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Stephanie Moses is the Founder of The Step J Personal Brand Lifestyle of Self Love and Self Care. Her personal brand encompassess strategies to inspire, empower, and equip women of all walks of life, races and creeds to overcome their mental roadblocks that may be preventing them from becoming their best selves. She provides women and men with inspiration, resources, guidance and support to accomplish a more fulfilling life while discovering greater self worth, love, wellness, and self confidence.

What sparked your desire to help women with stress specifically? 

There are so many women who have internal struggles when it comes to stress. They struggle often and most times silently. For a woman, silence is sometimes her loudest cry. Stress is deadly and because I’ve been witness to many women in my life who’ve passed away from stress and stress-related causes, I wanted to write this to serve as a personal alleviator for women who find themselves stressed often.

Tell me about some lesser known effects of stress on the body. 

1. Stress can cause memory issues. What I’ve learned is when the body pumps out stress hormones, this process requires a significant amount of brain power. In addition, many studies have found that stress not only affects the way we store and recall memories, it can cause us to mis-remember or even not remember things at all.

2.. I’ve learned that stress can cause literal headaches. TTH or Tension-Type Headaches are a type of migraine that is directly brought on by stress.

3. Lower-back pain is a type of pain that can be triggered by stress. When we are stressed, our bodies react to what’s happening in our brain. Our muscles tend to “lock up” or create tensions within itself and this can lead to pain around the lower back.

4. Insomnia is a huge response to a stressed mind. It’s been studied that some issues with sleep have been related to stress resulting in the inability to sleep.

Are there 3-5 steps you recommend for women to better manage their stress?

One remedy that I recommend for women to better manage their stress is to practice the art of deep breathing. Often when we are stressed, we forget to breathe. When we breathe deeply, the brain receives a message to calm down, in turn causing the body to receive a message to relax. Lowering our stress levels can be helped by inhaling deeply, holding that breath for a count of 6-8 seconds, and then releasing that breath slowly. Another trick I like to use to de-stress is maintaining good nutrition and prioritizing physical activity. When you exercise, the body emits a feel-good endorphin which can make you feel more relaxed. Also, when your body moves, it releases all the tensions that stress may have pent up in your body. I also like to manage how much I consume from social media. The images on social media can seriously stress me out, so I like to limit how much I see. I designate specific times to be interactive and I have a hard cutoff at night so that I’m not taking what I saw on social media to bed with me. Another method I use to manage stress is connecting with others. I find that when I’m able to connect with friends or family this causes my stress levels to go down. And Lastly, I make time for myself. I will always prioritize time for myself. I make a point to eat well, exercise, pray, meditate, and limit social media. I work this into my daily routine because when I stop taking care of myself, I start to feel the implications of stress. It’s like flying on an airplane in an emergency: I have to put on the mask myself before I put the mask on anyone else.. I always have to make sure Stephanie is cared for because there is no one else to do it.

What is next for your brand this year and how readers connect with you online?

My inspiration for the next year is to bring women together in an environment where they can be safe and free. I want to create spaces where women feel inspired to talk about things like stress where they have the ultimate circle of support from other women in communities who care about them. Because of this inspiration, I will launch a women’s retreat hopefully by this summer, so that women have the space for community, support, inspiration, and love. You can connect with me on my website: thestepj.com, my facebook: The Step J, Instagram: @TheStepJ, and number (562) 719-4270.

Photography Credit: Blossom Blue Studios