A practice for lowering stress

Over half (62%) of Americans report having high stress on a weekly basis.

Nearly half (49%) say they experience chronic stress.

And most Americans (67%) downplay their stress because they think others have it worse.

Of those that experience stress, most are likely to not have good strategies to manage it, or wish they had someone to help them lower their stress.

The downside of stress

Stress can have a multitude of negative impacts on not just your health, but also on your cognitive abilities, emotional state, and even your self-concept.

Stress can also be reinforcing. Without strategies to move you out of the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) into the parasympathetic nervous system (rest & digest), you end up never completing the stress cycle.

The stress cycle

For as long as humans have been on this planet, our instincts have been trained for survival.

Whenever there is a threat or a perceived threat of danger, your vision instantly narrows so that you can fight, fight, or flee.

Fear causes your body to fill with adrenalin, makes your brain become hyper alert and your pupils dilate. Your breathing accelerates, your heart rate increases, and your blood pressure rises. It makes blood drain quickly from your belly to your limbs, in order for you to run.

When you’re afraid, your body takes over, with the singular focus to remove you from the danger. Your gaze narrows and you cannot focus on the bigger picture, or think clearly or creatively. You don’t need to. You need to get to safety. 

In the modern world, most of what feels like danger to us is perceived, not real, yet the physiological response that happens in our body whenever we feel stressed is the same as if we were being chased by a lion or bear. 

Stress and anxiety feel like fear, but stress and anxiety are caused by imagining the possibility of something bad happening, rather than an immediate threat. But the stress response is very long lasting and can result in chest pain, dizziness, headaches, tension, shortness of breath, trouble sleeping, an upset stomach and a feeling of tightness throughout the body, especially in your head, neck and jaw.

These effects can last a really long time and they can be self-reinforcing. The more your body feels stress, the more the fear response is triggered and the more stress and anxiety you feel. 

You can reduce stress by completing the stress response cycle, which is a physical response your body would go through if you were running away from a lion and has a beginning, middle, and end. Because most of the things that stress us…I might lose my job….The world is in chaos….The economy is headed for recession…. don’t involve running away, the stress remains present in your body rather than completing its cycle. 

You can lower your stress

1. Physical strategies

   • You can reduce stress through movement. Going for a walk, doing push-ups, or downward dog can help you physically move stress out of your body.

   • Much of stress is mental, but you can use your body to get out of your head. Practcing grounding strategies like feeling your feet on the floor/ground and tuning into your senses to notice your physical surroundings can move you back into your body and help re-establish presence.

   • Deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which activates the parasympathetic system.

   • Another way to stimulate the vagus nerve is by humming or singing. Now I understand why my grandfather, a WWII vet, used to sing throughout the day. He always had a tune going. He was keeping his PTSD in check.

   • Belief it or not hugging someone for 20 seconds can help you feel grounded and safe.

   • There is a strong correlation between sleep and stress. Getting enough sleep has the benefit of lowering your stress level.

2. Mental strategies

   • You can train your body and mind to appropriately categorize the stressor feeling (i.e. tell yourself your life is not in real danger) so that you shift out of the stress response sooner. This is known as orienting to safety. Combined with grounding mentioned above, it is a powerful way to move out of stress.

   • Often, you are stressed because you are believing a thought. While your feelings are always valid, what would happen if you tried out a new thought? That single step is powerful enough to shift you out of flight or flight and into a more generative place where your vision can expand to see new possibilities.

3. Stacking

• By combining two or three of the above strategies, you can really create an effective practice to help you lower your stress.

Photo by Maksim Romashkin on Pexels

When you lower your stress

As you reduce your stress, your vision begins to expand and new possibilities come into view.

You become more flexible in your thinking allowing you to create new solutions.

You catastrophize less and are better equipped to navigate uncertainty.

You are less irritable and your motivation increases.

Your confidence increases.

Your creativity expands.

What strategies will you combine to create your practice for lowering stress?

And what will that do for you?

Love,

Audrey