Stress and Your Mind

It is impossible to separate the impact stress has on the body and mind. Our body, mind and emotions all work together, creating a mix of turbulence and calm within us.

In the last blog, we explored how stress impacts the functioning of our physical body. Before going into what relaxation techniques are shown to help us navigate the physical, mental and emotional effects of stress, let’s take a look at what happens mentally and emotionally when we experience stress.

1. Increased feelings of Anxiety and Worry

Chronic stress can lead to persistent feelings of anxiety, making it harder to relax and feel at ease.  While fear is a useful signal that we need to be on the lookout for danger, anxiety and worry are generally not as helpful. Fear is usually related to something in the present moment, while anxiety and worry are ongoing ruminations about something in the past or future. All three of these emotions may or may not be based on the actual truth of the situation. Regardless, they cause feelings of stress.

2. Mood Swings and Irritability

The connection between hormones and mood swings became abundantly clear to me as I was going through menopause!  Stress affects brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine, which regulate mood. These same brain chemicals can get disrupted during menopause. (More on menopause in my next series). This can lead to irritability, frustration, and frequent mood changes.  Extreme mood swings can be destabilizing and frightening. When we can understand how hormones influence how we feel, it gives us a bit of comfort during these emotional storms.

3. Increased Risk of Depression

Long-term stress can contribute to depression by depleting the brain's ability to regulate emotions and decreasing motivation and pleasure in daily activities.

4. Decreased Emotional Resilience

When stress is overwhelming, it reduces our ability to cope with challenges, making setbacks feel more intense and harder to recover from.

5. Trouble with Relationships

Stress can make us more reactive, leading to increased conflict, withdrawal, or difficulty expressing emotions effectively.

6. Poor Decision-Making

Under stress, the brain shifts into survival mode, prioritizing immediate responses over rational or creative thinking. This can lead to impulsive decisions and poor concentration.

7. Burnout and Emotional Exhaustion

Chronic stress without relief can cause burnout, and may make you feel emotionally drained, detached, and unmotivated.

8. Physical Symptoms Affect Emotional Well-being

The headaches, fatigue, digestive issues, and muscle tension caused by stress (see my last blog: stress and your body) can lower mood and create a cycle of emotional distress.

What You Can Do

Stress is a part of life. Even very positive events still require the body and mind to activate the stress response in order to accomplish the tasks at hand. Stress only becomes a problem when there is no time to relax and recover from it. That’s why it is essential to have tools and techniques that help you manage stress, especially chronic stress.

In the next blog we’ll look at the other side of the stress response; the relaxation response. In the following blogs in the series we’ll explore relaxation therapies that have been shown, through clinical trials, to help shift the nervous system from the stress response to the relaxation response.

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Relax, restore and stay well,
=)
Lori