Could Stress Actually Be Good For You?

Vol. 13

The more I study the body, the more I am in awe of what our bodies do for us. The body has all these cool mechanisms. We have a built-in heating system: when we get very cold, we automatically start shivering which gets the body moving to keep warm. When pregnant, the human body is more sensitive to bacteria and what happens as a result? The sense of smell becomes more acute during pregnancy, so the woman can smell when food is off.

The Body Is An Orchestra

In order to create beautiful music all parts of the orchestra need to be in constant communication with the other parts and the whole. The musicians need to be rested, fed and have their instruments tuned. The first violin needs to listen to the other violins, the strings need to be balanced to the brass, and everyone needs to play what they are meant to and follow the conductor. This is also the case with the body. Everything needs to be in tune with everything else to create solid health and wellbeing.

This is why health care that addresses the whole body together with its environment as a system is more effective over the long term for our well-being than just addressing different parts of the body in isolation.

What leads to this communication breakdown in the body? Stress in its widest sense does. Biochemical stress in the form of toxins, structural stress, such as sports injuries, work stress, traumatic events, etc.

Put Your Glass Down

There is an example often used by motivational speakers to explain the impact of stress. You ask a person to hold a glass of water, and ask, ‘How heavy is this glass of water? Not so heavy, right? If you hold it for a minute or two it’s not a problem, right?’ The absolute weight isn’t relevant, but it depends on how long you hold it. If you hold it for a day, a week or a year, your arm will become paralyzed and non-functioning. It is the same with stress and worries. If we spend too long in superpower mode, we end up overtaxing the body and our health will suffer. We need down time in healing and rest mode to repair, maintain and recharge.

It would never be possible to remove ALL stress from your life, but in theory, if it was possible, it would mean deep depression and a shutting down of the body and mind. We need to challenge our bodies and our minds in order not to become rigid and fossilized.

We All Need Our Autumns Too

Your body is built to go to that job interview and to meet that deadline. We are built to go through grief in the same way that trees are designed to get rid of their leaves in autumn. We need to say goodbye to some people, habits and life periods to make room for spring and new beginnings.

We have two modes: superpower mode and healing / rest mode – also known as the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous response. The superpower mode is for high-performance situations mentally, emotionally or physically. The adrenal glands pump out adrenalin, which increases heart rate and blood pressure, expands lung capacity, sends more blood to the muscles and change metabolism to maximize blood glucose levels. All this to enable higher performance of body and mind. When in healing / rest mode the body gets the space to do the amazing repair work it is designed to do.

Make Stress A Powerful Ally

American health psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, used to be on the bandwagon that vilifies stress, until she came across the following study: 30,000 Americans were tracked for 8 years. They were asked two questions: ‘How much stress have you experienced in the last year’, and ‘Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?’ This information was correlated with public death records.

The study concluded that people with a lot of stress sure enough had a 43 percent increased risk of dying. BUT here is the interesting fact – that was ONLY the case for the group of people who believed that stress was harmful to their health. In fact, people with low stress and a belief that stress was bad for them had a higher risk of dying than the people with high stress but an embracing attitude to that stress.

Our awareness of stress impacting our health negatively has come back to bite itself in the tail and created unhelpful belief systems around stress and how the body works.

McGonigal also quotes another survey looking at the impact that helping others has on stress*.

1,000 people in the United States were again asked to estimate their stress level. This time it was correlated with how much time people spend helping others and public death records. The study showed that there is a 30 percent increase in our risk of dying for every major traumatic life event. The good news on the other hand is that for people who spent time caring for others on a weekly basis, there is no increment.

A Self-Correcting Mechanism

The reason for this significant difference is to be found in the neuropeptide, oxytocin. This hormone increases trust and empathy and has anti-anxiety properties. It is mostly known for its prevalence during and after birth and in the honeymoon phase of a new relationship.

One of the lesser-known facts about what is also called The Love Hormone, The Cuddle Chemical or The Bliss Hormone is that it also serves as a stress hormone. Under stress, as part of the sympathetic nervous system response, the pituitary gland pumps out oxytocin which increases our empathy, trust in others and makes us crave closeness with others. In doing so it motivates to seek support from people around us to help us get through tough times. Furthermore, the heart has receptors for oxytocin and it helps regenerate the heart after stress.

Work With Your Body

Work with your body and embrace the ups and downs in intensity rather than being scared of stress.

Fostering and nourishing close relationships and helping others will create natural biochemical stress resilience to help you through stressful times without compromising your health.

But you must ‘put the glass down’, and create routines and practices to aid that process, such as meditation, breathing exercises and mindfulness.

Lastly, when you experience compromised health, look for health care solutions that respect the body’s complexity and connectedness, as that is the most effective way.

*Source: Kelly McGonigal: How to Make Stress your Friend, TEDGlobal 2013