No more Chronic Stress & Burn-out, step 1

Hey you,

Welcome to yet another article on stress and burnout! Yay 😊. Because, let’s face it:

You are stressed, aren’t you?

Unless you are currently living on a full-time yoga retreat in the mountains where you get daily movement, nutritious food, great social connections, and phones are forbidden, you are stressed. And because you are reading this, I know you are not in a place where phones are forbidden. So, I think you are stressed. How do I know? Because, well, we all are. Including me (sometimes).

My Stress Journey

I started out extremely stressed. Back in 2018, I hit a major wall and burned out from my career as a scientist. I will keep it short here, but if you want to learn more about my personal experience, you can read it here. Anyhow, that moment marked the start of a tough and lonely recovery journey, but it led me to reinvent myself, learn a lot about stress on the way, and create a structured approach to help others (and myself) to be less stressed.

Navigating New Stressors

So here I am: completely unstressed, tadaaaa! Well, not exactly. I may have increased my ability to deal with stress, but the stressors in my life have also increased. I became a mother, I am running a business, my financial stability of a regular income is gone. All new types of stressors, that I need to learn how to deal with.

The amazing thing is that I have the knowledge and the practices to help myself get there, and to help you in the process too. Whenever I encounter a new type of stress in my life, I follow a 3-step process of Insight (using science to understand what the hell is going on), Experience (using practices to actually feel what I cognitively understand), and Implementation (using the science of Behavior Change and Habit Formation to make sure I integrate the practice into my daily routines).

Insight, Experience, Implementation

What I discovered over and over again, is that knowledge is just part of the puzzle. To truly recover and thrive, we need to experience and practice tools to deal with stress, and we need to implement them into our lives. Intellectual insight can only take us so far. It's the physical and emotional experiences, along with consistent practice and implementation, that help us break old patterns and create new, healthier ones. That being said, we do need insight first. If we are unaware, we will never change. So this artucle is about creating awareness. In order to beat stress, you need insight into how it works in your body. Are you ready to become unstressed? Lets take step 1!

The Evolutionary Purpose of Stress

Stress has evolved as a mechanism that helps us to get away from threats (lions, thunder) and pursue opportunities (berries, mates), temporarily increasing physical and mental activation in order to run, breathe, and think faster. We experience stress when we experience a difference between where we are and where we need to be, and we do not have the ability or the resources to get there, hence resources and ability need to be upleveled. Stress temporarily improves our abilities and resources, which makes us more likely to survive.

In the time when running and thinking faster happened occasionally (when running away from a predator, towards food, to heal a wound, or to find warmth), this was a very effective system. For example, stress ramps up your immune system. Stress often comes in the form of infection, so part of the goal of the stress response is to fight off disease. Stress also often comes in the form of cold, so stress warms the body. Stress also comes in the form of threat, so it increases muscle power in order to perform motor tasks, and it narrows your attention focus to fight off the threat, or to track prey or forage for food, allowing you to stay focused on the one task that will save your life.

The Modern Stress Problem

Our stress system is made for these forms of acute stress. In the environment it evolved in, these were the types of stress that mattered for survival because these were the stressors we had to deal with. The problem we face today is that our stressors aren’t immediate nor are most of them threatening our survival or requiring us to move. They are long-term, they are many, they are repeating themselves day after day, and many of them are anticipating some future threat, meaning stress is in our head, and therefore never-ending.

The Impact of Stressors

When it comes to stress being good or bad, we need to consider three things: the number of stressors, your ability to cope with stress, and time.

Let's start with the number of stressors. A stressor is anything that triggers your stress response, whether it’s the news, an email, an unexpected bill, or a heated argument. In our modern era, the number of stressors has exponentially grown. Technology has allowed stressors into our life 24/7, and studies have shown that the average person today processes more information in a single day than a person in the 19th century did in their entire lifetime. Take that in.

News, social media, Slack, email, texts, all of these are an enormous overload of stressors coming your way on a daily basis, and although they are not as threatening as a fully grown lion emerging from behind that bush right in front of you, they add up. Mostly because after you run from the lion, there is a period of celebration, elation, reconnecting with your family, feeling safe and thinking: “Yay, I have survived”. We don’t do that after most of our mild but continuous stressors, do we? That’s a problem.

The Ability to deal with Stress

Next to stressors, we have the experience of stress. Whether a stressor stresses you, or me, depends on many differnt things. I grew up in a family where heated political debate was normal. When someone raises their voice in a conversation, I am not in the least alarmed, whereas for a lot of people, that would be a stressor. So stress, is when your stress resoonse is activated in response to a stressor.

The number of stressors doesn’t necessarily determine whether you will burn out or not. Some people either have more ability or more resources to deal with stress (and you will, in the future, be one of them). They are therefore better able to handle stressors. For example, you and I can get the same number of emails each day, but I may have an AI-generated email filter that puts only those that matter to me at the top (resources), and therefore, I am less stressed because I filter my stressors.

Or you may be at the verge of a burnout right now due to a series of really messed up events in your life, but because I have been there and I have tools to deal with these types of events because I overcame them, I may be better able to handle the stress response, even though the stressors are similar. Which brings me to a very important point. If you are a person who tends to get into overworked or burned-out states again and again, that’s a very clear sign that you need to upgrade your ability to handle the stress. I say this not as a judgment. I say it as an opportunity. This doesn't mean its your fault. But it does mean you can take accountabiluty and enhance that part of the equation you have control over.

Time and Chronic Stress

Last but not least, let's put time in the equation. Very simply put: acute stress isn’t bad and can be useful to learn and grow, but stress can become bad when it gets chronic because the stressors do not go away and because we do not deal with the stress itself. Lions either eat you, or you survive, and the lion is killed or somewhere else. A boss that stresses you out can be pretty long-term. You have to deal with them every working day. First, this means the same stressor keeps appearing again, and again, and again. Second, we often fail to deal with the stress response itself. What do I mean by that?

Strategies to Deal with Stress

There are two ways to deal with stress:

1. Problem solving: One is to remove the number of stressors by 'solving' them. This is a good strategy when your stressors are few enough to be dealt with and have periods of stressor-free time. This is also the approach most of us take to deal with stress. We just keep ticking off items on our to-do list with hopes that one day, it will be finished, and we can finally breathe and be free of stress. But what if that list never ends? Or if the same stressor keeps coming up again and again and we can’t control it?
2. Then we need to deal with the stress itself. Which is a process that is very often overlooked. We can deal with the stress by using resources to remove stressors, by upleveling our skill in managing the stress responses in our body, or by decreasing the time we expose ourselves to stress.

The Summary

Ok, so let have a look at what we just discussed. Stress isn’t bad, stress is bad when: The number of stressors exceeds our ability to cope with the stress, and this goes on for an extended period of time. If we were to put this in an equation, it would look something like this:

Burnout = (Number of stressors / Resources to Reduce Stressors / Ability to deal with stress) * Time of Continuous Stress.

Control Over Stress

So if you look at this equation, there are 4 things you can have control over:

1. The number of stressors you expose yourself to.
2. The resources you have to limit your stressors.
3. The ability you aquire to cope with the experience of stress.
4. The time you allow yourself to be experiencing stress or returning stressors in your life.

The remainder of this article will focus on number 3 (I discuss tackling number 1 and 2 in my last article): Your ability to cope with stress. The first step in increasing your ability to cope with stress is to understand how stress amounts in your body. Step 1 is Insight.

Insight: The Biology of Stress

The Fast Stress Response

So how do we better cope with stress? Step number one is to understand how stress works in your body, and what, apart from removing stressors, you can do to mitigate the feeling of stress in the body. The answer is, quite a lot! Yay! Let’s get to it then.

Acute stress causes a very quick ‘fight-or-flight’ response. Because our stress system is mostly adapted to acute stress, when we encounter a stressor, our most basic 2 responses are either to stay and fight the stressor or to run and flee from it. There is a third one: freeze, which, if you are experiencing burnout, may be what you are feeling right now.

In the animal kingdom, freeze is what prey does when after a long run for life, they are stuck between two jaws, they know that they are too tired and weak to fight or flee, and the system just shuts down and plays dead so that the predator may perhaps release its grip, offering a chance of survival. Freeze is what happens when your system detects that fighting and fleeing are futile, and that our best chance of survival is to shut down and hide until the stressors have gone.

You can experience a momentary freeze under acute stress, perhaps in a very heated argument with a partner, or when getting into a fight with a stranger. Victims of (sexual) abuse often experience freeze where their bodies are completely numb and their minds are completely dissociated. We can also experience a chronic freeze if we have been exposed to millions of tiny stressors beyond our ability to cope for a very long time and we feel like no matter how hard we work, there is no progress towards our goal. Burnout is actually a very smart thing. Your body senses that your efforts are wasted and are doing more harm than good, and it pulls the plug.

The Autonomic Nervous System

Fight or flight is primarily activated and regulated by the activation part of the autonomic nervous system. Also called the involuntary nervous system. This is a complex network of nerves and brain regions whose primary function is to regulate automatic physiological processes and maintain stability (homeostasis). It controls the heart, lungs, and other organs, therefore influencing heart rate and blood pressure, respiration, digestion, metabolism, thermoregulation, reproduction, and more. All essential for our survival, and operating outside of our awareness, hence the term involuntary or autonomic.

For example, when we are in traffic and suddenly an accident appears right in front of our eyes, muscles tense, breathing speeds up, the hairs on our neck will stand up, and our heart will jump into a sprint. These responses are reflexive, they happen without us consciously deciding that they should happen and before we are even aware of the situation that caused the reflex. Our autonomic nervous system decides for us. It’s fast, it keeps us safe. But these responses do not only happen in these extreme moments of danger. They also happen with milder stressors, like the flush of heat you feel when you are embarrassed, the sweaty hands before you walk on a stage, or the quickening of your breath before you see your date.

Stress & Progress System vs. Rest & Digest System

There are two functionally distinct divisions in this Autonomic Nervous System, namely the Sympathetic system, which induces stress and progression and is responsible for your fight-or-flight response, and the Parasympathetic system, which induces relaxation and digestion and is kind of like the brake pedal of the sympathetic response, and, in its most extreme form, is responsible for a freeze response. For example, during non-anesthetic operations, primarily in the gut, some people faint. I have experienced this first-hand.

The Vagus nerve, the most important nerve in the parasympathetic system, literally pulls the plug on consciousness in an acute attempt to save your life: it helps to deal with the pain, but it is also very similar to the prey being in the grip of a tiger’s sharp teeth going into freeze mode so the predator may think it’s ok to let go.

Simplifying the Systems

Ok, so let’s, for the purpose of keeping it easy to remember, call these 2 distinct divisions of the autonomic nervous system, your Stress & Progress System, and your Rest & Digest System. Both systems serve a function, and any state of constant stress or constant rest is by definition unhealthy. People who are on the verge of Burn-out are chronically stuck in stress & progress: you are in panicky fight-or-flight mode all the time. If you are completely burned out, your relax & digest system may have pulled the final plug and you may be completely numb, unable to get out of bed because you are in a freeze state.

One way in which you will learn to increase your ability to deal with stress is by strengthening the rest and digest system: by creating a stronger and quicker brake, thereby increasing your control over how your body processes stressful events.

The Slow Stress Response

There is a second, slower system that deals with more prolonged responses to stress. It takes about 15 minutes to activate, and there are brain areas involved that support more conscious, voluntary decision power. This system is called the HPA axis, which stands for Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal-Axis. Let’s, for the sake of remembering things, call this your slow stress response. This slower stress response starts in the same 2 brain areas as the faster, acute stress response that activates your stress & progress system, namely the Amygdala, and the Hypothalamus.

The amygdala is the area of your brain that is most responsible for perceiving threats. This almond-shaped ‘security guard’ triggers both the fast and the slow stress responses through sending distress signals to your hypothalamus. It is also involved in pleasure, but we will leave that for another time when we discuss how stress makes you seek pleasure.

The hypothalamus is a small but mighty brain region responsible for maintaining homeostasis. It also controls the release of stress hormones through other brain regions. The hypothalamus is like your life coach who never takes a break. In the fast stress response, it promotes the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline (through the adrenal medulla), in the slow stress response, it promotes the release of cortisol (through the pituitary gland).

Hormones and Stress Response

While noradrenaline and adrenaline are stress hormones that act with lightning speed in the fast stress response, cortisol is a little slower and helps the body cope with and adapt to stressors by mobilizing energy stores, enhancing alertness, and temporarily suppressing non-essential functions (like digestion and reproductive processes).

Now that the slower stress response is activated, it's time to have a look at the part of that response that functions as the brake system.

The Brakes

Cortisol activates the brain areas that are important for attention, thought and emotion regulation, learning, and memory, specifically: The Lateral Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus. These areas are activated to make sure you are ready to perform cognitively and socially.

• Ventro Medial Prefrontal Cortex (in short: PFC): This brain region, situated at the front (ventro) and center (medial) of your head, acts like the CEO of your brain. It handles big decisions, keeps emotions in check, and helps you plan and solve problems effectively. It's crucial for navigating life's complexities and staying focused when things get stressful.
• Hippocampus: Deep inside your brain, the Hippocampus serves as your memory librarian and mental GPS. It stores and organizes memories, from everyday details to significant life events, helping you recall important information and navigate through both physical and mental spaces.

Self-Regulating System

The beauty of these brain areas is that besides helping you to deal with the stressor by increasing alertness, enhancing your capacity to learn and remember, focus, handle complex issues, and navigate better, they are also responsible for slowing down the slow stress response. Like the relax & digest system naturally keeps the stress & digest system in check (if you let it do its job), the Prefrontal Cortex and the Hippocampus are the brakes to your slow stress cycle because they dampen the areas that fire up the stress system (Amygdala and Hypothalamus).

This is a great system that regulates itself. You see a lion, the stress loops are fired up, attention and physical activation rise, if running doesn’t help, your Prefrontal Cortex and hippocampus help you navigate to the best hiding place, and then your body hits the brakes: The running has activated your rest and digest system, the Prefrontal Cortex and the Hippocampus help you to regulate your emotions, process what happened, make sense of the situation, connect to your peers, and uplevel your ability so the next time you see a lion you know what to do.

Modern Stress Challenges

The problem today is that how we deal with stress on a day-to-day basis is nothing like what I just described. Most of our stressors attack us online and in our head. We don’t run, we don’t talk them over with peers, we don't hug each other after every annoying email, and we certainly don’t have time to process and reflect on them because there are just so many! Our societies have become more and more disconnected from other people, more and more focused on efficiency and productivity, and less and less movement-based. We have engineered non-goal oriented time, movement and real-life connection out of our life. And these two are most important in regulating our fast and slow stress responses. You need time, people, and movement to let your body do its thing.

When we don’t take time to process what happened, we take the stress in while sitting still, and we don’t connect to our peers, the system starts malfunctioning. The system is built for short stress cycles, increased movement to deal with the stressor, connecting with other people as a signal for safety, and time to process the stressful event and return to a state of calm. It is not made to sit still, in isolation, while dealing with a 1000 imaginary mini-lions, being in a state of mild but chronic stress on a continuous basis.

The Stress Feedback Loop from Hell

Imagine your brain's Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus as your car’s brakes. When overworked, they go on strike, leaving your amygdala and hypothalamus to throw a stress party. Without those brakes, you become a scattered, emotional wreck who can’t focus and snaps at everyone. Welcome to the stress feedback loop from hell. Chronic stress means your body can’t find the ‘off-button,’ making relaxation, sleep, and control impossible. Burnout hits, you freeze, and suddenly, even basic tasks feel monumental.

With your autonomic nervous system and HPA-axis in chaos, everything's out of whack: hormones, heartbeat, appetite, and sleep. You’re tired, emotionally fried, unmotivated, and detached. Heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar soar, cortisol spikes, and you’re an anxious, hyperventilating mess with a scattered mind. Throw in gastrointestinal issues, skin problems, sleep troubles, weird eating habits, immune quirks, joint pain, and random injuries, and your body’s basically waving a giant white flag, begging for a break.

The Good News

That's the bad news. The good news is that there are things you can do. And I don't mean you just need to do more yoga and it will all be fixed. Unfortunately, its more complicated than that. But its very much worthed. You don't need to live on a permanent yoga retreat in the mountains to be more relaxed. You can control the number of stressors in your life, you can limit the time in which you are continuously exposed to the same stressor or a large number of stressors, and you can increase your ability to deal with the stress by improving the function of your brake pedals through movement and social connection (and a host of other stuff, but let’s start with the basics and not stress you out more).

The good news is that you have WAY more control over this than you may think. The other good news is this: You are not crazy. This is not just ‘between your ears’, chronic stress and burnout are very physical, and very real, and we all suffer from it.

It’s not you, it’s the world you live in, and we are not (yet) equipped to deal with that amount of stress. But you can learn. Want to learn how to increase your ability to deal with your stress? Let me know in the comments below, and stay tuned for my next blog, where I will describe this in detail!

Thank you for your interest in science, yoga, and your own journey towards better health.

With love & gratitude,Inge