Dealing with Stress: Simple Tools to Help Manage stress

Stress serves as a trigger for several bodily and mental processes. The general system controls the state of stress. We therefore have ingrained in us systems for handling stress and discomfort.

How stress works

We possess a group of neurons known as sympathetic chain ganglia. That neuronal network becomes active in response to stress and releases acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter. Other neurons react to that acetylcholine by releasing adrenaline-like chemicals called epinephrine.

Simply put, epinephrine activates other receptors on specific tissues that we don't need and that connects with the other receptors that contract the blood vessels. It also has a specific type of receptor that responds to epinephrine and blood vessels, dilation of blood vessels, and an increase in heart rate.

In other words, stress essentially forces some systems to activate while inhibiting the activation of other systems. We also feel agitated, which is what motivates us to move.

The opposite system in the body that is intended for calm and relaxation, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), is what we need to activate if we want to lessen the severity of the stress response. The PNS is the system that controls our face, eyes, trachea, and neurons in the pelvic area. The PNS contains a few "levers" that enable us to instantly counteract the stress reaction, reduce stress, and experience calmness and relaxation.

How stress affects our body

The diaphragm, a piece of internal skeletal muscle, descends downward in response to an inhalation, causing the lungs to expand and the heart's volume to physically increase. Before we inhaled, the blood began to flow gently inside that volume. Subsequently, the sinoatrial node informs the brain that the heart is pumping blood more slowly. The heart then receives a signal from the brain to increase heart rate.

The diaphragm rises during exhalation, causing the heart to contract slightly and pump blood more quickly. After the Sinoatrial registers, the brain receives a signal from the PNS telling the heart to slow down.

So, for higher heart rate and more alertness, we should inhale longer than the exhales. If our exhales are longer than the inhales, we will feel calmed and relaxed and can sleep more quickly.

How to feel relaxed when stressed

Double inhalation followed by a long expiration is a technique for relieving stress. The physiological sigh, also known as the double inhale-exhale, causes our lungs' tiny sacks to expand again, and the deep exhale that follows swiftly relaxes us.

The quickest approach for us to instantly stop this stressed reaction in our bodies is to elicit a physiological sigh. This is a potent method for lowering our awareness and level of what is known as autonomic activation.

One thing we must always keep in mind is that a rapid heart rate decrease accelerates the process of relaxing. We could pass out if we settle down too quickly.

Those who have difficulty falling asleep might repeat the physiological sigh for ten minutes, or up to fifteen cycles, if necessary.

For a variety of reasons, nasal breathing is preferable than mouth breathing. Double nasal inhalation and prolonged oral exhalation will work best.

Types of stress

Their are three types of stress—

1. Short-term stress

2. Medium-term

3. Long-term

Our immune systems benefit from acute stress. Therefore, acute stress and the production of adrenaline, specifically epinephrine, are beneficial in the fight against infection. In actuality, it activates certain brain regions that improve cognition, focus, and narrowing of the focus.

Many of these killer cells are released from the immune system's organs and interact with the lymphatic system to fight infection when the body generates adrenaline. In fact, we are more equipped to fight diseases when the body releases adrenaline.

We are better able to fight infection and mend bodily wounds if we experience occasional stress peaks over the day or the week. The ability to say "no" when we're finished is crucial; we don't need that.

Acute stress turns into chronic stress when we are unable to get a good night's sleep. We must learn how to apply the brakes and deactivate the stress reaction.

The term "medium-term stress" refers to stress that lasts for a few days to a few weeks. In contrast to trying to unify the mind and body and make everything calm or alert, medium-term stress, it is all about dissociating the mind and body in a healthy way.

The secret is to learn how to calm the mind when the body is still highly active. It usually makes things feel more doable in situations that previously felt overwhelming. In order to achieve this, we can raise our heart rate. After that, we want to try to relax our minds while our bodies are in this highly activated state. Because it focuses on raising the stress threshold so that the body maintains a high level of awareness while the mind remains peaceful, it has a relaxing effect on the mind. So, it involves raising our level of activation through the body and then separating our mental or emotional reaction from our physical experiences. This is for managing medium-term stress.

The third and most harmful kind of stress is now here: long-term stress. Adrenaline shouldn't remain high in our systems for an extended period of time and this is what exactly happens in long-term stress.

What will lessen or ameliorate long-term stress is social connection, and specific forms of social connection in particular. Social interaction and serotonin are related. It significantly lessens the effects of this ongoing long-term stress.

We would ultimately reach a state known as tiredness or exhaustion if stress persisted long enough, which would be incorrect. So, we need to manage it by attending to our sleep, diet, and exercise on a daily basis which will reduce stress inside our body and will make us physically, emotionally as well as mentally healthy.