By Tanya Jolliffe RDN, LD, CMHIMP
Have you ever experienced stress? Silly question, right? We have had nothing but stress for the last six months! With no end in sight for work, family, and life stresses, living with chronic stress is likely to negatively affect all of us if we aren’t careful.
Our bodies have a natural fight, flight, or freeze response that is put into action when there is a perceived threat of any kind. Stress causes a chain of reactions with our brains being one of the primary links. When we experience something stressful, whether that is a bird flying at us or a Tweet we read, an area of the brain called the amygdala contributes to the emotional processing of it and sends a signal to the hypothalamus that something needs to be done. This command center of the brain sends signals throughout the body via the nervous system to ensure we have everything we need to fight or flee.
Chronic stress is the most harmful type of stress. It is defined as constant stress that lasts for a long period of time. Ongoing family issues, money concerns, chronic illness, an unhappy marriage, and a pandemic are examples of things that cause chronic stress. It happens when there doesn’t seem to be a viable escape from the cause of the stress. Many times, it is viewed as normal or “just life” and becomes a stress threshold that acute stress builds on top of.
Ongoing chronic stress can have a variety of emotional, mood, and behavioral responses. There are a number of emotional and physical disorders linked to ongoing chronic stress such as depression, anxiety, heart attacks, stroke, hypertension, immune disturbances, and gastrointestinal dysfunction. According to a 2015 American Psychological Association (APA) finding, adults in the United States average a stress level of 5.1 on a scale of 1 to 10. In a time of pandemic, this emotional tension and mental strain has become very common to many of us. Sadly many of us are experiencing physical and emotional consequences as a result.
The first step in taking control and managing chronic stress is to become mindfully aware of how it is influencing you in four different areas – emotionally, mentally, physically, and behaviorally. Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing attention to the external and internal experiences happening in a given moment.
There are three main components that can be applied to stress:
- Understanding what is happening
- Discovering how you are responding
- Determining what steps are needed to manage and cope with the stressor and response
One way to cope with stress is to turn to scripture. One of the best scriptures to reference in stressful times is Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Here in this one verse we have a lot of tools to help us mindfully regain focus during stressful situations. Think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. In taking some time to consider if there is anything excellent or praiseworthy, we can shift attention toward those things and begin to lower blood pressure, reduce tension, and calm our minds. Add in some slow abdominal breathing to replace the shallow chest breathing that usually comes with stressful situations, and you should find some immediate relief from the stress you are experiencing.
If you are having elevated issues coping with chronic stress, The National Alliance on Mental Health has a 24-hour helpline you can connect with at 800-950-6264. Don’t hesitate to reach out for help. Sometimes talking is just the coping tool needed to gain a new perspective.
If you are looking for more tools to help you learn how to mindfully manage and cope with stress, consider the linked technology based stress management program. This virtual coaching program is 8-weeks in length. Participants receive daily messages, educational videos, handouts, and tips to learn how to mindfully manage and cope with stress to improve health and well-being. This program can help you discover how stress impacts you physically and behaviorally as well as how you emotionally express it through your thoughts and feelings. At the end of this virtual coaching program, you will have a toolbox full of tools to effectively manage and cope with the stress you encounter. In the meantime, keep focusing on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.
