I never used to consider myself as someone with has stress and anxiety. But as I’m learning many lessons in my thirties, I realized I’ve simply gotten good at avoidance and distraction vs. actually managing. I wanted to share a bit about my journey with these symptoms and share ways how I’ve taken control.

My Journey with Stress & Anxiety

Twenties

In my twenties, I acted incredibly carefree. But truthfully, I was carrying an unhealthy amount of debt and struggling with a shopping addiction that led me to excessive spending. I chose to avoid the problem and instead tell myself I would eventually take hold it of. I’d over-exert myself with cardio — running, literally away from it all. It took me hitting rock bottom a few times and having the courage to confront my family about what was going on. Happy to say I got myself back on track and now am proud to have a new outlook on how I spend — more about my journey and my style formula here.

Thirties

There’s this whole adulting thing that happens as you age. Stressors that come with finances, finding a partner, growing a family, buying a home, maybe running a business, dealing with health, death or other family issues. On top of that, your body goes through changes, and if you’re a woman, things can get thrown off your hormones easily. So the idea of having anxiety about things going on in your daily life because of stress, doesn’t sound so abnormal.

First Year of Motherhood

About three months after having Boden, I encountered pretty bad postpartum depression and anxiety. You can read a bit about this period here. It truly felt like it came out of nowhere. I felt overwhelmed, sad, guilty, and just overall not myself. I had left my corporate job the year before so I could try my hand as an entrepreneur, allowing me the time and flexibility to be at home with my newborn. This definitely had an impact on my experience, and I wish I would have addressed the feelings earlier as they lasted about 9 months, which was really hard. The things that ultimately helped were: seeing a personal therapist, getting a part-time nanny 2-3 times a week, learning how to communicate more effectively with Trevor on my needs and taking time for personal self care.

One year into motherhood, I took a new path with my career, launching The Grey Edit Photo, which helped reduce anxiety but definitely added stress as a new business. Also, I should mention COVID was at the height during this time, so that didn’t help things. I started to encounter an increase in hormonal acne. Cystic pimples that not only were painful but caused my confidence to drop and keep the depression lingering. So I decided to take more control: I found a dermatologist, a medspa to help me with treatments, a nutritionist to help me with diet and a naturopathic doctor to connect the dots of it all. Over the course of a year, the team of advocates I’d built up helped me get a hold of it all. You can read more about my skin journey here.

Working with a naturopathic doctor focused on integrating Eastern medicine with Western, was very eye-opening. It gave such great perspective on what it was I should focus on and what was truly causing me issues. Through energy testing, Dr. Fox of Constellation Naturopathic (1000% recommend) identified areas within my body needing attention — my ovaries and my gut. This was no surprise as I had just had a baby and hormones are often very unbalanced after. With my gut, I’d also always struggled with digestion. After a very insightful stool sample test, we found a parasite needing attention along with other bacteria. Thus, natural tinctures, supplements and seed cycling were prescribed and all made a significant difference over time.

Second Year of Motherhood

Two years into motherhood, I found myself feeling good about my body and my career, but then personal matters really took over. Hardships within my family, my marriage, making the decision to sell our first home and begin a search for something new. All of these things weighed on me heavily and I buried myself in work to cope. In 2021, I booked 125 shoots for my photo biz. I was trying to prove to myself and to my family that I could make money on my own and maintain life as an entrepreneur vs going back to a 9 to 5. But the burnout was creeping in. I was working late nights, throwing off my sleep schedule weekly. Personal therapy, couples therapy, self care and getting on a better routine really helped me through this time.

Currently

I started off this new year focusing on intention and slowness. Working to redefine my output and how to heal my relationships. However as of late, my eye recently started twitching, my mind feels scattered and my acne is back — not as bad as before, but still persistent. I recently had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Fox, who helped identify a significant amount of stress in my body, to where I’m feeling the effects of overexerting my adrenals. I was dumbfounded at first but then it all really made sense. A week later my therapist confirmed that some people who carry stress often find ways to cope with it by adding more stress. This was on point. My to-do’s this time include: taking the DUTCH hormone test, adding back in supplements, setting boundaries with family, journaling and simplifying my days so I can set a better pace.

How I’ve Worked to Manage Stress & Anxiety (And Continue To)

As a recap to it all, here is a list of things that have truly made a positive impact on dealing with the stress and anxiety in my life. I hope this can help you in some way.

• finding a healthy balance with excercise — a mix of cycling, walks & pilates
• taking control of my finances and ridding of debt
• developing a low buy mentality with shopping
• getting childcare
• educating myself on how to eat healthy and nourish my body
• drinking plenty of water every day
• self care in the form of morning coffee, meditation,journaling, skincare, taking baths, allowing personal days
• appointments with a personal therapist and marriage therapist
• seeing a naturopathic doctor to find the root of issues
• finding a medspa to provide skin treatments
• taking supplements
• taking natural tinctures to balance hormones
• developing a slower pace for work
• getting more adequate sleep (around 7 hours a night)
• setting boundaries
• communicating needs in my relationships