ecoyear

This is the month for me to practice what I preach!

School's out today, which means routines change - that's stress...

I'm moving to a new house - that's a lot of stress...

So what to do about it? My approach in the past would have been simply to wait it out. I would have plowed ahead, figuring I'll recover soon enough.

But that approach isn't ideal. Stress does really bad things for you, some of which wear away at your health  year after year. It also causes you to think and plan differently (if at all), which means you could be stuck with decisions your best self would not have made.

You have probably heard about all the bad things stress can do. Isn't stress normal, you say? Shouldn't we be designed to deal with it?

The theory goes like this:

Mammals tend to be well-adapted to acute stress. Something scary occurs, we get a whole body reaction, leading us to be ready for flight and fight. This whole body reaction includes anxiety (you don't want to be "relaxed" when the lion attacks), increased glucose (for fuel), and shutting down body functions that can be put off to later. These include fighting infections, repairing body parts, cleaning out toxins, learning new tasks, feeling happy and connecting intimately with others.

This system works fine unless the stress continues to affect us for many hours, day after day. And the sort of stress that works exactly like this is what you get when you have a big brain and you mull over problems endlessly, without even meaning to.

Robert Sapolsky argues that "zebra don't get ulcers" because when the lion leaves the scene, satisfied or not, the zebra essentially "forgets" anything happened and snaps back to its relaxed, grass-eating mode. On the other hand, when the test or interview is over, or the huge bill is paid, humans continue to worry about the long-term outcome.

The hormone that becomes a problem when we ruminate, or mull things over, or allow our brain to run away with thoughts of possible doom, is cortisol. All manner of ills result from chronically elevated cortisol, including alteration of gene expression, which can be hard to reverse.

So left to its own devices, stress causes us to express genes that tend towards anxiety and high blood glucose, impaired immunity, weak body components and poor detoxification, decreased ability to relax and connect intimately.

How do you fight it actively?

1. Exercise - at least a 20 minute walk

2. Yoga, journaling, meditation, taking deep breaths (25 a day!). These activities actually boost the hormones that signal relaxation to your body.

3. Eating foods that repair damage within the body - phytonutrients, antioxidants, fiber

4. Getting a good amount of high quality protein so there's enough left over after the body has highjacked some for cortisol-mediated functions

5. Learning to work with your brain - consciously changing underlying beliefs that get you carried away overinterpreting reality in ways that end up harming you. Explore a research-proven tool like Emotional Brain Training, or Scott Noelle's approach to parenting.

6. Scheduling in fun, or going with it spontaneously. Building in opportunities for a good, clean laugh, lots of hugs, chances to help others and be supported by them

Once the stressful time is over, or even if it's never over, you'll be that much healthier, stronger, wiser and more connected.