The Bottom Line: There's nothing that stress doesn't harm - body, mind, brain.
Stress, fear, and harm go together like burger, fries, and a soda.
When you’re scared for whatever reason, your stress hormones start flooding your system, preparing you to fight, flee, or freeze.
And humans evolved to view anything new as “scary unless and until proven otherwise.”
New can include an infinite number of events and activities, such as:
- an unexpected, distressing email
- a critical review of your work
- a sick pet
- the birth of a longed-for child or grandchild
- a sought-after promotion
- a "decade" birthday
- and on and on, ad infinitum
We all know how uncomfortable stress feels on a superficial level. We’d probably be a lot more uncomfortable if we paid attention to what it does to us deep down. Chronic, unmanaged stress:
- suppresses your immune system
- is linked to increased rates of dementia
- diverts blood from your brain and negatively impacts the brain's creative, decision-making, and empathy functions
- is virtually unavoidable given the continual exposure to data so many of us face on a daily basis
- and more
That’s the bad news. The very good news is that there’s a great deal you can do to decrease stressors within your body as well as stressors in your environment.
So be sure to tune in for tomorrow’s post on specific action steps you can take to downgrade your stress AND up-level your mental wellness and physical health.
(BTW, thanks to Sodanie Chea for posting her photo on Flickr. I'm using it here under Creative Commons License 2.0.)
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