We all know what it feels like to b e stressed. Have you considered the effects of stress on your happiness? Many people want to be happy and feel good about themselves, but with stress at the forefront, it can feel impossible. Stress doesn’t just feel bad—it has detrimental physiological effects on the body from the brain to the nervous system.
When we experience stress, chemical changes occur in the body, and this physiological response alters our wellbeing. From a mental health perspective, stress can lead to anxiety. In the brain, anxiety manifests as a chemical imbalance—this imbalance can also trigger depression, leading to the inability to function.
Stress negatively affects our nervous system too by throwing it entirely out of normalcy and overproducing the hormone cortisol from the adrenal glands. The stress response is there for a reason. However, the issue is now that we expose ourselves to constant stress and the number of stressors is infinite.
When the body experiences stressors, the nervous system responds by activating the “fight or flight” response. This response, meant to help you, releases a ton of stress hormones into the body. These include adrenaline, and the main culprit, cortisol. In this “emergency mode,” you’ll notice your heart pounding faster, your muscles tightening, and blood pressure rising. Being on “alert” makes you sharper, better able to defend yourself. This cascade of events, known as the stress response, has previously effectively protected our survival. This hormonal shift allows us to go periods without food and also equips us to “run” without having to eat.
Although we still experience stress in modern life, it’s not to the same degree. Very rarely are we being chased by an animal for hours on end. However, the stressors themselves, perhaps to a lesser degree, are more ubiquitous. With so many environmental, lifestyle, work, and relationship stressors in the modern world, we’re continually adding stress to the body that piles up. The result of a modern lifestyle is that the body’s emergency response is continuously at work with no ability to decipher how significant the “threat” is.
Ways to reduce your stress to enhance happiness and well-being:
• Practice gentle movements in the morning. It doesn’t have to be intense cardio or boot camp, just a quick 5-minute body stretch will do.
• Limit your cell phone usage before bed and when you wake up.
• Create “work boundaries”— how can we be great at our jobs while prioritizing downtime and rest?
• Consider taking supplements.
By Lisa Hayim, MS RD