#66
Just The Right Amount Of Stress
[First written in 2016 I am now updating it to fit the times we live in now.]
As the season starts to change, and the rhythm of our lives alters with it, many of us are experiencing higher levels of stress. This is multiplied with a global pandemic sweeping across the world.
The more scientists learn about stress, the more complex it appears to be. One thing has become clear: stress is not all bad. Indeed, a certain level of stress can be a good thing. So the question is how do I keep that summer feeling going as I adjust to the demands of ‘back to real-life’ autumn and the looming winter? And the winter of 2020 is set to provide additional stress with our lifestyle changes due to COVID 19. How do I manage all that resultant stress in a way that harnesses the positive aspects without it building to a harmful degree?
Small amounts of stress boost adrenalin which in turn enables us to respond faster. There is also a response in your hippocampus when experiencing mild stress that produces a sort of miracle-gro for the brain. It is called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) and it acts both as a protector of neural cells, and to support fresh growth of brain cells. The brain works faster to solve problems, and our memory is enhanced.
These automatic responses have been crucial to our survival. However, sustained higher levels of stress lower our immune system. They also affect our language centres and numeric cognition, lead to high blood pressure, poor memory, sleepless nights and depression. For more information check this video out from John Medina, author of ‘Brain Rules’.
So how can we manage things so stress doesn’t overwhelm us?
There are things you can do right now that will help to tame your stress:
- Sometimes we ‘sweat the small stuff’ and this can build to dangerous levels. Ironically this can be especially true when there genuinely stressful things to deal with like COVID 19. When you feel a stress reaction come on imagine distancing yourself, zooming out. Now, consider if the situation you are facing right now will be something you remember one week, one month, one year from now. The answer is probably no. A shift in perspective can shrink stress.
- Sometimes we ‘sweat the small stuff’ and this can build to dangerous levels. Ironically this can be especially true when there genuinely stressful things to deal with like COVID 19. When you feel a stress reaction come on imagine distancing yourself, zooming out. Now, consider if the situation you are facing right now will be something you remember one week, one month, one year from now. The answer is probably no. A shift in perspective can shrink stress.
- Exercise produces that magical neurotrophin BDNF. This hormone acts like a superhero to protect your brain from the harmful effects of stress and grows new cells. Stress affects us most when we feel a situation is out of our control. This can lead to a feeling of helplessness and a downward slide into the negative aspects of stress. Most of the time we have more control over how we respond to any given situation than we think. Something you can try is to give yourself time before reacting. Give your mind a little break from constant stimuli (take a break from screens and phones, better still take a walk). Allow yourself the time and space to think of what choices there are, what power you have…even if it starts with shifting perspective on how you are looking at it.
