If you have a family to look after or a job to attend to or a body to take care of, you may feel stress at any given day for many different reasons. Yes, in fact, I imply everybody on this planet is susceptible to get stressed! That's why this episode on stress management and good self-care practices is useful for everyone.

My guest for this week's podcast is Rita Garnto. Rita is an author and educator. She had a 20-year career in western healthcare as a Registered Respiratory Therapist and worked in Canada (where she was born), Saudi Arabia and in the United States. In 2004 she began her massage therapy private practice and after 16 years running, she is now educating and speaking on the dangers of stress and providing simple self-care solutions to combat the negative effects of stress. Learn more from her book "Simple Self-Care Saved Me" here.

In her career, she had cared for patients ranging in age from premature babies to the elderly and everyone in between. In her lengthy career, she had been part of the trauma flight team at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. and she was caring for critically ill patients during transport flights on helicopters and aeroplanes. Rita has vast experience in caring and supporting patients in all kind of stressful situations. Over time, her mission has evolved into focusing on improving the health and life of busy women and their families, simply and without overwhelm.

Interview Highlights

* Self-care is about self-preservation and not self-indulgence* Rita learned about stress from working in a life or death environment as being part of a trauma flight team for many years, also her personal experience with her family as well as being a massage therapist who saw many clients that came through because of stress-related issues.* We often under estimate the level of control we have in life, so the key question is, “What changes are you going to make?” If you want to break from your current situation.* Using her trauma flight team days to develop her stress management lectures and presentations to educate people how to manage stress on a daily basis.* Connecting the Eastern philosophy and Western medical training to reduce stress.* Time out to stress less - Rita's short Facebook Live to give short tips and advice for us to practise self-care, to connect with others, and to be authentic.* When we feel stress, our brain triggers the fight or flight response in our body. It is an essential response if we need to run away from actual danger, but when that is not the case, it puts pressure on our mental and physical health, especially when it happens frequently.* Other negative effects of stress include stress eating or loss of appetite, insomnia, may be withdrawn or trigger anxiety, mild depression, etc.* Women tend to take care of everybody else before we take care of ourselves or need to get permission to do self-care.* The difference between self-care and simple self-care: easy actions and habits that can build on themselves.

If you would like to connect with Rita, please visit her website or FaceBook page:

simpleselfcare.net

https://simpleselfcare.net/book

https://www.facebook.com/rkgarnto

Video

https://youtu.be/oFiLVsGPHP8

Transcript

Sze Wing:hi everybody,