This is Your Body on Stress
Optimal adrenal health, hormone function, great energy and clarity of mind have A LOT to do with stress. So, let’s talk about STRESS. For busy moms stress is commonplace but we’re heading into a busy time of year with crazy kid schedules, summer activities, vacation planning, etc. and I know you’re probably feeling the pressure …
… and I also know a lot of you think you should just toughen up and “push through it”.
Spoiler alert: You can’t do it. That’s because stress isn’t all “in your mind.” It’s also in your body.
Your stress response system is a primal reaction... it’s hardwired into your system to keep you safe and alive.
So, I am going to outline some important things you need to know about stress and how it affects you – info that also will help you:
Use stress to your best advantage
Learn how to conquer it with some simple steps so it doesn’t run (and ruin) your life.
Surprise! Stress can be a good thing!
Stress can actually be a GOOD thing (surprise!).
When our ancestors were under threat – whether it was fighting off a predator or dealing with everyday problems like feeding a growing family – their bodies responded with necessary bursts of energy to keep them out of harm’s way.
Our culture has changed a lot since then, but our body’s wiring hasn’t. We react to stress nearly the same way, except our stressors don’t require us to outrun a lion or worry about where our next meal is coming from.
And that can have a major impact on your health!
I want to walk you through what happens to your body during a typical stressful situation. Hang in there with me because it’s pretty eye-opening.
How stress affects your body
Let’s pretend you have an interview for a potentially life-changing job at 8 am next Tuesday.
You really want this job, so you spend a lot of time researching and preparing.
But then Tuesday morning you wake up and look at your clock, and your eyes see that it’s 7:15 am. AND your alarm didn’t go off!
Here’s a quick outline of what happens in your body.
1. Your eyes send that information to your brain’s amygdala, which helps you interpret what you see and hear.
2. Your amygdala basically says, “What the #@*&!!!!?”
3. It sends a distress call to your brain’s command center, your hypothalamus, which talks to the rest of your body through your autonomic nervous system (ANS).
(Important background info: The ANS handles all of your involuntary functions, like the beating of your heart, your breathing, and your blood pressure. It works in two parts – the “sympathetic,” which is like a gas pedal, flooding your body with fuel to outpace danger, and “parasympathetic,” which is like a brake, calming things down after danger passes.)
4. As soon as your hypothalamus hears the distress call, it flips on the sympathetic nervous system switch, telling your adrenal glands to release epinephrine (aka adrenaline) into your bloodstream.
This is basically your body’s “GO!” juice.
5. Your heart beats faster, sending blood to your muscles and other organs. Your airways open wide as your breathing speeds up, allowing more oxygen into your system. Some of that extra oxygen goes to your brain, sharpening your senses and making you more alert. Ready for ACTION.
6. To power all that action, the epinephrine also prompts your body to release fuel, in the form of extra blood sugar and some stored fat.
7. All of that happens lightning-fast, before you even have a chance to fully register that your alarm didn’t go off! Your body does this to either give you the fuel you need to run away fast … or go to battle.
8. Which is exactly what you do, by jumping out of bed and springing to action. You have a LOT to do in a short period of time, and so much is riding on this interview!
9. Your body kicks on its second stress-response layer, your HPA axis, which consists of your hypothalamus, your pituitary gland, and your adrenal glands.
10. Your adrenal glands dump cortisol (and more fuel) into your system, to keep your accelerator on until the stress passes.
11. When you finally hop into your car, you relax a little, triggering your parasympathetic system, which puts the brakes on your stress response so you can start to relax.
12. But at the interview (which somehow, miraculously, you arrive at on-time!), your sympathetic response kicks back on, keeping you sharp so you can nail the interview.
13. On the drive back home, your cortisol levels dip back down, once again triggering your parasympathetic “recovery” system.
14. As your blood sugar levels dip because your body released insulin to gobble it up from your system after all that stress, you feel yourself becoming hungry and tired, or maybe even “hangry” until you can get something to eat.
All of this is actually a great thing to help you function well during emergency situations. If this is an isolated issue, you’ll go on your way, rest, eat and otherwise have a normal day.
BUT if this is a chronic occurrence, just the latest thing to happen in a series of stressful events – or if you never learned stress-management techniques – your body might not know how to put on your anti-stress brake. You can get “stuck” in that sympathetic go-go-go mood.
Stuck in go mode
Over time, this constant revving of your sympathetic nervous system can lead to health problems that can lead to adrenal dysfunction, stubborn weight, poor brain function, damaged blood vessels, and/or high blood pressure all of which can increase your risk of stroke or heart attack ☹
As you can see, learning how to trigger your body’s parasympathetic (aka “rest + digest”) system is an important part of learning how to de-stress.
Throughout this blog, my goal is to be share actionable tips, techniques, and strategies that you can use to help you combat your everyday stress. This is such a MASSIVE and chronic problem in our culture today (ESPECIALLY after the last few years), I want to provide you with real world tips to get off the stress rollercoaster.
A few simple tips
One of the most important things you can do to destress (without necessarily removing the outside stressor) is to take short “breathing breaks” during the course of the day where you sit quietly and focus on your breathing. Calming your breathing physically calms your body. The exhale shifts your body into parasympathetic.
Here are some other quick and easy practical tips:
Go outside for a short walk, burn off those stress hormones
Listen to calming music (I love biurnal beats, find a frequency like 432 Hz or 741 Hz)
Take a short technology break and read (from a real book!). You’ll find yourself relaxing almost immediately.
Taking a few stress breaks during the course of the day isn’t “weak.” It’s actually STRONG, because it helps you take back control. Shifts you into rest and digest and gives you the ability to regain more time long term and to keep going without depleting your body.
Of course, eating right and moving also help your body recover from stress too. I am a nutritionist after all! But remember, it is not the stress response itself that is bad. Rather it is CHRONIC ongoing stress with no period of rest and recovery that becomes problematic for your health. That is the pattern you are aiming to interrupt.
Want some more tips on how to support your body in dealing with stress?
Download Healthy Living Made Simple to learn some very important health basics to help you feel great and have vibrant energy and hormonal balance. Having a good nutritional foundation will help you to have more resiliency to stress and cope in a better way.
