The anatomy of stress and how to bio-hack it

Good, bad or both?

In some instances, an acute episode of stress may be just the thing we need.  It can give us an extra burst of energy to help protect us from physical harm, or simply give us the confidence boost we need before a major presentation. 

More often than not, however, stress can go unmanaged, becoming a constant part of our daily lives. When this happens, even when the triggers are only mild, we lose the benefits that the body’s stress responses can bring.  Our bodies remain in a chronic state of hyper-vigilance and we find ourselves struggling to ‘simply’ relax.  We may eventually find ourselves normalising our experiences of stress, perhaps to numb ourselves of its consequences, even to the point of damaging our mental and physical wellbeing.

 

Fortunately, we can also make positive choices when it comes to dealing with our daily stressors. By default, we may react to stress with stress (be this in an elevated, controlled or suppressed form), but our default option is not the only one available to us.  It may seem like a tall order but, when it comes to choosing our emotional and behavioural responses, we do hold some agency, some of the time.  With awareness and training, perhaps we can even build a new default of our own choosing.

But wait, awareness of what exactly?

Our guest speaker, Doaa Alsayed, breaks this down for us, beginning with an understanding of our body’s acute stress response, commonly known as the fight or flight reaction.  When faced with a threatening situation, whether physical or psychological, a component of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) kicks into action.  The ANS operates without our conscious direction, looking after life-sustaining processes like breathing and heart function without us needing to think about it. 

  

Fight or flight

When faced with an imminent threat, our sympathetic nervous system (the component of the ANS that manages the stress response) prepares the body to tackle the problem head on or escape to safety.  As a result, we may notice changes in our body as our heart rate speeds up, our breathing quickens, adrenaline pumps through our bloodstream, and other physiological processes are activated. 

Freeze

In other instances, we may enter a ‘freeze’ response. When we assess a situation to be too dangerous to confront and too powerful to flee, our best defence may be to make ourselves ‘disappear’.  Our body releases endorphins and other chemicals that help buffer the pain we are exposed to.  We neither fight nor flee, but we do our best to create mechanisms that facilitate numbness to or dissociation from a situation we deem too unbearable to take in.

Stress-dependence

Our fight/flight/freeze responses are easy to identify in situations of extreme physical danger, but can also translate to everyday stressors. We are more prepared to burn the midnight oil one night before a major deadline (the ‘fight’ response), but won’t find ourselves with the same energy for this when the due date is still far away. When we find a task too challenging, we may be more inclined to delay (or ‘flee’ from) it. Alternatively, we may ignore our stressors altogether, constantly telling ourselves that things are okay and not worth worrying about (numbing).

These responses are helpful temporarily, but when we constantly draw on our acute stress responses to get from one moment of our day to the next, we flood our bodies with too much cortisol and other stress hormones, leaving us with an elevated heart rate, shallow breathing, inhibited digestive processes, and excess ‘nervous energy’.

 

Keeping our bodies in this heightened state affects our concentration, mood and sleep patterns.  It may also interfere with organ function, making us more vulnerable to weight gain, high blood pressure, a weakened immune system, diabetes and other health problems over time.

KonMari your chronic stress

It may sound trite, but once we become aware that our bodies are in a reactionary fight/flight/freeze state, it’s a lot easier to de-escalate with gratitude than with force. In the words of Marie Kondo, “let go with gratitude”. 

 

Take pause, breathe deeply two or three times, acknowledge your feeling of stress and thank your stress responses for keeping you safe.  Then, like you would for a trusty pair of socks that won’t survive another trek, farewell your stress and make KonMari proud. 

 

See it, thank it, hack it

Much like the stress response, our relaxation response can be triggered by environmental, psychological and behavioural stimuli and is also a part of our ANS. This part of the ANS, known as the parasympathetic nervous system, works to restore our body to its ‘rest and digest’ functions.  It metabolises excess adrenaline, slows down our heart rate, relaxes our muscles and releases anti-stress hormones that help us feel calmer and happier.          

 

So, the next time you notice your stress levels rising or to simply keep all components of the ANS in healthy symbiosis, try incorporating some of these hacks into your life to help bring about a more chilled-out, relaxed you