How stress impacts your body and brain
Stress is a normal reaction that helps the body gain extra energy when faced with challenges. Only when the stress becomes prolonged and opportunities for recovery are lacking can it affect our health.
Imagine you were chased by a predator you would certainly run for your life to come to safety. And you would probably climb up in a tree or hide in a cave if you were living before modern civilization in human time. When finally in safety, your brain and body functions would go back to the normal state from running for your life to calm and relaxed.
It is quite simple to understand, isn't it? So what happens nowadays? You run for the next meeting, and the signals to the brain and body are the same even if there is no predator chasing you, but the time or your boss. So, the same reaction occurs, and we can simplify it by saying the time or your boss is equal to a predator.
We haven't adapted to any different modern way of living. Our body and brain don't know the difference between the threats, and the nervous system activates the same way.
The brain sends signals that make the heart beat faster. The muscles get tenser. Stress hormones are secreted into the blood to release the necessary energy. The pain threshold is raised. The blood becomes more sluggish so that we do not bleed if we are injured. When the body is at high tide, all energy is concentrated on doing our very best.
Organs such as digestion and reproduction go on a flame because they are not needed in a fight for life and death. When the threat image is gone, the body returns to normal mode, relaxes and recovers for the next charge.
So, if you could find a moment to rest and recover it wouldn't be a problem. But if you live day in and day out as so many people, chasing time or being chased by your boss and the recovery time never appears, the body and brain will stay in this mode of running, and lead to mental disorders, depression, anxiety, outburn and sick leave.
My journey with a mental disorder
As someone who went through the hell of mental illness, I have been on a lifelong quest to learn to live more healthily and take better care of myself. I've always been interested in healthy lifestyles and have known of the term self-care since long ago. Despite that, I casually tossed around for years until I found out how to make sustainable changes.
While I knew I needed and wanted to be more compassionate toward myself, I wasn’t sure how to start making positive changes.
When I was amidst deep depression or a gripping anxiety attack, the last thing I felt capable of was a lifestyle change, and I just tried to survive. I wish someone had handed me a how-to manual on being kind to myself because all I did was the opposite.
After years in therapy and a lot of trying and error, I developed a set of effective self-care skills that I used, in the beginning, on a daily basis, but for the last few years, more occasionally when needed.
And I have come to realize that self-care isn’t a brilliant epiphany or a single life-improving hack. Rather, it is a series of small changes that add up to a healthier lifestyle over time.
This is how I experienced my life with depression!
It was hard to imagine that stress could affect health as much as it did. It took quite a while before I was told that I was burnt out because of too much stress for a long time.
It began with unpleasant symptoms like increased heartbeat, muscle weakness, lameness, dizziness, decreased memory, and attacks of frustration and anger.
Feelings of total fear but didn't know why. Isolating behaviour, separation anxiety, dying anxiety and unable to get up from the bed.
So many simple things I was unable to do. For example, going into a store for shopping was out of the question. I was terrified that I would forget what to do there, faint because of anxiety attacks, or not find the car in the parking lot.
I withdrew more and more from other people. The terrible thing about this is that the symptoms are so real. And this constant idea something was seriously wrong with me without knowing what was going on.
The fear increased the symptoms, and the symptoms increased the fear.
Once I started my journey towards recovery, this had been going on for more than 2 years, and it had obviously left marks behind. Everyone who suffers from stress and become ill need some help. Of course, this depends on person to person.
My journey back to a healthy life without stress has been long, and it has taken different routes over time.
It's been ups and downs, getting better, then falling into old habits, and then worsening again. Stress seems to become a habit when it has been going on for a long time.
It is like your brain and body reactions are manifested in new habits. I base that on the fact that I still experience times when those reactions occur. But nowadays, I can handle them.
6 effective skills to heal from or prevent stress
Below I have listed some skills that helped me out of this destructive way
of living.
Here are 6 ways to start making changes and to either prevent mental disorders or use them when it already passed the limit and, in the latter case, In combination with psychotherapy.
Do not try to do everything at once – set small targets you can easily
achieve
- do not focus on the things you cannot change – focus your time and energy on helping yourself feel better.
- Try not to tell yourself you\'re alone – You are NOT alone, most people feel stressed at some point in life, and support is available. You need to ask for help.
- Don't be ashamed of your feelings. Accept them and then deal with them.
- Try not to use alcohol, cigarettes, gambling or drugs to relieve stress, as these can all contribute to poor mental health.
- Learn to say no. (this was actually one thing that was really difficult for me)
1: Be slow:
Slow down. When people are under stress, they do everything quickly, believing they can catch up with more things faster. But often results in a delay in getting things done and dropping things, and running into door frames.
When practising this, you trick the brain into thinking you are taking it easy.
- Walk slow
- Talk slow
- Eat slowly
- Do things a little bit slower
- Do and focus on one thing at a time, which can be a real game-changer
2. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is an attitude that develops attention, awareness, and compassion. Being mindful is about being fully aware of what is happening in the present without filters and without judging what is happening.
Regardless of your life situation and whether you are chronically ill, you can exercise to reduce your stress and suffering and increase your quality of life.
With simple exercises, you will learn to become increasingly mindful (conscious) and thereby make smarter choices and better handle the pressure in life.
With training, you learn how to reduce your stress, become more attentive and focus on what is essential. Mindfulness also helps when having problems with sleep.
The side effects are few. What I found in the literature is that relaxation can sometimes decrease muscle tone, and blood pressure may drop slightly, which may cause slight dizziness.
If you start to notice such symptoms, you can tighten your muscles and/or open your eyes. And if you sit down instead, try to lie down.
Pain patients can sometimes initially feel increased pain during exercise. This is usually a transient phenomenon. With continued exercise, the pain usually decreases.
Around the world, research is done on mindfulness and its effects. A number of research reports in the last thirty years show that mindfulness, among other things, results in reduced stress, increased self-awareness and concentration, better sleep, increased focus, and better attention. There are about 500 research articles per year.
Since it may be difficult for many of us to sit still, restlessness, worry, and even stress can come when sitting or lying still. I experienced this a lot in the beginning, and it was difficult to deal with.
But try not to give it up to easily. The instruction is then to observe where and how it feels and that the feeling changes. Most often, these problems are reduced.
They also decrease with continued training. You can always cancel the session and try again if it gets too hard. Nowadays, you can find apps with mindfulness or have an appointment with a mindfulness instructor or therapist.
3. Yoga
I borrowed tons of books on burnout, brain stress, fatigue, depression,
serotonin, breathing, yoga, self-help, nervous system, self-care,
stress management.
It's a good way to learn to understand the body and the nervous system by reading, But the best thing for me was to practice yoga. But the combination is great.
I tried different kinds of yoga, some more meditative and some more active. I preferred the more active yoga, like Bikram yoga, for example. Most yoga has breathing and relaxing parts in combination with more active strength exercises.
4. Other kinds of Exercise – choose something you like.
What I learned is that anxiety and depression decrease during exercise. The exact links on how exercise helps in mental illness are not yet fully known, but the increased blood flow to the brain is probably a cause.
It has also been noted that exercise has a positive effect on the brain's electrical activity. Another reason is that physical activity causes the body to secrete endorphins, a hormone that, among other things, suppresses pain, stimulates the immune system and the body's healing processes, and creates physical well-being and feelings of happiness.
5. Make sure you get enough sleep
Sleep is crucial to allow the body and brain to rest, recover and process impressions. We process emotions and experiences, which makes us ready to tackle the next day's challenges.
When we sleep, our memory is strengthened, and the brain is cleared of harmful substances.
One common problem is falling asleep! Things to try can be:
- Read a book.
- Try to relax and prepare for the night.
- Some people sleep better when it is cold inside and leave the window open. I preferred this, but my husband didn't, so we had to compromise here...not so easy! Open window and big fluffy covers and pyjamas for him.
- Don't use any computers or phones before you go to bed. Blue light has the ability to prevent the body from producing melatonin, the hormone that regulates our sleep. Scientists aren't sure why blue light affects our melatonin levels, but they think blue light has more energy than others.
6. Breathing exercise
Correct breathing is crucial. Many people breathe throw their mouths, both in and out. Sometimes this is necessary, for example, when exercising and you don't get enough air through your nose.
When you are stressed, you also breathe with your shoulders. Try to do your breathing from your belly. Note: there are powerful breaths that shouldn't be done if you are pregnant or suffering from depression.
This is something you can practice by yourself to start with.
1. You can do this by lying down or sitting. Hold your hands on top of your belly and start breathing by using your belly. Your hands now race up and down and make it easier for you to feel the differences.
There are many ways of breathing to make you feel relaxed or to increase energy. Here are two ways you can try.
2. Begin by taking some deep breaths through your nose. Close your eyes and relax your shoulders and belly.
If you are tense, you might feel difficulties inhaling deeply through your nose. It can then be helpful to put some restrictions while breathing. Imagine you make the nostril tighter at the same time you inhale as if you were inhaling through a straw. This will make it easier to breathe deeper.
Breathe in slowly through your nose as you count mentally to four. Hold your breath with the air "inside" and count mentally to two. Breathe out slowly through your nose as you mentally count to four.
Hold your breath with the air " outside" and count mentally to two. Do the exercise 5-10 times. When exhaling, the heart rate decrease, so makes sure to complete this phase long enough.
Another breathing exercise that stimulates the brain and makes you calm.
Here's how:
3. Sit relaxed or lay down.
Lift your left hand and place your left thumb over your left nostril. Just close, so you don't breathe through it. You don't have to push. Important that you use your belly during the breathing exercise.
Inhale and exhale slowly through the right nostril. Then switch and close your right nostril with your ring finger with the same hand and inhale through your left nostril, fill your lungs with air and remember to use your belly during the exercise.
Then exhale. You can then repeat this exercise by breathing alternately through your left and right nostril.
Perform up to 10 cycles and notice how it feels. You can do this any time of day when feeling anxious and stressed.
There are many different ways of breathing, and It might be more useful if you do them together with yoga or mindfulness with an instructor, but I found it very helpful to have skills I could use whenever I felt the stress coming.
Whatever you choose, the most important thing is to choose what works for you, be committed and use your skills. It is not likely you will get healed in a short time. It takes time, and I believe it is necessary to achieve long-term results.
I also found all these exercises to be very useful in my daily life. It gives me time to reflect, to stay focused and strong in my mind and spirit.
I hope you found some of this useful and wish you good luck in your healing process or finding skills for harmony in life.
