Sovereign Magazine
D elic iou sly S us t ainabl e L i fes t yle Ch an ges St res s o r digest? By Danna Le v y Hof f man
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eet Boo. Boo is a simple, yet courageous caveman. His hobbies are hunting with friends, riding baby mammoths, starting fires, and getting knocked over the head. Boo doesn’t worry too much, as there’s really not that much to worry about. Unless of course mamma mammoth finds out he’s been riding on her baby, or hunting goes wrong and he’s being chased by a saber-tooth tiger. As you can imagine, THESE are the moments when Boo is feeling really stressed! His brain shifts his body from the Parasympathetic Nervous System (Rest and Digest), to the Sympathetic Nervous System ( Fight or Flight). He makes a run for it, and ends up locking himself up in a cave, not knowing when he’ll leave again, or get his next meal. His brain knows that not only will Boo not be eating anytime soon, he’ll also need to preserve energy to be able to run back to his own cave, once the coast is clear. You’re probably still wondering what you have to do with Boo, who died a long long time ago… Although some say we’ve evolved a lot since the stone age, our brain still functions the same exact way. When we’re stressed, although there are no saber-tooth tigers anywhere to be seen, our brain still commands our parasympathetic system to move aside and clear the way. All digestion halts, energy is being preserved as fat cells, stomach acidity lowers, and oxygen in the blood is sent away from the digestive system towards our brain and muscles. Your stress today is more common and more frequent than Boo experienced during his entire life! Did you know that the leading reason for doctors visits (6080%!) are related to stress? Did you also know that only 3% of these patients will actually receive stress management help? We live in a world where we can’t avoid stress. In fact, a certain amount of stress is actually healthy for our wellbeing, and keeps us on our toes. Some of us work better under pressure (hello procrastinators), while others try hard to avoid it (and end up stressing anyways). So what is stress? Any type of physical, mental or emotional factor that causes tension in the body, leading to physical, chemical, and/or behavioural changes. No joke. Continuous release of stress hormones can cause a list of problems. But instead of naming them, I want to give you a few tools to manage your stress better.
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HOW TO BE A STRESS WHISPERER PRO Spoiler alert: I did not invent the wheel here (unlike Boo). But I did find a golden path combining simple steps anyone can take. First step: The 5 second rule - Credit Mel Robbins No, we’re not talking about picking food off the floor. This rule works on the premise that you know what to do, but you can’t seem to make yourself do it. You simply need to outsmart your own brain. The moment you count from 5 to 1, you are interrupting habit loops, happening in the basal ganglia, and move your brain activity to the pre-frontal cortex - which is responsible for, amongst other things, decision making. So imagine you’re feeling stressed, it’s starting in the belly, and crawls up towards your chest. You know that feeling too well. For a split second there’s a tiny voice inside you (that same voice which always knows what to do, and we often ignore, kind of like your mom). This is when you count down - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Your thinking moved to the pre-frontal cortex. Now what?
