Managing stress every day

Dr Rangan Chatterjee (43) is a GP, author and podcast host. Born in Manchester, he lives in Cheshire with his wife, Vidhaata, and their nine-year-old son and six-year-old daughter

Rangan Chatterjee

Iget up at 5.30am. I normally wake before the alarm. Before I had kids, I’d read the papers over coffee and then go to the gym on the way to work. I don’t have time for that any more. But I still love having a bit of me-time, so I get up really early. When I do that, I have a much better day.

I tip-toe downstairs because I don’t want my kids to know that I’m up. Basically, I do what I write about in my book, The Stress Solution, a morning routine of the three Ms — mindfulness, movement and mind-set. I sit for 10 minutes and meditate.

Then I might do some stretches, press-ups or yoga poses. Then I read from a book. Some people say that they don’t have 25 minutes, and they do it in five minutes instead — one minute of deep breathing, two minutes of movement and two minutes of affirmations. It can be whatever you want.

My daughter has a sixth sense about when I’m up, and so she will often come down. I’ve learned to stop fighting against it and try to embrace it. If I’m doing a yoga pose, she tries to mimic me. Then we hold hands for the affirmations. We say, ‘I’m happy and I’m calm.’ When we’re finished, we’ve both got big smiles on our faces.

I try to have breakfast with my wife and kids. It’s usually millet bread and avocado. I try my best with diet and my lifestyle, but I’m human. I have a love-hate relationship with coffee. At times, I drink too much of it. Then I have mood swings and headaches. I’ve weaned myself off it, yet again. When I don’t take it, I’m a better father and husband, and I’m less reactive.

Diet can play on our stress levels and we don’t realise that the food we are eating communicates with our brain. If you feed your body wholefoods that are fresh, it sends calm signals to your brain. But if there are chocolate biscuits in the house, I will devour them. Willpower is finite, so my solution is not to keep junk at home. Control the environment that you can control.

I like walking my kids to school. It’s important to have family time, but also I find it very calming. I try not to look at my phone in the morning for the first hour. Usually I manage, but the pull of the phone is just as strong for me as it is for anyone else.

One of the biggest stresses in society today is the fact that we are constantly switched on. This isn’t about being pro or anti-technology, rather, it’s about what it’s doing to our brains. The brain needs downtime. When we switch off, we can problem-solve and be creative. That’s why we often get great ideas in the shower. But by being constantly on, we aren’t allowing our brains to help us.

I believe in simple things like taking a desk-free break for lunch, even if it’s only for 10 minutes. Put the phone in the drawer and go for a walk outside. The stress levels go down straight away. I did that the other day when I had a short window of time in between seeing my patients.

We are all busy. You cannot get rid of the stress in your life. Stress is everywhere these days. Stress doesn’t take a day off, so we can’t take a day off from managing it. We’re hit with micro stress doses every day. They are fine in isolation, but then they mount. We’ve all got our own personal stress threshold, but when we get past that point, that’s when things go wrong. Also, people aren’t getting enough sleep. Everyone is so tired, and stress is the biggest killer of libido.

I’m still a GP. I’m in practice twice a week, and then I write my books and I do a weekly podcast, Feel Better, Live More .I love seeing my patients and hearing their stories. Eighty per cent of what a GP sees in any given day is in some way related to our collective modern lifestyle. I’m not putting blame on people. I get it. Life is tricky now. The problems we see, be they insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure

— in all of these, lifestyle plays a huge role. As a doctor, I became frustrated that I only had pharmaceutical remedies to lifestyle-driven issues. I just thought that there has to be another way to help these people.

I listen to my patients and point out that some aspects of their lifestyle might be contributing to their health problems. We look at the four pillars — food, movement, sleep and relaxation, and see which needs the most work. I suggest to make one small change and do it for a few weeks.

If I’m having a busy day, I take short breaks, or even take a few minutes to do breathing. I’m busy, just as everyone feels too busy. I’ve had to learn to say no a lot more than I used to. I love hanging at home, playing in the garden with my kids, or going on bike rides with my son.

I try to fit in five-minute workouts, even in the kitchen. I think five minutes every day is more beneficial than an hour-long spinning class once a week. We all have dinner together. At 8pm, I turn off my phone and laptop, and I won’t work after that. It took me years to do this, and I had to train my family around me. I don’t want to be contacted after 8pm. I say, ‘Tell me in the morning’.

After the kids are in bed, I try to dedicate some time to being with my wife. It might just be sitting down with a pot of mint tea to have a chat. It helps us connect. I think it’s better to do a daily five-minute catch-up than put pressure on yourself to have a date night. I play my guitar at night and sing.

I need to be asleep by 9.30pm. That way I wake early, before the alarm.

“Stress is always there, it’s relentless. You cannot take a day off from managing it”