Stress management

As long as we continue to deny the existence of unwanted emotions and feelings, we have no way of tackling and overcoming them. Unprocessed, they end up living in our body where they can manifest as chronic illness or pain, depression, and anxiety. 

Stress is a great example of what I am talking about. If you are anything like me, you are likely carrying too much stress in your life.

What is stress?

Feeling stressed has nothing to do with coping. It’s simply the natural response of our brain and body to an event or situation that poses a threat or challenge. We feel stress when our brain is preparing us to do something. Our brain gives out energy, increases our alertness, and ensures we are ready to act. When we become stressed or anxious, our brain signals the sympathetic nervous system to fire up the fight-flight or freeze response to help us attend to the “threat”. 

Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol flood our bodies. The impact of this increased alertness and firing-up of our brain is often physically noticeable e.g., sweaty palms, dry mouth, or needing to go to the toilet. Once the “danger” has passed, the body returns to its normal state fairly quickly.

Is stress harmful?

In itself, stress isn’t harmful because we need a minimal amount of stress to get going. Stress and a healthy response to it can help us cope with a crisis or challenge. In these situations, it is useful when our body releases cortisol which in turn releases glucose into our bloodstream which fuels and powers up our lungs and heart. 

Stress starts to negatively impact us when we stay in a stress mode for too long: robbing us of sleep, clouding our ability to think straight, depleting our energy, and making us more susceptible to illness by inflaming our immune system.

When our brain fires up the fight, flight, or freeze response, it immediately shuts down the neural pathways to our prefrontal cortex, limiting our ability to make complex decisions and narrowing our attention. We can’t choose how we want to react because the old protective mechanism in the nervous system does it for us. This is why we often find ourselves trapped in an adversarial perspective, “I’m right and you’re wrong,” because it is the one that makes us feel safe.

Scientific research by Sarbadhikari Suptendra and Saha Asit explained in detail in their paper, “Moderate Exercise and Chronic Stress Produce Counteractive Effects on Different Areas of the Brain by Acting through Various Neurotransmitter Receptor Subtypes: A Hypothesis,” showed that whether we experience physical or emotional threats, the same areas of the brain, the anterior insula, and the anterior cingulate cortex, get activated. 

Given that our brain cannot distinguish between a physical, psychological, or emotional threat, we are prone to stress even in the absence of a real physical threat to our safety and survival. Just the thought that bad things could happen or remembering a past, bad experience can trigger our stress response. 

How to reduce stress?

With the demands of modern life, such as work, family, socialising, climate change, financial pressure, health pandemics, and always-on technology, it’s no surprise that many of us are swimming in stress all day, every day. Feeling stressed has nothing to do with coping, it’s sadly a consequence of modern-day living. We can’t eliminate stress, or any emotion or feeling, from our life but we can learn to recognise and name what is going on inside of us and become more aware of how this affects our body, mind, and behaviour. 

From this place of self-awareness, we are better able to regulate our emotions and stress by processing and releasing the emotion from our body.

Paying more attention to the present moment, to our emotions, feelings, and thoughts, and to the world around us improves our emotional resilience, mental well-being, and overall enjoyment of life. 

A great practice to embrace if you want to better manage stress in your life by becoming more present is mindfulness. Mindfulness is your ability to pay attention in the present moment to things as they are, without judgment. 

Professor Mark Williams, former Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, says that mindfulness means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment. In his book, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, he writes that.

“It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us, to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and end up living in our heads, caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour. An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience.”

Listening to our body, informed by our senses, helps us connect to the reality of the present moment rather than getting swept up by the stories in our mind or a tidal wave of emotions and feelings. It empowers us to see the world as it is, not as we expect it to be, how we want it to be, or what we fear it might be.

How mindfulness can help reduce stress

Mindfulness is the practice of being with and welcoming, all emotions and subsequent feelings and thoughts. It is learning how to respond and not react to circumstances, people, and situations. It is the practice of allowing emotion to move through us by telling us what we need to know or learn, allowing us to make non-reactive, responsive decisions that are right for us.

When we think of mindfulness, we tend to think of meditation. Sitting quietly on a cushion, cross-legged, focusing on our breath and clearing our mind of thoughts. Whilst this definitely has huge benefits for our overall well-being, here is an easier introduction to the world of mindfulness. 

Next time you are in the bathroom or the kitchen, run your hands under cold water. Mindfully feel the sensation of the cold water washing over your hands. Congratulations, you’ve just practiced mindfulness.

As you go about your daily life, notice the sensations of things, like the cold water on your hands, the food you eat, and the air moving past your body as you walk. This may sound small, but it has the potential to interrupt the stressed autopilot mode we often engage with day-to-day. 

How the Vagus nerve can help reduce stress‍

The Vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in our body, and it plays a pivotal role in managing stress levels.

Think of the Vagus nerve as a communication highway between the brain and various parts of the body, including the lungs, and digestive tract. When activated, it triggers a relaxation response, slowing heart rate, aiding digestion, and promoting feelings of calm and well-being. This is why it's often referred to as the "rest and digest" nerve. 

In moments of high stress, activating the Vagus nerve can help reduce anxiety and promote a sense of calm. One effective way to stimulate this nerve is through deep, slow breathing exercises. By inhaling deeply, holding your breath for a few seconds, and then exhaling slowly, you can activate the Vagus nerve and trigger a relaxation response. Humming or singing, are also great alternatives to naturally stimulating the nerve due to their connection to the vocal cords.

Stress is an inevitable part of life, but carrying too much of it can have detrimental effects on our health and longevity. It's crucial to understand that while we cannot eliminate stress entirely, we can learn to manage it effectively. 

By understanding our body's natural stress response mechanisms, like the Vagus nerve, and learning techniques such as mindfulness, we can better control our stress levels. This not only improves our immediate emotional state but also contributes to our long-term physical health and overall well-being. 

Remember, managing stress is not about eliminating challenges or difficulties from our lives, but about cultivating resilience and equipping ourselves with the tools to navigate these challenges more effectively.