SERENITY NOW

Most days, “quite a bit” or “extremely stressful” is how 23 per cent of Canadians rated their stress levels, according to a 2014 Statistics Canada survey. And ripe for lunchtime yoga were those in the core working ages (35 to 54) when daily stress rates peak. “One day, I looked up and thought I’m generally a very happy person but I’m not happy anymore. I’m extremely stressed out. And I’m not as positive as I was,” says Ahmed Elafifi, who left his job as a soft drink executive to develop Tranquini ( tranquini.com), an all-natural fruit-vegetable juice containing extracts from green tea (theanine), lemon balm, chamomile and lavender – all proven to be calming. Its soothing effect that is said to last up to five hours is, for Elafifi, “a positive way” to counter stress “without any negative side effects.” Good thing, as stress can lead to not-so-healthy habits such as smoking, drinking and eating poorly.

Stress is also linked to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, immune complications, as mentioned above, and insomnia. Cortisol, the hormone released when we’re stressed, can prevent us from getting deep, restorative sleep and lead to weight gain.

Looking to detoxify – including from stress and synthetics – after a cancer diagnosis, Monica Ruffo de- veloped a line of organic plant-based supplements. Her Well Told Health

Relaxation booster contains lemon balm and goji berries. “You could have a lemon balm tea, and people do to relax. But because it’s the ground powdered leaf, this is actually more potent,” she says. And goji berries contain the most melatonin – the hormone that triggers sleep and sleep through the night – of plant-based foods. Go to welltold.com for info and recipes. —TL