No Stress, No Fuss

What is stress?

The WHO defines stress as “a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and threats in our lives.” That is a very valid definition: something happens in our life that is a problem for us, and consequently we feel stressed about it, causing a stress response. Stress is also a necessary part of life, without which, we wouldn’t have many of our bodily functions – it’s all really about the level, our response, recovery time, and the outcome.

So, when we talk about stress, we are mainly talking about the big mental stuff – the stuff that can hurt us emotionally and physically. But stress on our body is not limited to our emotional life; stress can come from our diet, or from many of our lifestyle choices. It can also come from environmental exposure, e.g., chemicals, temperature extremes, or noise, or it can come from microbial imbalances on or in the body. And, interestingly, prolonged exposure to physical stressors can lead to poor mental function, tiredness, and lowered emotional resilience, causing us to start perceiving things in a more negative way, leading to increased emotional stress, which can cause further decreased resilience to physical stress, and so on and so forth, in an endless and vicious circle (that sentence was almost too stressful to write!!). In fact, prolonged or compound stress of any kind leads to increased oxidative stress, which results in poorer health outcomes and is implicated in most of the major health conditions that plague us today.

What is the stress response and how does it feel?

Also known as the fight-or-flight (or freeze) response, the stress response is a series of biochemical reactions managed by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), that help the body cope with a perceived threat. When we sense imminent danger, the amygdala, an area of the brain that contributes to emotional processing, sends a signal to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is like a command centre in the brain, which tells the relevant parts of the body to provide more energy so that it can fight or flee. Increased secretion of stress hormones occurs and blood sugar rises. Heart rate and breathing gets faster, our senses get sharper, and energy production in the muscles increases.

Although the SNS and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) are always “on” in some capacity, during stressful moments, the SNS will dominate, and the more PNS activities will decrease. Energy and blood flow devoted to digestion and reproduction gets diverted away to the muscles, heart, and brain. Because of this, we might feel slightly sick and have discomfort in our muscles, or itchy skin. We might feel our palms get sweaty, and feel nervous, scared, or angry. That’s immediate stress: the type you might feel before an exam or presentation. But what about long-term stress – the type that can negatively impact your life and health? That might feel like changes in your mood – feeling more irritable all the time or a bit blue; Changes in appetite, often with digestive disturbances; difficulty concentrating or having frequent head tension; having trouble with sleep; being unable to relax; being constantly tired; and/or having frequent ills and chills.

Strangely enough, the stress response can also cause us to freeze, which is also known as the fawn, or possum, response and usually only implemented when fighting or fleeing are not good options. Incidentally, the freeze response is a very common default nervous system position for many who have suffered major trauma in the past.

The stress response developed as a survival mechanism, enabling us to react effectively to life-threatening situations. Unfortunately, we also tend to react to stressors that are not life-threatening, such as work and family pressures. And then, on top of that, you have immediate and long-term physical responses to those environmental or nutritional factors mentioned earlier. These more physical stressors do not necessarily follow the same physiological stress response pathways but the toll on the body is similar. If the stress response occurs too often for too long, it can compound and result in damage to the body, especially the nervous, reproductive, digestive, and cardiovascular systems, and the brain.

Perception vs reality in stressful moments

The word “perception” is very important, because emotional stress is related to how we see the world and how we process the events that happen around us. To be more exact, if we think something is bad, then we are perceiving it as being a bad thing.; if we think it is good, then we are perceiving it as being a good thing. And it is at that level, where we are attaching emotion to what we are perceiving, that we have the ability to set ourselves free from much of the emotional stress that we feel. Science now shows that our thoughts can alter our physiology and positively modulate the stress response. That’s not to say that when injustice occurs or something bad happens, we cannot be upset, angry, or feel grief; it is merely the tendency to see the worst in every situation, or to be slow to recover from it, that can ultimately hurt us.

And as for the other stressors in our life, dietary, lifestyle, etc., many will be manageable through making changes to what we eat and how we live. We may even find herbs and specific nutrients to support us. There will be other stressors that we cannot control, which come from our surroundings. Even with those things, we can either choose to remove ourselves – from a toxic environment, for example – or we can support our wellbeing through making ourselves more resilient, both physically and mentally. It’s a full circle moment!

What can we do to support a healthy stress response?

As already mentioned, where possible we can remove or avoid many physical stressors – chemical, environmental, etc. This can include making positive changes to our diet or switching to using natural skincare and cleaning products or non-plastic homewares and clothing, for example. But it’s the emotional stress that most of us struggle with that is harder to know how to manage. We are simply not taught strategies to cope with the stress we may feel at work or in a difficult living situation. We might also be sensitive and feel stressed more readily than our easy-going sibling, partner, or colleague. Reactivity is also a source of emotional stress for us – if we get upset easily or are quick to anger, it can cause a stress response in our body.

 Breathwork and inner bonding

There are many techniques we can learn to help us cope with perceived/emotional stress. Breathwork is (unlike how it sounds from the “work” part of the word!), possibly the easiest and most effective way of dealing with a stressful situation. It’s free, you can do it anywhere, and you don’t even have to know what you’re doing! Just taking a series of slow, deep breaths can help you calm down. Breathing techniques have been well studied for their benefits – just google “breathwork” or “breathing for stress”, and you’ll get a plethora of information from which to choose or see Breathe Your Way Through Stress.

You can simply learn a couple of simple destressing breathing practices or take a deep dive into how to use the breath during meditation and/or visualisation. You can find out how breath holding works, and how breathing techniques can support the oxygen/carbon dioxide balance in cells. From there you can learn how the breath applies to deeper nervous system practices or inner bonding work, where you reintegrate your mind and body and reconnect with your inner child and subconscious (known in psychology circles as “inner bonding”) to support your health and powers of manifestation and creativity. Many of us, especially those who are the product of traumatic pasts, are driven by our “shadow”, reactive and hurt “inner child” (the subconscious), with the impersonal and non-reactive “adult” (the conscious mind) struggling to remain in control.

Mindfulness and presence

Mindfulness is another powerful tool to support stress management. Mindfulness is about being present, in the moment, focused on what you are doing, with a calm and unworried mind. Eckhart Tolle says, “Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there’.” If we do not accept what is happening in the here and now, we may become upset by it, and this causes us to feel stressed. This doesn’t mean that we should sail blindly and uncaringly through when something truly sad is happening, but applying stress management and mindfulness techniques, especially when we have grief or loss, can help us recover faster and move on without being stuck in the past or having memories that consistently trigger us.

Naturally supportive practices, nutrients, and herbs

While breathwork and mindfulness can help us to cope with stress or even support us to not feel the stress in the first place, there are other ways to support stress relief, including being in nature or with animals, listening to or playing music, choosing a nutrient-rich, brain and nervous system supporting diet, and having familial and social support networks. For more detailed tips on how to support a healthy stress response, see 10 Tips to Support Stress Relief, Naturally.

Constant stress can deplete us of supportive nutrients, including B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, iron, and omega 3s, and making sure those nutrients are in our diet can support us to feel calm. There are other nutrients like L-Theanine (in Rapid Calm) that can be supportive, as well. If you are worried about dietary intake, there are supportive supplements available. Additionally, many traditional herbs have been shown to support a healthy stress response. For supplemental support of stress, see the Good Health Stress, Sleep, and Mood category of products. For those wanting support for worry-mind and busy, overwhelming days, see Is Life Getting a Little Too Rapid?

TAPS Approval No: PP3396