Closing the stress cycle
S2:E1

Closing the stress cycle

[00:00:00] Well, hello! This is The Daily Five with Aurooba, that's me, where we reflect on creating our best lives a little bit every day. Here we go!

[00:00:15] If you are listening to this episode fresh off the presses, so to speak, then it's January 1st, 2024. Happy New Year! This season, we're going to focus on leveling up on a day to day basis. However, before we get started, I want to talk about the stress cycle a little bit because it's very important.

[00:00:39] Any change in our environment or situation is seen by our bodies as a stressor and it activates our stress response.

[00:00:47] Now, there is nothing wrong with that. Stress is a natural part of our life and our bodies are well adapted to deal with it. Our bodies have a physiological cycle that researchers call the stress response cycle. And here's how it goes. At first, your body is at homeostasis, it's not stressed. When a stressor appears, your body shifts into the alarm stage, which activates our sympathetic nervous system and it brings on that ever familiar fight, flight, or freeze response. Our body is diverting all of our energy into taking whatever this immediate action needs to be.

[00:01:30] If that stress persists, we shift into the resistance stage, where our body tries to adapt and cope with this ongoing stressor that is not going away. So while that initial response of fight, flight, or freeze goes away, our stress hormones like, adrenaline and cortisol, are still actually in play, and your body is trying to strike a balance between being ready to take action, and also not entirely taking over our energy resources.

[00:02:02] If you don't get a break from your stressor, if your body doesn't get the signals that allow it to return to homeostasis, you know, bring down those stress levels, you enter the exhaustion stage. Your stress hormones have been active for too long and your body is compromised. And you'll start to see symptoms that increase until they possibly debilitate you like fatigue, weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, an inability to regulate your emotions, slower reaction times, burnout.

[00:02:37] And that is the problem. For a lot of us in our day to day lives, we constantly experience a stress cycle, but we never give our bodies the adequate signals that allow it to return to homeostasis, to relax because the threat or change has dissipated it. We often are going from one stressful situation to another stressful situation to another stressful situation.

[00:03:04] And if you do this long enough, not only does your ability to cope with stress become less, well, I mean, your life just becomes a lot more awful. So, we need to make a conscious effort every single day to close the stress cycle, at least once, you know, give our bodies and therefore our minds a break by doing things that make us feel safe.

[00:03:30] Like at the end of the day, you know, your workday, that may mean shutting down your computer, putting away your work notebook and literally going for a walk. It might mean that after that brand new workout that you decided you're gonna do as part of your new year's resolution, you light a candle and you read a relaxing book for half an hour.

[00:03:53] It could mean changing your outfit, or it could be asking your spouse for an extended hug or some cuddles.

[00:04:01] So, as you try to do better and create new habits and systems this year, remember that these changes are activating your stress response cycle. And, you know, let's not even think about changes for a second, there's just things in our life, everyday things in our life, that are activating our stress response cycle.

[00:04:22] So every day, you need to give your body a break by closing the loop and doing things that mean safety for you. Closing that stress cycle is going to be vital if we want to not only reach our goals, but sustain the progress we make by reaching them, which is why I wanted to talk about that before we really get into leveling up.

[00:04:46] Now, if you want to look into this more, I'm going to pop some links into the research, the show notes for your own research. Thanks for listening. Same time tomorrow?