De-Stress And Meditate (with chocolate)

Emotional health and physical health are bound together by stress and the neurohormonal chemicals that it causes. Consistent daily consumption of high cocoa chocolate is associated with a reduction of stress, as well as objective measures of anxiety.

Used in the right way, chocolate can help move the needle in a healthier direction. It will not fix anything, but it can bias your brain’s chemical stress soup into a more healthy direction.

NOTE! This is important. Eating chocolate in response to an emotional meltdown, swing, or even just a bad day, will not work, because chocolate cannot fix the causes of the crisis. But eating the right chocolate, in the right way, as a part of your daily diet can simply make those stressors a bit easier to manage.

Tips:

• • For emotional health, chocolate must be used proactively, not reactively.
• • An essential tension: Emotional health is just as important to manage, as it is hard to pin down.
• • To make this work, you have to choose darker chocolate. The active ingredient is in the cocoa itself.
• • If you cannot stop, don’t start. You don’t HAVE to eat chocolate, it’s just good for you.
• • Combine meditation with chocolate. Link these two stress-busters together and note the outcomes in your daily life.