Around 70% of people are NOT good at Managing Stress
And the levels of stress people experience keep rising
Here is how chronic Stress
can play with your emotional, cognitive, and physiological well-being
can play with your emotional, cognitive, and physiological well-being
Increased heart beat in order to provide more blood to legs and arms
Extra blood in legs and arms. Heart distributes additional oxygen and sugar in order to provide the necessary energy for the potential fight or flight situation Headache
Severe headaches - migraines Skin Issues
Acne and other skin problems Digestive system slows down or shuts down completely
Weight gain around the stomach, stomach acidity issues, or other problems such as irritable bowel syndrome Decreased Reproductive functions - not being a priority
Reduced sexual drive and infertility. High levels of stress can lead to premature birth Weight gain and Obesity
Learning
Adaptation Change Not being able to learn new things and to adapt in new environment Focus
Brain focusing on perceived threats while ignoring other contextual information, resulting in mind racing, unable to focus Big Picture
Lost capacity to see the broad perspective |
Veins become narrower, and the blood starts to clot, in order to protect the body against possible injury or bleeding to death
Can lead to higher blood pressure and increased chance of developing heart attack (23% higher chance), stroke, or coronary heart disease. Blood travels about seven and a half miles in our bodies. When stress kicks in - it knocks off around a mile. Contracted Bladder
Where is the toilet? Back Pain
The immune system gets inhibited
The body is less concerned with fighting the disease, focusing on dealing with perceived threats instead. Malfunctioning immune system can lead to serious health issues such as cancer, inflammatory disease, kidney failure, damaged DNA and others Impaired/Narrow Vision
Most of us have 180 - 270 degree peripheral vision. Under the onslaught of chronic stress, with occasional doses of acute stress, it goes down to 30 degrees. Brain shuts down the non-essential neural circuits (limited blood supply), inhibits creation of new neurons, and over stimulates the use of older neutrons
Puts you into auto pilot = Predictable behavior Changed Perception
Perceiving that things are (or what people say or do is) negative and threatening Connecting to Others
Unable to connect to others, especially to those who are new, or different |
Perspire
The body under stress creates heat, and to keep from over heating - it perspires. Stress causes more blood to flow to your muscles, which can cause an injury or strain to the body. Increased perspiration can also lead to social embarrassment. Plus, stress can cause Dry Mouth and Diluted Pupils Losing Hair
Losing hair – in some cases even pulling out your own hair! Tense muscles cause rapid and shallow breathing (chest breathing)
Chest breathing is inefficient because the greatest amount of blood flow occurs in the lower lobes of the lungs, areas that have limited air expansion in chest breathers. Rapid, shallow, chest breathing results in less oxygen transfer to the blood and subsequent poor delivery of nutrients to the tissues Sleeping disorders
Insomnia. Problems with falling asleep or staying asleep – which leads to additional stress Decreased Levels of Anti-Aging Hormones
Premature Ageing. Did you notice that you look much younger after 2-3 weeks of holiday? Memory
Not being able to reach the full memory (memory loss), inhibited creation of new memories Creativity and Innovation
Inhibited creation of new neurons and use of old neural connections… performing routine tasks only (auto pilot). Chronic stress inhibits brain’s capacity to create new neuron connections across different brain regions - and it might be difficult to reach all networks across the whole brain Overreacting
Emotional brain can take over the rational one, a person can end up doing or saying things that he/she might regret later. The brain reduces brain tissue associated with emotional control when under stress |
Stress leads to More Stress
Leading to Feeling of Nervousness, Anxiousness and even Depression
Can also lead to addictions
Leading to Feeling of Nervousness, Anxiousness and even Depression
Can also lead to addictions
Stress is also Good Not all stress is bad for us. As Daniel Goleman explains, in order to be in a state of flow, a state where we are emotionally and cognitively at our best, we need stress, but we need the right amount – not too much (and not for too long) and not too little. There is actually a direct correlation between the level of stress we experience and our ability to perform. When we experience too little stress, there is a danger that we enter into a state of boredom, a state where we lack motivation and as a consequence our performance suffers. On the other hand, when we experience too much stress, we lose the ability to concentrate, and experience cognitive, perceptual and emotional impairment – that can potentially lead to personal burnout. |
Survival Mode
Survival is a priority for your brain!
In order to keep you safe, your brain utilises the little but POWERFUL security officer called Amygdala. An alarm like mechanism that activates Fight, Flight and Freeze - stress - like reactions (Ogden, 2004). Amygdala was designed to be driven by fear with a primary purpose to make you safe, to help you survive. When facing threats, amygdala is capable to take over your pre-frontal cortex (thinking brain) causing you to feel emotionally distressed (experiencing fear, anger, or other disturbing emotions) to act irrationally - while at the same time also changing your perception of reality and manipulating your access to memories.
Yes it is true that we need amygdala to survive, but it is also true that within our modern world amygdala often miscalculates the information it receives and initiates false alarms and thus instead of protecting us – makes us more vulnerable! The modern world is filled with many symbolic and often delusional threats that trigger amygdala on daily basis - initiating stress like responses that can severely damage your health, and diminish your emotional and cognitive capabilities. Thus, paradoxically, the mechanism that was designed to protect us, if unmanaged, becomes the source of danger itself.
Stress reactions do not have to be triggered by some large personal or collective disasters only – these are actually less common! It is the small and little annoyances of every day life that have capacity to trigger chronic stress. And, according to Richard Boyatzis, people in executive positions face between 8 to 12 annoying experiences in a day - 5 days a week - and women up to 7 days a week. No wonder why US research claims that 70% of doctor visits and 80% of serious illnesses may be exacerbated or linked to stress...
In order to keep you safe, your brain utilises the little but POWERFUL security officer called Amygdala. An alarm like mechanism that activates Fight, Flight and Freeze - stress - like reactions (Ogden, 2004). Amygdala was designed to be driven by fear with a primary purpose to make you safe, to help you survive. When facing threats, amygdala is capable to take over your pre-frontal cortex (thinking brain) causing you to feel emotionally distressed (experiencing fear, anger, or other disturbing emotions) to act irrationally - while at the same time also changing your perception of reality and manipulating your access to memories.
Yes it is true that we need amygdala to survive, but it is also true that within our modern world amygdala often miscalculates the information it receives and initiates false alarms and thus instead of protecting us – makes us more vulnerable! The modern world is filled with many symbolic and often delusional threats that trigger amygdala on daily basis - initiating stress like responses that can severely damage your health, and diminish your emotional and cognitive capabilities. Thus, paradoxically, the mechanism that was designed to protect us, if unmanaged, becomes the source of danger itself.
Stress reactions do not have to be triggered by some large personal or collective disasters only – these are actually less common! It is the small and little annoyances of every day life that have capacity to trigger chronic stress. And, according to Richard Boyatzis, people in executive positions face between 8 to 12 annoying experiences in a day - 5 days a week - and women up to 7 days a week. No wonder why US research claims that 70% of doctor visits and 80% of serious illnesses may be exacerbated or linked to stress...