Picture yourself walking along a wooded trail, sunlight dappling the ground and a cool breeze on your face.  You take a deep breath, feel your lungs expand, and your heartrate lowers as you soak in the beauty of nature all around you.

How do you feel?

A bit more calm? A bit less tense? This short guided meditation has just stimulated your relaxation response. In doing so, you’ve just experienced one of the best ways to reduce cortisol naturally.

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Stress, Cortisol, and Modern Life

There is no escaping it: we live in a stressed out world. The 24-hour news cycle is relentless. There is bad news of all magnitudes assaulting our brains constantly. This agitation causes our bodies to release cortisol, our major stress hormone.

Cortisol had an important role to play in our evolution. Cortisol is what triggered the flight or fight response when our ancestors encountered a predator. It has kept the human race alive.

The problem is that today we no longer face lions or bears like our ancestors did. Instead our everyday lives are burdened with demands: unreasonable bosses, annoying coworkers, entitled children, and spouses who don’t seem to realize that they, too, can contribute to the housework.

Bottom line: We are overtired and overworked.

Unfortunately, this lifestyle stress causes us physical harm. We are literally embodying the stress of our everyday lives. Our bodies continue to pump out more and more cortisol to deal with everyday stress, but we don’t need it. We have become adapted—or , rather, maladapted—to living in this high idle, buzzing type of life.

Why is cortisol harmful?

So the cortisol builds up in our bodies and wreaks havoc on our entire endocrine system, upsetting everything from your metabolism to your mood to your brain function. That excess cortisol manifests as fatigue, depression, weight gain (especially around the abdomen), decreased concentration, and more.

For women in perimenopause, reducing cortisol is key to balancing hormones. If you suffer from hot flashes, brain fog, insomnia, or mood swings, hormonal imbalance and its star player cortisol is to blame. And if increased belly fat has become the hallmark of your forties, that’s cortisol for sure. Stress relief in perimenopause is really important!

(Not sure if you’re in perimenopause? Here are the Top 10 Perimenopause Questions that can help you know for sure!)

Even if you’re not a woman over 40, cortisol can wreak havoc on your body. Emily and Amelia Nagoski explore the stress cycle in their excellent book Burnout. I highly recommend it as a resource for learning to understand why stress– and the stress hormone cortisol– are so disruptive to your overall health.

9 Simple Strategies for Lowering Cortisol Naturally

1. MEDITATION

Like you experienced reading the opening of this post, meditation is quick and easy way to lower cortisol levels naturally. While most people think of meditation as something that people who already have it all together do, that’s just not true. Meditation is a tool for regular people to use to help reduce stress and feel more balanced.

(Read about my experience when I meditated for 10 minutes a day for 10 days here!)

Mindfulness meditation is scientifically proven to lower cortisol levels in the blood. By practicing calming the mind and slowing the breath, the body experiences a reset of sorts. The nervous system downshifts, and the adrenal glands get the message to take a break. The result is lower cortisol production.

Meditation for menopause is shown to lessen the unpleasant side effects of midlife’s natural hormonal change. And since cortisol imbalance is one of the big triggers for hormonal imbalance in perimenopause, it makes sense that using meditation would have benefits.

Feel awkward about learning to meditate? This beginner’s meditation book will take you from scared to serene in just 10 days.

2. SILENCE

Have you ever dreamed of going on a silent retreat, just so people would leave you alone for a few days?

I have. (Read here to find out why.)

Because we are inundated with constant noise—both visual and aural—our brains need a break! Giving your brain a little silence helps to calm the nervous system and send signals to reduce cortisol production. Silence is an excellent way to nurture the parasympathetic nervous system and enjoy more “tend and befriend” kinds of feelings.

Even if you can’t get away for a silent retreat, there are easy hacks to reduce the noise in your everyday life. Simply turning off notifications for email and social media is a start. Those alerts disrupt your brain and its train of thought multiple times throughout the day. Shifting your settings to silent notifications is an easy way to lower cortisol naturally.

How can you add more silence into your day?

3. NATURE

In case you didn’t guess from the opening guided meditation scenario, nature is an ideal way to lower cortisol levels. The positive effects our bodies gain from being in nature are tremendous. Not only does being in nature reduce cortisol levels but it also tempers the entire nervous system into a more calm and relaxed state.

Even if you live in an urban area, I bet you can find yourself a small patch of grass somewhere nearby. This practice of “earthing”—standing barefoot on the ground—is scientifically proven to reduce inflammation.

As cortisol is the stress hormone responsible for spurring inflammation in the body, utilizing this free and inclusive practice of grounding one’s self on the earth is a healthy idea.

If you feel like earthing is a little too “woo woo” for you, go find yourself a nice sunset. The physiological reason we are drawn to sunsets is that the beauty of nature is calming and cortisol reducing.

4. NOURISHING FOODS

While we’re focusing here on reducing cortisol levels naturally, it’s important to understand the essential role that cortisol plays in balancing blood sugar. Keeping a steady, gentle wave of insulin and cortisol in the body is what delivers optimal health.

That said, there are a few foods that can help stabilize cortisol levels. Fruits like pears and bananas are natural cortisol lowering foods. You may be surprised to learn that dark chocolate is, too!

If making healthy foods at home is one of your stress triggers, trying a food delivery service or prepared meals from a quality grocer for a few weeks is a good solution. They offer a time-saving solution to your healthy eating stressors.

5. SLEEP ROUTINE

Getting quality sleep is essential for regulating cortisol production. Having more balanced cortisol levels makes it easier to wake in the morning and fall asleep at night. And we all know the importance of getting good sleep!

Suffer from common sleep problems? Getting into a sleep routine can help you get better quality sleep. If you are drowsy during the day due to poor sleep at night, incorporating one of these fatigue fighters can help stabilize your energy levels. (And guess what– most of them are cortisol busters, too!)

If you have a hard time falling asleep, using a bedtime routine can help signal to your body that it is time to tune out for the day. Even better, the activities in a bedtime routine like yoga, meditation, or reading are also cortisol busters. Win-win!

Using a weighted blanket also helps many people fall asleep faster. The gentle pressure all over the body calms the nervous system and allows you to fall asleep. You can use it any time to help feel calmer and more secure.

6. ADJUSTING EXERCISE HABITS

Did you know that too much exercise is a common cause of high cortisol? It’s true!

If you’re thinking that this idea of exercise as a CAUSE of stress is crazy, I once again urge you to read Burnout. It’s a deep dive into the science of stress.

Here’s the tl;dr…

For those people who are over-exercising, your body is producing cortisol in response to your extended efforts. Even if you are using exercise as a stress relief tool, your body can be misinterpreting your efforts as something it should be fighting. How frustrating is that?

My suggestion: back off the length of your workouts, and increase the intensity of your sessions. Learn how to use an interval timer and three big reasons why interval workouts are better suited for lowering cortisol.

Adjusting exercise habits is an effective way to lower cortisol naturally. By simply reducing the duration, intensity, or frequency of workouts the body can get the message to lay off the cortisol production.

7. YOGA

If you need to dial back your workouts for a bit balance cortisol levels, yoga is a fantastic option. You’ll still get the physical health benefits from moving your body, plus the cortisol reduction, too!

Studies show that yoga lowers cortisol levels, even from the very first time someone tries it. The exact reasoning as to why this cortisol lowering effect happens isn’t pinpointed, but it is likely to have something to do with the breath/body connection.

If you are interested in trying some basic yoga postures to help lower cortisol levels, try these three:

Easy Pose  –  Seated Forward Fold  –  Child’s Pose

And if you really want to bathe your body in cortisol-busting yogic goodness, try aqua yoga!

8. ASKING FOR/RECEIVING HELP

At the outset, asking for and receiving help should seem like the easiest way to reduce cortisol levels naturally. The truth is, for most women, this is the most challenging option.

We are raised to be self-reliant, to the point that asking for and receiving help can be interpreted as a sign of weakness.

If you can flip this popular script on its head and realize that asking for and receiving help not only lowers your stress levels but also envelopes you in your community, it can be easier to make the shift. So if you are tired of being the always perfect plate spinner, know that banding together with others is good for your health!

And here’s a BONUS natural way to reduce cortisol– just so we don’t overlook the obvious!

9. BREATHE

If all of those options still sound like too much work, or you’re too overwhelmed to know where to start, taking deep and even breaths is another option for lowering cortisol. It really is as easy as it sounds!

Feel the sense of calm flow throughout your body with your breath. As you breathe more deeply, it is easier to relax and release tension from your muscles.

Which of these 9 Strategies to Lower Cortisol Naturally appeals most to you? Leave me a note in the comments!

The Well Balanced Women blog is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please discuss your health issues with a licensed medical practitioner.