2 facts about stress to change your life 

2 facts about stress to change your life 

Let’s talk about stress, it sometimes feels like it’s all we know and maybe we know someone who seems to never get stressed out. There are powerful things taking place inside our brains when we are under stress and later as a result of the stress we have experienced. If you are looking for a deeper dive into the impacts of stress on the brain check out The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. for more information. 

  1. The main mission of our brain is to keep us alive, no matter what. Stress gets in the way of the brain by interfering with the signals the brain sends to our bodies. Take a look back at my previous blog post about 4 ways to be mindful for everyday success, which is a powerful tool for reducing the negative impact stress has on your brain .  Stress experiences hijack the parts of our brains meant to keep the lights in and monitor our sensations and emotions. What this results in often looks like people having responses to situations similar to a past stressful experience much as they did before. Imagine getting into a car accident, or maybe it’s something that has happened to you already. When faced with a similar driving situation, parts of our brain have remembered that previously stressful experience and will tell us to react accordingly even if there is no issue. Sometimes, in situations like this, a person may not be able to drive because their body turns on all the warning signs when they get into a car.
  2. Stress can pull the plug on parts of your brain. While stress can call the shots in certain parts of the brain it can shut off what is called the neocortex. Why it matters that stress can impair the neocortex is that the neocortex is what most makes us function as human beings. The neocortex controls reason, logic, but also abstract parts of thinking and much of our ability to connect with others. One example is that of what are called mirror neurons, which we all have and they will promote similar activation in our brains for the things we see others experiencing around us. Mirror neurons are essential for us to be able to connect with others around us which is a big part of having successful and enjoyable experiences. This most often shows up in the popular saying about feeling alone in a crowd. When stressed or having had chronic stress experiences we can have trouble connecting with those around us.

I know it sounds rough but there is hope coming up. In our next blog, we will be covering some of the more severe parts of stress, which people often call trauma. Following that, we will start learning about two of the most powerful treatments for trauma and stress called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and Brainspotting. Both treatments are available with Mindspot Counseling.

Andrew

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