Stress! It seems to be the source of all of our problems.

If I just had a little bit less stress in my life. If I could just get a break from all the stress happening right now. I’m too stressed to do that thing I know I should do.

In today’s world, where a pandemic has altered all of our daily lives, we have a 24/7 source of stress. It is induced by news and information that is mainlined into our brains, combined with a year that seems to be one headline away from total human annihilation. It can certainly all be overwhelming.

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I think you would agree, it is our duty to be an informed citizen these days. We should stay up-to-date with what is going on in our world, however, when that news information is constantly coming in every second of every day through social media and news outlets, our nervous system will be overrun with stress and begin to shut down. The dose makes the poison. When we manage the dose, we adapt and become more resilient. When we lose control of the dose, we react and feel like we can’t catch up.

The reality is we do not have a total stress problem—we have a stress management problem.

If you think about it, the only point in our lives where we will not have any stress is when we are dead.

Everything in our lives, both good and bad, is a form of stress that our bodies are consistently reacting and adapting too. When these good and bad stressors in our life get out of balance, we go from managing stress, to simply reacting to it. In order to take back control of our health, we must stop reacting, which is a potential threat to every step that we take, and be proactive. We need to return to a self-aware management of our stress system.

Everything, actually, causes stress.

I’ll explain. Do you know why that green smoothie is healthy for the body? Phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables actually produce a mild environmental stress or hormetic stress on the body. This hormetic stress stimulates stress-resistance pathways in our bodies and upregulates the production of beneficial antioxidants, like glutathione, to help deal with the stress. When dosed correctly, it has a net positive effect on the body. If consumed in excess, it could have a negative effect on the body and over-stress the digestive system.

Exercise is touted as one of the best stress reducing activities. However, if you took blood work immediately after someone has completed a tough workout, their inflammation and stress markers would be extremely elevated. When dosed correctly, the acute stress of exercise will trigger our bodies to adapt and build up more resilience. However, if we work at an intensity greater than our capabilities, or work at a high intensity each and every day, the cumulative stress will break us down instead of building us stronger.

It is not just in the methods we use to deal with stress, but how we feel while doing them. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, one topic he covers is the power and relationship our facial expressions have with our emotions. In one experiment, test subjects were asked to remember a negative or burdening experience. Another group was asked only to make faces that resembled negative feelings like anger and sadness. With both groups connected to sensors measuring physiological reactions (pulse and body temperature), both sets of subjects showed the same physical reactions.

The muscles you use can change how you feel.

In another experiment, students had to watch a movie with either a pen between their teeth (activating the muscles of smiling) or with a pen between their lips (activating the muscles of frowning). The smiling group interpreted the movie funnier than the second. The muscles responsible for smiling were used and then the brain released hormones related to being happy, showing that facial expressions are not only the result of emotions but can also be their cause.

In my early twenties, I had a martial arts coach putting us through the most grueling conditioning I have experienced. He would say, “Smile! You can’t hate anything while you’re smiling.” I don’t think he was aware of the science connected to that instruction, but he was on to something.

Let’s think about this in our own lives. Are you someone who has always had a hard time or disdain for working out. Were you smiling while doing it? If we start any beneficial activity with a negative emotion from the start, it doesn’t matter what it is, our bodies will respond more negatively than if we associate it with a positive. Where else is this at play? What faces and emotions are we making while eating a meal or scrolling through social media?

No universal formula

The hard part of this management is there is no perfect formula for everyone. We must work to cultivate an awareness within our bodies and ourselves. The good part is there are options to work through this management:

Let’s do tough workouts, but also some days just go for a walk and some focused breathing.
Let’s eat good nourishing food, but also not forget that there has never been a better time in history to have tasty alternatives for our favorite treats. Don’t start an eating plan with a negative feeling of restriction.
Let’s be aware of what is going on in the world, but also shut it off, SMILE and go love on your neighbor. Your brain and nervous system will thank you.
Let’s get back to managing instead of reacting and playing catch up. Stress will always be there.