Are you stressed about your stress level?
What we can do to "manage" in a stressful world
The body's response to stress is incredible. Short term it's a complex multi-system dance that primes us to respond physically and psychologically. Activating it mobilizes us, helps us focus, and allows us to take whatever action is required—it’s deeply functional and vital to our survival.
The system was designed to help us run from a predator, pursue nutrition ourselves, and find our way to safety - and then rest in the safety of companionship of our small tribe when we got there.
But we don’t live in such a simplistic world anymore.
We are constantly and chronically bombarded by potential “threats” to our safety - both physically and psychologically. We live in a world that is constantly and chronically “on” which means true rest and reprieve to our people is both difficult and in some cases undervalued by cultural narratives and thus avoided. We are aware and attuned to information at a scale far greater than our system was designed for thanks to the 24-hour news cycle, the internet, and hand-held computers that come everywhere with us. Social norms reward the “grind” mentality and a capitalist culture reinforces a perpetually moving target. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Oy.
The world is a lot. And it’s a lot for our system to take.
So while the short-term stress response is incredible, what we must consider in this modern context is what happens when we are constantly and chronically in a state of activation? What happens when the short-term response so vital to our survival stays active long-term?
Here’s what we know.
The long-term impact of the chronic unmanaged stress response on our bodies isn't quite as magical as that short-term response that is so vital to our survival.
There's even a name for the impact of this chronic stress state - it's called "allostatic load." Simply put, it's the "wear and tear the body experiences due to repeated stress exposure (full nerd out here). And here’s what we really need to know - this allostatic load is correlated with several poor health outcomes.
If you've been following me for a while you know correlation does not equal causation, but the bottom line here is this: prolonged exposure to the stress response isn't great for our system - both physiologically and psychologically. And frankly, it doesn't FEEL good. I don't know about you but I don't feel like I'm THRIVING when I'm chronically stressed. So, let's shift gears and explore what we can do about it.
How to live in a stress-full world without being chronically stressed:
While we live in a world that is generally quite stress-ful, we can take steps to both better manage our exposure to stressors (ie. stress management) as well as support our bodies to better navigate the stress response and reduce allostatic load.
One conceptualization of stress I appreciate comes from the work of Dr. Emily Nagoski. She co-wrote the book "Burnout" (highly recommend) with her twin sister Dr. Amelia Nagoski after Emily supported Amelia through her own experience with Burnout.
This evidence-informed conceptualization views the stress response in a CYCLE wherein there are STRESSORS (external ones - like 24/7 news, hectic traffic, or a work deadline, as well as internal ones like your inner critic), a STRESS RESPONSE (what our body does with that), and BEHAVIOURS (how we respond to said stressors).
This month, I’m going to help you break these down one by one, from the perspective of our goal of intervening such that we reduce our allostatic load (and thus the negative impact of stress). So we can not just survive, but thrive!
What we can do about STRESSORS:
"Stress Management" has gotten a lot of play in media and publications, for valid reasons. Reducing our exposure is an important step to reducing our overall allostatic load. And thus is an important aspect of THRIVING. So, without living in a bubble, what CAN we do?! Next week I'll be sharing one of my favourite tools to get a stress management "pulse check" that helps you identify a real-life friendly action plan!
What can we do with the STRESS RESPONSE:
Ultimately, this is simply how our body responds. We can't really control this, can we?! The answer? If we consider the groundbreaking work of Dr. Stephen Porges and practical work of Social Worker Deb Dana the answer might actually be YES (to a degree). This will be our topic for week 3 of this series.
What can we do about BEHAVIOURS:
The behaviours we engage in, in response to our stress response can either reinforce the stress (ex. hello, inner critic, rumination, and substances) or help us "complete the cycle." This is all about identifying helpful and healthy coping strategies that support your body-mind. This will be our topic for week 4 of this series.
So there you have it - I hope you're as excited about the coming month as I am!
Onward in thriving,
Gillian
PS. Do you have a question about STRESS you want answered this month? COMMENT below and ask away! I'd love to answer it!