🍁 Don’t Let Your Resilience Fall with the Leaves

I love the changing of the seasons, especially when we head into autumn. Crisp mornings, leaves turning red and gold, warming soups and stews, big bowls of porridge and all those gorgeous spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

Then there are frosty walks, candles, open fires and cosy blankets. Throw in the occasional glass of red by the fire and I’m quite happy!

Perhaps there’s something we can learn from nature at this time of year. Everything starts to slow down and conserve its energy, while most of us seem to carry on at 100 miles an hour.

And as soon as September arrives, we start hearing a lot about immune health. Vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, eating your greens and doing everything possible to avoid the latest bug doing the rounds.

All important, but there’s another part of supporting our health and resilience that we sometimes overlook.

Stress affects more than your mood

We tend to think of stress as something that affects how we feel. Frazzled, irritable, anxious or unable to switch off. But the stress response is very physical too.

When we perceive a threat, hormones including adrenaline and cortisol help make energy available and keep us alert, while less urgent processes temporarily take a back seat. Brilliant if you’re being chased by a tiger. Less helpful when your “tiger” is work, family worries, traffic, a constantly pinging phone or lying awake at 2am thinking about something you forgot to do.

Short-term stress is completely normal. The problem comes when stress becomes the background noise of everyday life and we don’t get enough opportunity to recover.

Your gut, skin, hormones and immune system

Ever lost your appetite when you’ve been worried, or had a dodgy stomach before an important meeting?

Your brain and digestive system are in constant communication through the gut-brain axis. When you’re in a heightened fight or flight state, stress can influence digestive function and gut motility, potentially contributing to symptoms such as bloating, indigestion, reflux and changes in bowel habits.

Stress can also influence inflammation, immune activity and the skin barrier, which may aggravate skin problems in some people. Our hormonal systems don’t exist in separate little boxes. Long-term stress can affect sleep, appetite, blood sugar regulation and reproductive hormone signalling, which can feel particularly noticeable during perimenopause and menopause.

And, of course, there’s immune health. Ongoing stress can affect immune regulation, but there’s also an indirect effect. When we’re stressed, we often sleep less, eat differently, rely on more caffeine, drink more alcohol and spend less time looking after ourselves. It all adds to the overall load.

Five simple ways to support your resilience

☕️ Keep an eye on caffeine. I’m not coming for your morning coffee! But if you’re already feeling wired or sleeping badly, several coffees throughout the day might not be helping. Try keeping caffeine to the morning or swapping your afternoon coffee for something caffeine-free.

💤 Protect your sleep. Most adults need around 7 to 9 hours. Rather than treating sleep as something you fit in once everything else is finished, make it part of looking after yourself.

🥬 Replenish with good food. Magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C and potassium all play important roles in energy production, nervous system function and our normal stress response. Think leafy greens, nuts and seeds, beans, wholegrains, eggs, fish, berries and colourful vegetables. As always, food first.

👟 Get outside and move. A 20-minute walk can support mood, sleep and stress regulation while giving you daylight, fresh air and some breathing space away from screens.

🍳 Include protein at each meal. Protein provides amino acids needed for many processes in the body, including pathways involved in neurotransmitter production. It can also help with satiety and steadier blood sugar, which is useful when a stressful afternoon has you wandering into the kitchen looking for something sweet. No judgement, we all do it!

Take a leaf out of autumn’s book

There isn’t one magical solution that can undo months of running on empty. What matters is doing the simple things consistently.

Eat well, move, get outside, protect your sleep and give your nervous system opportunities to switch off.

If you’re experiencing seemingly unrelated symptoms, from digestive problems and poor sleep to low energy, skin or hormonal changes, sometimes it helps to look at the whole picture rather than each symptom in isolation.

That’s exactly what I do in nutritional therapy. We look at diet, lifestyle, sleep, stress and health history to understand what might be contributing and, importantly, what changes are realistic for you.

No perfect diets. No one-size-fits-all plan. And definitely no confiscating your coffee without a very good reason.