May is Mental Health Awareness Month - a powerful reminder that tending to our emotional and mental well-being is just as vital as taking care of our physical health.
One important piece of this puzzle that I often explore with both coaching and therapy clients is the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Your ACE score- a number based on the presence of difficult or traumatic experiences before the age of 18- can tell us a lot about potential long-term effects on your mind and body.
Why does this matter?
Research shows that the higher your ACEs score, the greater your risk for things like anxiety, depression, and the top 10 causes of death in the US, like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. ACEs contribute to what’s known as toxic stress, a type of on-going, intense response in your body that disrupts brain development and weakens the body’s ability to regulate emotion, manage relationships, and fight off disease. Under toxic stress, our heart beats faster, works harder, and we spend too much time with our emotional brain and not enough time with our thinking brain, which leads to executive function problems and decreased emotional control- and that is often mistaken for ADHD.
So, I want to invite you to do something powerful:
The good news? The effects of toxic stress are not permanent. With the right support, awareness, and tools, healing is absolutely possible. Building supportive relationships and connections is one of the strongest antidotes to toxic stress. Engaging in breathwork, mindfulness and nervous system support can significantly reduce the impact of stress.
In my work, I help individuals make sense of their story, reclaim their power, and create lives rooted in awareness, healing and purpose. If you are ready to begin or deepen your healing journey, you can read more about my work here and I invite you to schedule a strategy session with me. You are not broken. You are carrying experiences that can be healed.
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