Empowered Mental Health and Wellness

Stress. Get your mind out of the gutter. We all know it, we all hate it. While there are good forms of stress that are necessary to everyday life (called eustress), keeping tabs on your distress is incredibly important. Even more important than many people realize.

Did you know that stress can negatively impact your immune system, sleep schedule, hormones, appetite, ability to maintain a stable weight, mental health, memory, and more? Stress is not just something we feel but is something that our body and mind physically react to as well. 

To emulate the idea of the physical impact that stress has on our bodies, I want you to imagine a hummingbird. Picture its little wings flapping rapidly fast as it floats in place in the air. Imagine the evolution of the bird after it stays like that without rest for an hour. Two hours. Six hours. 12 hours. That poor little bird. By the time those 12 hours have passed, I am sure the bird that many of you were picturing was disheveled, rugged, in physical despair, or maybe even dead. That is the rate that your nervous system is operating at constantly when you keep it locked in perpetual states of chronic stress.This is called the fight or flight response, and no, it doesn’t just activate for massive threats.

When we experience a threat/stressor, our nervous system activates our fight or flight response to help protect us. This causes hormones to rise, such as cortisol (“the stress” hormone) and adrenaline. Typically, when the stressor ends, our body goes back to its normal operating levels, the hormones included. What happens when the stressor isn’t a quick fix though, and lasts an undetermined amount of time? Well, our body stays in that elevated fight or flight mode until it feels safe not to. That hummingbird can fly at that speed for a little bit, but you pictured what happened when it was left to do so with no end in sight. Our bodies are not made to sustain that level or length of stress either and cannot operate in fight or flight mode forever. 

“The long-term activation of the stress response system [fight or flight] and too much exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can disrupt almost all the body’s processes. This puts you at higher risk of many health problems, including: anxiety, depression, digestive problems, headaches, muscle tension and pain, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure and stroke, sleep problems, weight gain, problems with memory and focus,” (Mayo Clinic, 2023).

It’s important to keep in mind that many of the aforementioned health conditions could be due to other health reasons as well which are best to discuss with a doctor. It is equally important, however, to keep in mind that stress can also be a key player in these symptoms and greatly exacerbate them even if they do have other underlying preliminary causes. 

Additionally, if there does not seem to be any physical reason as to why your body is responding in those ways, stress could very likely be the culprit. One of the best ways to assess this is to keep up with your annual visits to your primary care doctor and request a full blood panel as well. This allows you to tackle any of these conditions from both the physical and psychological avenues.

I now want to highlight the stress hormone of cortisol specifically. Cortisol is one of the main reasons that long term stress impacts the body in the ways in which it does. This pesky little hormone may be at the root of multiple of your nights where you lie awake in bed, mind racing, or are experiencing frustrations with digestion/gut health and weight management. According to the doctors at Cleveland Clinic, cortisol helps maintain the following functions in our body:

• Regulate your body’s stress response.
• Help control your body’s use of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, or your metabolism.
• Suppress inflammation.
• Regulate blood pressure.
• Regulate blood sugar.
• Help control your sleep-wake cycle.

That’s why when your cortisol levels become out of whack, these functions do not operate appropriately either. Who knew stress was such an all encompassing nuisance.

As you can see, managing your stress and maintaining your cortisol levels is crucial to live a holistically healthy and meaningful life. Here are some of the most effective ways to do so from a physical, mental, and emotional standpoint.

Physical

Are you familiar with how your body reacts and responds to stress? How it holds stress? Many individuals are unaware that mental and emotional states can manifest themselves as physical sensations in our bodies. These are called “psychosomatic symptoms”. 

Understanding how our bodies react to different mental and emotional occurrences allows us 1) support our bodies better and manage the occurrences in their full spectrum and 2) allow us to recognize when we are going through an emotional or mental state because we know the physical signs that one may be occurring.

 When we understand how our body physically responds to stress (or other emotions), we can use the physical sensations as good “warning signs” for us to check in with ourselves as we often experience the physical sensations before we are consciously aware of the emotions that they are representing.  

A body scan is a great way to familiarize yourself with your own body’s tendencies. To start a body scan, I invite you to find a quiet and calming location, free of distractions. Grab a blanket, dim the lights, and have some water nearby if you would like. Get cozy! 

Please start by closing your eyes. We are going to start at the tops of our bodies and I want you gently bring your attention to the tippy top of your head. Make a mental note of how your head is feeling today. Is there any pressure in your head – if so, where? How is your jaw feeling – is it relaxed or have you unintentionally been clenching it? Release the tension in your jaw if you have been. Is your nose stuffy, do your ears hurt, is there a tickle in your throat? Pay attention to every sensation that you notice.

Next, mentally shift to pay attention to your neck and shoulders. Are your shoulders tight or loose? Does your neck have a kink in it? What is your posture like today? Make any needed adjustments to reverse the ways this area of your body is physically responding to stress. 

Once that section is complete, tune into how your chest and stomach are feeling. Are your breaths shallow or deep? Regulate your breathing to be taking full breaths in through your nose if you haven’t been. As strange as it sounds, try to initiate those breaths from your stomach, not your chest. Breaths initiated in our chests are often shallow and quicker, whereas breaths initiated in our stomachs are often more full – you can assess this by feeling which part of your body moves when you take a breath in. 

Is your chest feeling tight? This could be due to the way your clothing is sitting or potentially due to how your chest is holding stress. Again, make any needed adjustments. What about your stomach – what are your hunger levels? Have you nourished your body today? Does your stomach feel calm or are there knots and grumbles? Remember that stress can throw our digestion out of whack. 

Finally, move to your legs and your feet. Is there any soreness or restlessness? Make sure you have been moving your body throughout the day. How does the temperature feel on your legs, what is the sensation of your clothes touching your skin? Note any aspects of your current experience. 

Once you feel like you have thoroughly scanned your body, make any last needed adjustments and gently open your eyes. What was this experience like for you? The point of a body scan is to 1) practice being familiar with our body  – this intentionality will make it more natural to be in tune with our body on a regular basis and aware of its varying states and 2) to reverse any of the ways that our body is currently holding stress, often in ways that we did not even realize. Feel free to adjust the questions you ask yourself during this activity to fit your personal needs. 

Another way to physically support your body during times of distress is through breathing techniques. Breathing techniques are effective in these moments because they help regulate your nervous system, which we know is at the heart of our body’s stress response. When we can calm our breathing, we can also help calm our body’s agitated response. 

My personal favorite breathing technique is the “box breathing” technique. Inhale for 4 counts, hold the breath for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts, hold the breath for 4 counts, and repeat as many times as you need to. Watch your body’s heightened state start to regulate in the moment. 

Many clients find that this technique helps them fall asleep when they are having difficulty doing so because their mind is racing. Breathing techniques are also great because you can literally take them anywhere. No one will notice what you are doing so it protects your privacy, while also being incredibly useful and versatile in a myriad of situations. 

Other great physical stress relievers are getting active (walks, going to the gym, yoga) and nourishing your body (drink your water and eat a balanced meal). These actions help reduce cortisol and aid in releasing the stressful energy that your body is holding. Have you ever felt that cathartic “high” after running or a workout? This is a similar concept.

Emotional

How horrible does it sound to carry a backpack full of cement bricks around all day as you go to work, take the dog for a walk, grab dinner with a friend, or are cleaning the house? That is exactly what you are emotionally doing when you repress your emotions. You carry it all with you and it starts to weigh you down. 

At the beginning of the day (when the emotional event first occurs), you may notice the added weight and impact of the backpack, but your stamina is high and so it feels  manageable. However, as your stamina continues to decrease throughout the day, that bag gets heavier and heavier. The more you hold on to important emotional topics, the more you are going to drain yourself. 

Take your bricks out of your backpack one by one – it’s too heavy to try to grab them all in one arm full. Aka, start by picking the most manageable stressor to process and go from there. Journaling is a safe and effective way to do so because it’s private and you can’t hurt the paper’s feelings. Write out everything that feels too big or scary to feel out loud. Maybe it’s your opinions on a topic, maybe it’s a script of a conversation you wish/want to have with someone who wronged you. Get it out and stop carrying it around with you. Release your heart, mind, and body of the weight and space it takes to keep these things with you. 

Many individuals feel cathartic after just writing it out, simply because the topic is no longer just stored inside of them. Even if you did not have a conversation with another human about it, you released the energy that it was holding and sometimes that is powerful enough. 

Feel free to take it a step further by putting the writing to words with the necessary others if you feel that it would be beneficial. If you feel content with just the writing, find a physical way to symbolize that you are no longer carrying this topic with you. Burn the paper, shred the paper, trash the paper, etc. Just get it out of your space once and for all. 

Mental

Stress can often have our brains working overtime where it feels like both everything and nothing is happening in there at once. Thoughts gain power (literally) in our brain the more attention we give them. This sounds kind of like a sick catch-22, doesn’t it? That naturally, the most stressful or impactful things are going to be the ones that take up the most space in our brain, but because they are taking up that space our physical and mental health will experience negative repercussions – and to fix that, we have to try to let them stop occupying space in our brain, but that’s hard because the more we think about them (naturally), the more powerful they become, and the more powerful they become, the harder it is to stop thinking about them. Woof. 

Distract yourself. Make your mind so preoccupied on something else, something harmless, that it breaks this chain. The more times we break the chain, the easier it will be for our brain to naturally stop thinking about these things and the less powerful they will become.

Buy some play doh and some beads (medium size) and stuff the play doh full of these beads. Whenever your brain starts racing, bring out the dough and pick every single bead out of it. Your mind will be so focused on this task that by the time that you are done, your brain will naturally have forgotten about what you were thinking about. 

 Mindful coloring sheets, puzzle books, or finding a friend to chat with are additional great alternatives. Keep whatever task you choose enjoyable and not something you have to do. Feeling the pressure of having to complete a task will just exacerbate the other stressor that you are trying to distract yourself from. 

Speaking of tasks that you have to complete – don’t make them harder than they have to be. First, start by making a list of the things you have to do. It takes a lot of mental space to house that information solely in your brain, as well as the inevitable stress that comes with worrying that you forgot something. Take the stress off of having to do so by getting it down on paper.

Once you have your thoughts organized and you are ready to start taking action, simply the way you complete things. We often have a lot of rules in our life that really serve no purpose. Are we completing the tasks the ways in which we are because there is a benefit for doing so or because it’s just the way it’s always been done? If the answer is because it’s the way it’s always been done, I encourage you to rethink your process. 

Who says you have to do all the dishes in the sink in one go? The looming pressure to tackle such a big task all at once makes it feel more stressful than it actually may be. If you break larger tasks down into smaller, more manageable ones, you will make much more progress in the project with a fraction of the stress. So instead of staring at that giant pile of dishes all week, start with just the cups. Later that day, or maybe tomorrow, do the pots and pans. Life is about finding what works for you and there is absolutely no one right way to do things. 

Find as many ways as possible to simplify your stressors such as waiting to fold the dried clothes until the next day, delegating something simple to a partner, or increasing the joy in the environments in which these tasks must be completed. Study in a coffee shop, stay in your pajamas while you do cores, put on some music while you walk the treadmill. There is no master rule that a laundry cycle must be completed in one breath, that studying or work must be completed in stoic or boring spaces, and that you must be “put together” at all times of the day. If you are going to do something that you don’t want to do, you might as well make it as enjoyable as possible! 

Lastly, I think we can all agree that a lot of stress can come from the mundane tasks that we have to complete on a regular basis to take care of ourselves. There are a lot of things we as humans have to do to stay healthy, cleanly, and happy. Make those things simpler for yourself by preparing for them in advance. 

Try things like meal planning on a sunday instead of making new meals every day – the cooking now only has to happen once. Buy and fill up your pill box according to your prescription at the start of each week so that you don’t have to figure out your dosage everytime you need to take your medicine. Put any bills or appointments on autopay/auto schedule if you feel like your finances can consistently support that. Pick your clothes out the night before the event so that you don’t have as many tasks to complete each morning. 

Stress is an inevitable part of life, but it doesn’t have to consume your life. Find the ways to make your life and responsibilities work for you and reward yourself for doing hard things. Stress can have incredible impacts on our minds and bodies, many that we are not aware of, and helping ourselves manage them is a crucial part to living a sustainable and meaningful life. 

XOXO,

KC

Sources

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22187-cortisol