stress: an overview
an appetizer
the act of living is an acceptance of the inevitability of stress. be it fluctuations in internal temperature, reactions to workload, or heated conversation— we all deal with it, and we all should have tools to heal with it as well.
whether external or internal, disruptive forces are frequently at play and our bodies, ever the mediator, are persistently striving to re-calibrate to balance. stressors are literally stimuli that disturb our bodily homeostasis. homeostasis is the state of balance that our bodies are fine-tuned to regulate to. the first step on the path to healing is always awareness so… “if you don’t know, now you know”.
the main course
when we sense something disruptive to our equilibrium every system in the body does it’s part to support the response. some systems get lit up and others downshift to preserve energy. You can find the nittygritty elsewhere on the internet (and eventually I’ll write a blurb on the juicy bits)— but for now, suffice it to say this: when the body is out of balance, it’s a stressor. full stop. of course we differentiate the quality of the stress on intensity of response, and so we might lose sight of how small things contribute to the big things.
alas, the small things tend to be the most controllable things and so minor stressors like seasons changing, weather variability, disturbed sleep, “multitasking for efficiency” keep our bodies in a subdued (but persistent) state of alarm. our systems are always on guard so things like ongoing, slightly elevated inflammation levels or down-regulated hunger signals become the subtle antagonists. illness and disease don’t exist in a vaccum, there are weeks (if not years) of perpetuated imbalance compounded that leave the system vulnerable.
TL;DR— cave people didn’t just wake up one day to a full blown ice age, it took time for temperatures to drop, for the climate to be juuuust right for the continued accumulation that was the ages of ice.
just dessert (but more optimistic)
stress is a non-negotiable in our daily experience and lawddd do I know that there are factors that are well outside our control— but we can’t forget that which is in our control. keeping things simple seems too hard in our complex lives, but that’s just where we should be— the motto: work smarter, not harder. something as simple as having awareness of your stress response works wonders on mitigating aforementioned stress response. it’s incredible.
and, while it may be compelling to conflate simplicity with lack of action, there’s a sense of agency that comes with identifying and acting upon the controllables. on the path to healing, you start with awareness and you follow that with recognition (an act of identifying or labelling the state you’re in). at that point, the decisions to follow are up to you: are they acting in accordance with support, balance, homeostasis— or are they perpetuating the imbalance.
we have much more control than we think we do— start small (like even smaller than you may be thinking) and start minimal. find one thing that feels like it gives you balance and prioritize that. observe and reflect on your distractions— explore and take action on your passions. do something and let that first step empower you onwards and upwards to become an actor in your own life.
