“Stress should be a powerful driving force, not an obstacle.” – Bill Phillips. Over the course of the years, talks about mental health have been gaining much needed attention and awareness by everyone in society. There are different websites, institutions, seminars, and campaigns that give tips to the audience and encourage all to not be afraid in talking about their mental health. Often than not, these tips that are given to us say that we should use stress for our benefit, to make us more motivated and productive in our daily lives. However, being true to all of you, it really isn’t that easy. Most times, we feel powerless and tired because of stress and the effects it brings with it. With the pandemic going on and many tasks to do whether it be in work or school, stress is really unavoidable these days. But, not all hope is lost. If we want to overcome stress and use it to our advantage, we must take small steps and first learn about the roots and basic information regarding stress. Only then can we use stress as a powerful driving force to improve our health, well-being, and overall life. If you are looking to know more about how stress affects the brain, how to make stress your friend, and how to gain control of your time, then this blog is perfect for you!
Image Source: https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/Memes-About-Stress-43468369
To first analyze how stress affects our lives and our brain, we must look towards the process it gets into our brain. When we are overworked or have arguments, we get chronic stress. This type of stress then releases the cortisol hormone wherein high levels of which may lead to damaging effects to the brain and life in general. With more cortisol getting released in our brain, our ability to control our stress weakens. Large amounts of cortisol due to stress damages and deteriorates the hippocampus, where our learning, memories, and stress control exists. If our stress control weakens, then it makes us more prone to it and the negative effects it brings. To add, because of stress, our brain size shrinks which leads to negative effects in our concentration, decision making, and social interaction. Cortisol shrinks the size of our brain and results to a loss of synaptic connections between neurons and the shrinking of our prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain regulates concentration, decision making, and social interactions. Moreover, as cortisol lessens the number of new brain cells in the hippocampus, we may find it harder to remember things, which may lead to mental problems. Looking on the bright side, stress brings us extra bursts of energy. When we feel tense or pressured, it allows us to stay focused and only pay attention to the task at hand. With this, it makes us more motivated, productive, and allows us to perform better like in public speaking. However, the one good effect of stress to our brain does not outweigh the numerous other negative effects of stress to our brain. Hence, we recommend that to manage stress, one can exercise and meditate!
Image Source: https://au.reachout.com/articles/what-stress-does-to-the-body
A study was conducted over the course of 8 years and it asked 30,000 thousand adults in the United States a simple question “How much stress have you experienced in the last year?” followed by “Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?” and the results were shocking. 182,000 people died, not from the amount of stress they had, but from the belief that stress was bad for you. However, what does this indicate? As Kelly Mcgonigal, a health psychologist, says “I’ve turned stress into the enemy” You see by thinking about a body’s natural reaction as negative will have negative implications on your health, thus changing one’s view point on stress is the way to go, a study by Harvard University confirms this. Before people were to be put in a social stress test, they were told to view their stress differently; the pounding in your heart? Your body preparing you for your next move, the heavy and fast breathing? Don’t worry, it’s your brain receiving more oxygen. Another way to view stress differently is acknowledging it as a social engager, the hormone oxytocin aka ‘love hormone’ is actually a stress hormone, pumping it out in the stress response, urging you to seek comfort with someone, to be with someone who cares about you. An oxytocin hormone also helps regenerate heart cells and heals from any stress induced damage, it strengthens your heart. Another study also concluded that people who spent time helping others showed no signs of stress related increase of dying. What you think of stress matters, thus viewing it as an enemy, will make it act like an enemy, however treating and viewing it as a friend, will make it act like a friend.
Image Source: https://ahseeit.com/?qa=27613/when-told-yourself-youll-more-positive-life-keeps-trying-memehttps://ahseeit.com/?qa=27613/when-told-yourself-youll-more-positive-life-keeps-trying-meme
In a routine based and fast paced world, having the liberty and full control of free time seems impossible, oftentimes we hear the extremely busy people answer when asking to do this or that is “No, can’t you see how busy I am?”, valid reason, however we must understand that time is elastic, we make more of it, but time will stretch to accommodate what we choose to put into it, thus the key to time management is treating our priorities as something urgent, thus instead of saying “Sorry, I don’t have the time”, a more accurate saying is “Sorry, it’s not a priority”, it’s not about lacking the time, it’s about not wanting to do it. There are 168 hours in a week, subtracting work/school hours and sleep hours leave us with at least 70 hours, that is a lot. So instead of pulling out your phones the moment you receive free time– do something worthwhile, something you genuinely want to do, let’s not save time by avoiding things beneficial for us, as Laura Vanderkam says “We don’t build the lives we want by saving time”. Time is a choice, decide wisely.
Image Source: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/time-management-tips-2947336
After all is said and done, stress is definitely bad for our brain, life, and overall well-being. Because of stress, we become more prone to serious mental diseases and we lose control over our life – the way we think, how we spend our free time, and how we interact with others. But, don't worry, we got you! To combat stress, one can exercise and meditate! Doing these activities will release positive hormones in your brain and will help erase stress from your daily life! Other than that, one can also do time management by listing down what you want to achieve and do for the day and allotting schedules for them. Note that it is also very important to take rests in between doing your tasks. Few minutes of hours of self-care and break time will definitely help you calm down, regain your energy, and fight off stress and all that negative vibes. So, open your favorite book, start watching a new Netflix series, or listen to some music! As a whole, we would like to reiterate that stress is bad for your health and that in addressing this issue, we must take small steps as one cannot solve stress in a blink of an eye. To get good health and combat negativity, remember to get in control of your stress before it gets control of you!
Image Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfCareCharts/comments/funppk/how_to_destress_at_home/
By
Jem Estella
Luis delos Angeles
References
TedEd. (2015, November 9). How stress affects your brain - Madhumita Murgia [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuyPuH9ojCE
TED. (2017, February 7). How to gain control of your free time | Laura Vanderkam [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3kNlFMXslo
TED. (2013, September 4). How to make stress your friend | Kelly McGonigal [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU
Comments