Make Stress your Friend

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Supreet Singh, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Stress has been portrayed as a very negative character in popular scientific studies from 1960s and now in mainstream though and media. It has been linked to every imaginable disease – heart issues, BP, hypertension, change in behaviour, the way we drive, rising tempers.
Stress has however, helped us survive since the early humans walked the Earth.
Humans would go into stress mode when they encountered a danger or when they were about to hunt an animal. Stress produce a response to prepare our muscles and cardiovascular systems to be prepared to run or fight with more strength and speed.
Body responds to Stress by releasing hormones – like Oxytocin, cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine into the bloodstream, increases blood pressure, increases the hearts beats to push more oxygen lungs and limbs. The mammalian or older parts of brains – limbic system, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus are activated and put on high alert. Stress forces the eyes to focus on what’s directly in front of you- like a Tunnel Vision.
A disproportionate share of energy is dedicated to these relevant bodily systems. The body works consumes this stored energy very fast and we become tired once this energy is depleted. Therefore, excess of stress levels creates demotivation and physical exhaustion, and we show behaviours of anxiety, irritability, avoidance of responsibilities and relationships, self-destructive behavior, and poor judgment

Stress is not the Ravan / villain it is made out to be. Stress has desired, beneficial, and even healthy side effects. It increases Cognitive function, by improving athletic performance, increasing motivation, adaptation, and reaction to the environment. Stress heighten sense of alertness, Ability to take quick decisions and increases Productivity. Ability to manage stressful situations makes you a Tough Cookie, as it programs your body to focus on the task at hand and work through your stress instead of tiring the body. The stress hormones produce chemicals called interleukins, which helps the body to dodge a cold.
In modern life we cannot decrease stress but can only manage it. 8 hours of Sleep, sharing the feelings with friends and families, Meditation/ Yoga, Exercising are some of the ways to manage stress.
However, the art of managing stress is to use body’s stress reaction to help to manage stress.
One of the Hormones that is released by the body as a reaction to stress is Oxytocin. At a physiological level Oxytocin is a stress response, nudges you to request for help and fine tunes your brains social instincts. It primes you act to become social, strengthen close relationships, crave physical contact with your friends and families, enhances your empathy, makes you more willing to help and support people you care about. Oxytocin is also, dubbed as Cuddle Hormone as it is also, released, when you hug someone close.
One of its the main roles is to protect cardio vascular system, it is anti-inflammatory, which helps to keep the blood vessels stay relaxed. Heart has receptors for oxytocin, and the release of Oxytocin, helps to regenerate and heals the heart cells to counter any effect of the stress induced damage. In other words what it means is that, Oxytocin, is strengthening the heart.
All these physical benefits of oxytocin are enhanced by social contact and social support. Thus, when you reach out to others under stress, either to seek support or help some one else, you release more Oxytocin. Your stress response makes you healthier and you recover faster from the effects of stress.
Isn’t amazing- the body’s stress response has built in response for stress resilience. The mechanism is human connection.
The next logical question would be to ponder is how to increase the levels of Oxytocin and improve the efficacy of Oxytocin’s effect on our body. I would quickly like to share 2 studies conducted to study the effects of stress, which will help us to create an action plan to increase the amount and effectiveness of Oxytocin on our body.
In one study conducted by Harvard – the studied tracked a thousand adults in US, and they ranged in age from 34-93. They asked them how much stress have you experience last year, and they also asked how much time you have spent helping out others, neighbours, friends, community, acquaintance or even, someone you don’t know? The researchers used public records to find out who died in next 5 years.
Major stress, like health, financial difficulties, increase the risk of dying by 30%. But, those who spent time caring for others, did not experience any increase in mortality rate because of stress.
The other study tracked 30000 adult Americans for 8 years, they started by asking how much stress have you experienced last year. They also asked do you believe, that stress is harmful for you. Then they used public records to understand the mortality of the control group.
As you might have thought stress increased the mortality rate by 43%, but, it was only true for those who believed that stress was harmful. People who experienced a lot of stress, but did not view stress as harmful, had the lowest mortality rates among the control group, including the group which had experienced little stress.
As per the study in 8 years 1.82 L adults in US died not from stress, but the belief that the stress is bad for health.

What did this mean harmful effects of stress on your health are not inevitable, how you think and how you act can transform your experience of stress. When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you can use the body mechanism to help you to recover and become more resilient.

I don’t want any one to have more stress, but in modern world we can not live with out that, so use the power of Oxytocin, connect with others, leave the virtual world and live a better life.
Stress give us access to HEARTS – the compassionate heart that gives you joy and happiness in connecting with other, showing compassion and helping the world to be a better place; the beating heart, working so hard to give you strength and energy. when you view yourself, in this way, you are getter better at managing stress- managing life challenges and you don’t have to face them alone.

However, please note aati sarvart varjeyt i.e. Excess of everything is bad