“My life is not worth living anymore”

“I can never move on from this”

Relationship problems

Example:  Your spouse cheated on you

The lie: Your spouse cheating on you is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on your cheating spouse are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“I hope they burn in hell after what they did to me”

“I’m not worthy enough for someone to stay loyal to me”

“This relationship was a lie the whole time”

Increase in financial obligations

Example:  Extra medical expenses

The lie: The extra medical expenses are the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on the extra medical expenses are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“I cannot believe these expenses are not covered by the damn health care system or insurance, bunch of frauds they are”

“I can’t afford this”

“These drugs are way overpriced, what a ripoff”

Getting married

Example:  Planning the wedding

The lie: Planning the wedding is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on planning your wedding are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“There are so many things to do and not enough time”

“I feel like I am doing all of the work (even though I don’t trust anyone else to get it done)”

“I look horrible, these pictures are going to be an eyesore”

Moving to a new home

Example:  Prepping your house for sale

The lie: Prepping your house for sale is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on prepping your house for sale are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“This house is a pig sty”

“Nobody cares about this damn house but me”

“The house isn’t going to be ready on time”

Chronic illness or injury

Example:  Being diagnosed with cancer

The lie: Being diagnosed with cancer is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on being diagnosed with cancer are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“Why me?”

“I’m going to die sooner than I want”

“My life is over”

Emotional problems

Example:  Being diagnosed with depression

The lie: Being diagnosed with depression is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on being diagnosed with depression are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“This now confirms I am depressed”

“I guess this is the way it is, I am just a depressed person and there is nothing I can do about it”

“I am out of control”

Traumatic events

Example:  Having been abused

The lie: Having been abused is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts on having been abused are the cause of your stress.

Stressful thoughts such as:

“How could anyone else ever love me?”

“I should have been braver and said something earlier”

“I am such a weak person”

Attitudes and perceptions.

Example:  Your view of the world

The lie: Your view of the world is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts that create your view of the world are the cause of your stress. T

Stressful thoughts such as:

“This world is a tough place to live “

“There should only be peace in this world”

“You cannot trust anybody in this world”

Expectations

Example:  Having unrealistic expectations

The lie: Having unrealistic expectations is the cause of your stress

The truth: Your thoughts that create your unrealistic expectations are the cause of your stress

Stressful thoughts such as:

“They should know how to do that by now”

“I shouldn’t have to ask twice”

“If I did that for them then they should do this for me”

Have you figured out now what is the ONLY cause of stress?

If you guessed your thoughts you would be wrong. At this point, I can only assume you are extremely confused and I am loving the suspense.

If it is not thoughts that are the only cause of stress then what is it?

OK, OK….are you ready for it?

Are you sure?

It is the thoughts that you believe that are the only cause of your stress!

I would like to say this again as I cannot stress the importance of truly grasping what I am saying.

The thoughts you believe that are the only ones cause your stress

If you don’t believe me, re-read all of the examples from above, but this time read them without believing a single thought from the examples. In fact, how do you imagine you would feel if you believed the opposite of each of those thoughts?

I would like to now review a statement from WebMD that I mentioned in the beginning of the article that says “Sometimes the stress comes from inside, rather than outside.”.

The truth is that “Stress ALWAYS comes from the inside, rather than outside.”

We all have similar thoughts but we all believe different things, how?

How can two people respond differently to the very same situation even if they have the very same thoughts? They each believe different thoughts.

Once you start believing a thought you now give that thought more attention. This attention will lead to a feeling and this feeling will lead to a response. Therefore, different thoughts believed different responses.

Wrapping Up

I sincerely hope that finding out the one and only true cause of your emotional and psychological stress has been an uplifting and liberating experience for you. Believe me, this is one understanding that can truly change your life forever.

I encourage you to take control of the one cause of your stress by only believing in the thoughts that serve you.

how to stop emotional eating

How To Stop Emotional Eating And Food Cravings

Let’s face it, we’ve all been there, that mid-afternoon craving, the dinners that aren’t complete without a sweet finish, the late evening crunch, and the uncontrollable urge to fill cravings when stress takes over your life. This can also be applied to alcohol for those of you who are constantly tempted by that ice-cold beer or a soothing glass of wine. 

It is not the act of eating or drinking alcohol that is the issue of discussion, it is the reasoning behind those actions. Since if you are not eating or drinking for any other reason except a feeble attempt to elicit a feeling that you perceive as more positive or beneficial than what you currently feel, THAT is the problem. 

Given that we are dealing with emotions here, your emotional distress may go very deep for some of you. This may take weeks, or possibly months of active re-conditioning to really take back control, while others may come to an abrupt end after having created a massive paradigm shift in the mind. Putting a stop to emotional eating or food cravings is not a quick fix, it takes a keen understanding, a conviction to change, and daily conscious reinforcement. 

Hunger vs Cravings 

Understanding the difference between true hunger and an emotional food craving is absolutely pivotal to your long-term success towards eating intuitively. Most people that are emotional eaters have little to no distinction between the two. 

Follow the next step to help decipher between the two. 

 How To Control Emotional Eating With A Journal 

Logging your cravings into a journal is an amazing way to start understanding how your emotions and habits affect your cravings. You can really start to decipher between emotional cravings and true hunger by using this tool. 

Keeping a journal will encourage you to explore your thoughts, emotions, habits, and relationship with food in a way you have never done before. 

I highly recommend you journal for a minimum of 2 weeks. This allows enough time for patterns to emerge. Nearly all of our daily actions can be traced back to a certain pattern. Once you are aware of the pattern, your brain picks up on this. 

FREE JOURNAL DOWNLOAD 

 How To Control Emotional Eating Without Eating  

Emotional eaters use food in an attempt to elicit a certain emotion they would like to experience. This is why it is paramount to log your cravings in order to understand what those emotions are. This will bring awareness to what you were previously oblivious to. If you haven’t already, download the journal from the link above, this will make much more sense when you take a look at the journal.

Common emotions that trigger emotional eating: 

  • Despair 
  • Boredom 
  • Sadness 
  • Unworthiness 
  • Frustration (common from work stress) 
  • Fear 
  • Reward Based 

One major flaw with using food in an attempt to re-balance your emotional state (beyond the obvious of adding numerous empty calories) is that any positive feelings that may arise from your emotional binge are TEMPORARY!  

What happens an hour later when the high wears off and you go right back into that same undesired emotional state? Since you haven’t any other way to elicit the emotion you striving for other than stuffing your face with food, you will repeat the same pattern. 

 Breaking The Emotional Eating Pattern 

 STEP 1 – Get Leverage 

The first thing you need to do is get real with yourself.  Write down all the ways that your current emotional eating pattern will cause you misery in the future when it comes to your health, relationships, self-image, career, and any other area of your life that will be affected. Don’t beat around the bush, and don’t butter it up. If you think your current pattern has the potential to take 20 years off your life then write it down! BE REAL! 

If you do not get enough leverage on yourself you will not succeed. If you do not feel a compelling motivation to change the instant after you read what you wrote down then you do not have enough leverage on yourself. In other words, you need a stronger reason to inflict change. 

 STEP 2 – Replace The Pattern 

Write down 15 things (or more) you can do that will generate the desired emotions you discovered from your food log. None of these things can include eating ANYTHING! Sure, you can cook, as cooking is a fantastic therapy for many people. Don’t be eating your delicious meal as your cooking it though! And no, baking a sugar-filled dessert does not count! Cook a meal that will add years to your life, not take them off. 

Spontaneous Outcomes

This strategy relies on breaking the pattern through rearranging certain tendencies, or habits. For example, if you have a tendency to stay up late, say 1 hour later than you would like to go to bed, and this also tends to be a time when you do much of your late-night snacking, simply go to bed 1 hour earlier. By doing this you will effectively break the current pattern of associating snacking within that specific hour prior to bed, and an association with whatever you typically do within that hour before bed. If you completely eliminate both triggers then there is nothing left to associate late-night snacking with.

You can apply this strategy to any other evening tasks that are part of your ritual such as when you eat dinner, when you shower, when you watch t.v when you call your mother when you walk the dog when you go to the gym etc. Completely re-arrange when you do all these things, mix it all up, it will throw your mind for a loop, wondering what you’re doing in the shower when you are typically watching t.v and snacking at that time. There is a good chance the craving will pass since you broke your evening ritual pattern.

The way this works is you are taking advantage of the fact that humans are creatures of habits and patterns, and manipulating this to your advantage.

This is such a simple strategy that it can easily be overlooked. It is extremely powerful and so easy to implement!

How To Stop Emotional Eating Through Extreme Measures 

Before reading ahead, you must understand that what I am about to discuss is not for the faint of heart. It is a drastic attempt to kick a particular food from your diet for good. It has the ability to be highly effective if putting an end to your emotional, and even habitual eating habits for good. 

 The 24 Hour Strategy  

The strategy here is actually very simple, you may even chuckle after you read it wondering if this guy is actually serious. 

Let’s say chocolate is the bane of your existence and you must kick it from your diet for good. Buy all of your favourite chocolates, if it’s just one then buy 1 kind if you have 5 different favourites buy all 5. Make sure you buy more than enough to supply yourself as the only food you will be eating for 24 hrs. 

Yes, that is right, eat those chocolates (or whatever food it is you’re trying to kick) for 24 hours straight. You are allowed no other food. You will get sick (literally) of your chosen food by the time those 24 hours are up. 

The Premise Behind This Strategy  

Most people can relate to this: Is there a certain food you cannot eat anymore because you have gotten sick off of it at one time? Maybe it was food poisoning, maybe you had the flu, maybe you drank too much alcohol, etc. The reasoning doesn’t necessarily matter, because your brain associates being nauseated with this particular food it has been conditioned to reject even the mere thought of it. 

Your brain is currently wired to gain pleasure from eating your chosen food. The objective of this strategy is to rewire your brain to associate disgust with your chosen food. 

 Exercise is A Strategy – And It Biochemically Changes You 

If you exercise or have exercised in the past, and you are mindful of your reactions post-exercise you will notice a significant reduction or elimination of cravings. This effect can last the entire day if you work out in the morning. 

For those people who tend to reward themselves after meals or are late-night snackers, go for a 10-minute brisk walk and watch your craving disappear into thin air. 

Exercise has been shown to reduce Cortisol (our stress hormone), increase Dopamine and Serotonin (which is why you feel great after a workout), and improve insulin sensitivity (which will stabilize your blood sugar levels). If you have unstable blood sugar due to a lack of insulin sensitivity, which is the gateway to Diabetes, you will tend to crave after your blood sugar drops rapidly. 

 Meditation Is A Strategy – It Also Biochemically Changes You 

Meditation is gaining a very strong evidence-base towards its’ positive effects on the brain. One of the most notable effects is the ability of meditation to significantly reduce stress and change our state very rapidly. 

The rapid change of state can instantly reduce your stress, and in turn, reduce your stress hormone Cortisol and raise your feel-good hormones Dopamine and Serotonin.  

A great time to do a quick meditation is immediately after arriving home from work. This is typically when stress levels are at their highest and can last well into the evening affecting your quality of sleep. 

For those of you who have never tried meditation, there is a fantastic app that you can use for free to guide you along the way. The app is called InsightTimer, you can click on the link below to download it for free. 

Download: InsightTimer

 And Remember…

You Must Take Action! 

Good Luck! 

 If you have any questions feel free to contact me, I would love to help you out!

how to reduce stress

How To Reduce Stress Levels Instantly

Stress is the #1 cause of disease and an epidemic in its’ own right. Money (and anything related to this currency) and time (not enough) are probably the 2 largest contributors towards influencing people’s perceived stress levels today.

Stress is also the #1 contributor to today’s astronomically high divorce rate. You can argue that money is the #1 contributor, and that wouldn’t be false. What is the by-product of the negative connotation that money brings in this relationship that it destroys? STRESS!

Before you continue reading I want you to understand that the information I will be provided in this article is NOT a long-term solution for solving your stress “problem”. I will be providing ways to achieve immediate relief from your perceived stressors, which if implemented consistently, in the long run, can play a major role in the long-term solution.

You must understand this first…we create our own stress.

2 Effective Ways To Obliterate Stress Instantly

I will be touching on 2 effective ways to completely obliterate your stress on the spot. I can attest to their effectiveness and each strategy is nothing short of life-changing I can assure you. Neither is easy to do and must be practiced daily on even the most minute stressors.

These 2 ways are:

  1. Changing your perception/Reframing
  2. Mindfulness

These are definitely not the only 2 ways to reduce stress levels immediately, they are the only 2 I will be touching on in this article. I chose these 2 strategies based on personal experience, as I have used them on myself and others with outstanding results.

How To Reduce Stress By Changing Your Perception

I know, you might be thinking…

“NO F*cking way, this happened to me, that happened to me, this person did this to me, that person said that to me, THESE ARE ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE CAUSING MY STRESS NOT ME!”

I hate to break it to ya, it is not the circumstances of your life that cause your stress, it is your perception of those circumstances that cause your stress. Within that perception, you develop the meaning you have given to each circumstance.

So long as you remain a victim of circumstance, you will be a prisoner of your own mind

Example:

(In this example I will use one of my clients. For sake of privacy I will name the lady June and leave the event nameless)

June and her husband created a special event to gather more awareness of a specific topic. The purpose of this event was not to make money, and solely for awareness. The couple had worked tirelessly on creating this special event, putting in countless hours, and funded it with their own money.

The couple had just hosted their 2nd annual event. The turnout was good considering the poor weather, as the event was hosted outdoors. During the event, one of their trusted board members approached them with some sour news. This board member informed them that another board member is conspiring against them.

The plan was to hijack the event, and ultimately steal the rights to it. There was much effort put into the hijacking and was planned months prior. Without the act of the one board member who fed June this information, the hijacking probably would have been a success.

June and her husband are now in an ongoing legal battle with the hijacker,  in order to ensure rights to the event they had created from scratch.

Junes’ perception of the event: It was a personal attack

June took the attempted hijacking as a personal attack against her, as a person.

Can you imagine how much stress that would inflict on you to take the majority of your unfortunate circumstances personally? To make the entire situation about YOU?

How a shift in perception brought June immediate stress relief

June’s New Perception: The attempted hijacking is actually a compliment

How is that horrible action a compliment you may ask? June created such a phenomenal event that someone actually put their reputation on the line in an attempt to steal it from her. People don’t do that unless what they are going after is worth their own reputation.

Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning we give it

Anthony Robbins

How the power of questions changed June’s perception:

Question: “Why would anyone ever want to steal an event from someone?”

Answer: “Because they want to own it for themselves”

Question: “And why would they want to own the event for themselves?”

Answer: “Because they see potential in it, they see value in it, maybe they envy it because they don’t believe they can create such a phenomenal event, and need to steal it from someone else, maybe they saw all the hard work has been done and want to now ride the wave of success?”

Question: “Why would someone put their entire reputation on the line in an attempt to steal something that is not theirs?”

Answer: “Because they see enormous value in it”

Question: “Who created this enormous value from scratch?”

Answer: “June did. Congratulations to June, as she just created an event so phenomenal that someone was willing to put their entire reputation on the line for it. Trying to hijack it was their way of complimenting you on creating such enormous value.”

2 Questions you can ask yourself to get curious:

  1. What else could this mean?
  2. If I had to find something positive about this what would it be?

Practice Reframing By Using Past Unwanted Circumstances

Get a piece of paper and write down this exercise:

  1. Choose a situation from your past that still brings unwanted emotions when you think about it
  2. Ask yourself the 2 questions above to get yourself curious
  3. Write down all the answers you can come up with, the more answers the better

Practice this with as many unwanted experiences from your past as you can. The more you practice, the more you train your new thought patterns, and you end up breaking your old thought patterns that have created much of your unwanted stress in the past.

How To Reduce Stress With Mindfulness

For those who are unaware, mindfulness means being fully immersed in the present moment. Your mind is not anywhere else except being aware of the very moment you are in at any given time. Mindfulness provides immediate stress relief due to the simplicity of being in the present moment.

How does this happen? Stress is caused by thoughts about either the past or the future. Thoughts, and therefore stress cannot exist when we are immersed in, and fully aware of the present moment.

This sounds so simple, yet the majority of people struggle with being mindful. The main cause for this is not being aware of being aware, this awareness is what many spiritual experts call the “witness” or “impartial spectator”.

In order to catch yourself in thought, you must first be aware that you are thinking. Without this awareness, mindfulness will not happen very often for you, and you will live mindlessly, and the chronic stress will continue to eat away at you.

You cannot be both unhappy and fully present in the Now.

Eckhart Tolle

Develop A Trigger For Your Awareness

When you are thinking and acting mindlessly, you must have a trigger that brings you back to the present moment. A trigger that will bring awareness to the “witness” or “impartial spectator”.

Examples of Triggers:

  • Focusing on, and taking a deep breath
  • Wearing an elastic band on your wrist and snapping it
  • Focusing on a specific colour
  • Focus on 1 of your 5 senses
  • Pinch yourself

Your trigger can literally be anything, do what works best for you. Try different triggers and choose one that resonates with you. Start off by using the trigger any time you catch yourself experiencing an emotion you don’t want to feel and bring yourself back to the present moment.

Taking Action And Adjusting Expectations

I completely understand how difficult can be to implement either one of these strategies. It may get frustrating at times, you may feel like you aren’t making any progress, but as long as you are doing your best to implement the change then you are making progress.

Adjust your expectations so that no matter the outcome, you win. If you establish an expectation that it will be easy to implement one of these strategies and that it will work immediately then you are setting yourself up for major frustrations.

Establish the expectation that you will give 100% effort every time, regardless of the outcome, and you will win.

Start small and practice each strategy daily. Eventually, both strategies will become an unconscious act, and your life will change forever, as did mine. Repetition is key!

If you have any experience with either of these strategies please let everyone know in the comments below!

best sleep supplements

5 Best Natural Sleep Supplements To Help You Sleep Like A Baby

Having worked with numerous people over the years, poor sleep habits has been one of the most common struggles among all my clients. Getting 7-8 hours of QUALITY sleep is imperative for your health. There is a seemingly endless list of health issues that can root from poor quality sleep.

Keep in mind, supplementation is exactly that, an assistance to the primary method of achievement. These supplements are not solutions to your problem. They to be used in conjunction with your primary plan to resolve your sleep issues, while your plan catches traction.

The most common reasons for sleep issues are:

  • Nutritional deficiencies
  • Generally poor diet, leading to a host of inconsistencies
  • Hormone imbalances
  • Stress
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Poor evening ritual
  • Caffeine intake
  • Not sleeping in complete darkness

The underlying causes for your sleep issues NEED to be addressed if you truly want to cure yourself.

Below is a list of the 5 best natural sleep supplements I have compiled through anecdotal observations from myself, and others, as well as research.

Best Natural Sleep Supplements For Getting To Sleep

Rescue Remedy Night Spray

rescue remedy

Ingredients: 

White Chestnut: To help ease the restless mind.
Star of Bethlehem: For trauma and shock.
Clematis: For the tendency to “pass out”, and unconsciousness, being ‘far away’ and not present mentally.
Cherry Plum: Fear of mind giving way, verge of breakdown, anger.
Impatiens: For irritability, tension and fidgety.
Rock Rose: For frozen terror and panic.

Pros:

  • Extremely convenient being a spray oppose to a pill. All you have to do is roll over, grab it off your nightstand, and spray on your tongue. Taking a pill would require you to sit up, grab some water, and gulp down a pill. This action alone can kick you out of your trance, into a fully awake state.

Cons: 

  • The taste doesn’t personally bother me, most people do make comments regarding the poor taste.

Recommended Dosage: The dose recommended by Bach is 1-2 sprays prior to sleep. My personal recommendation, based on anecdotal evidence, is 2-5 sprays.

BUY NOW

Magnesium

sleep supplements

Magnesium is involved in over 300 chemical processes in the body. Most people are deficient in magnesium for 3 main reasons: our soils are depleted of nutrients, foods high in magnesium are not eaten enough, and foods are eaten that deplete magnesium.

The form of magnesium DOES MATTER. You must ingest a highly absorbable form of magnesium to reap the benefits. The best forms of oral magnesium are citrate, taurate, malate, glycinate, and carbonate. Magnesium chloride has arguably the highest bio-availability of all forms of magnesium. It is absorbed topically, used in gels and oils. Magnesium chloride is the reason Epsom salts work so well so ease muscle tension and promote relaxation.

I recommend Natural Calm by Natural Vitality. They use only the most bio-available forms of magnesium, in powders, convenient packets,  and topical gels and oils.

Recommended Dosage: 600-800 mg 30-45 min prior to sleep

Possible Side Effects: laxative effect, upset stomach

BUY NOW

Valerian Root

Now Valerian Root

Valerian has been commonly used in Europe and Asia to treat anxiety and insomnia for years. Studies have shown promising results in using Valerian for insomnia, and somewhat mixed results for anxiety. Being a herbal extract. the quality of the extract plays a vital role in its’ effectiveness.

My personal, anecdotal evidence regarding Valerian, from myself and others, has been that it helps more with promoting relaxation and sleep than it does with the quality of sleep. There are studies that have shown it improved quality of sleep, I would say the jury is still out.

Possible Side effects: Valerian usually causes no side effects. However, it will likely cause sedation. Some people feel a “hangover” after taking valerian. It may also cause a headache, upset stomach, uneasiness, irregular heartbeat, or other symptoms.

I recommend the brands NOW or Nature’s Way for your Valerian supplement. Both trustworthy brands.

BUY NOW

Best Natural Sleep Supplements For Sleep Quality

 

Gaba

Now Gaba

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an amino acid, is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in your central nervous system (CNS). That is, your body uses GABA to dampen nerve activity in your brain, which leads to feelings of calm and relaxation. Research has shown that insomniacs may have low levels of GABA.

Through my personal experience with GABA, and experiences of others, GABA appears to be more effective at providing a better quality of sleep and reducing the number of wake ups throughout the night. I, and others have also noticed a slight relaxation effect from it as well.

Dosage: 1-3 grams 20 min prior to sleep. I recommend powder form for cost-effectiveness.

Possible Side Effects: Slight breathlessness has been reported, which I have actually experienced myself. This lasts roughly 10-15 seconds and is completely harmless. This is most likely due to its’ initial effects on the nerves.

BUY NOW

Phosphatidyl Serine

Now Phosphatidyl Serine

Phosphatidyl Serine (PS) is a lipid found in our body’s cell membranes. PS has been shown to be quite effective at reducing cortisol levels in the body. Elevated evening cortisol, typically due to stress or poor nutrition, will promote wakefulness, and keep you up to the wee hours of the night.

Similar to GABA, PS may provide you a better quality sleep, as well as help you get to sleep faster. Both have been shown in studies, and anecdotal evidence from myself, and others coincides with these findings.

It is best to opt for Phosphatidyl Serine that is not Soy-based, as it poses GMO issues.

Dosage: 300-400 mgs  4 hrs prior to sleep, and another 300-400 mgs 30-60 min prior to sleep. This is my personal recommendation, as more research is needed on dosages. Don’t take for more than 4 weeks straight.

Possible Side Effects: Upset stomach, gas

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What about Melatonin?

Isn’t it one of the best natural sleep supplements?

Melatonin, secreted by the pineal gland, is the messenger that announces bedtime to our brains. Darkness stimulates its release into the bloodstream; light inhibits it.

Dosage Issue: It has been concluded that the appropriate dose for Melatonin ranges from 0.3 mg – 1 mg, to mimic our bodies’ natural production. Unfortunately, most melatonin supplements are sold 3-10 times the recommended dose, this is complete overkill. Being a hormone, this can come with grave consequences such as abdominal discomfort, mild anxiety, irritability, confusion, short-lasting feelings of depression, next-day grogginess, and hormone irregularities.

It’s a Hormone: Being a hormone, Melatonin may reduce the bodies’ natural production over time and exacerbate the very problem you are trying to use Melatonin to assist you with.

Melatonin is a sleep and body clock regulator – NOT a sleep initiator. Despite what experiences you say you might have had, or heard of, they were most likely placebo, or the results were due to other unidentified factors.

On top of all that, Melatonin has not even been proven effective for improving insomnia!

Have you tried any of these natural sleep supplements?

What were your experiences?

Are there any natural sleep supplements not on the list that you feel deserve attention?

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