Calm your stress response

Feeling confused, forgetful or overwhelmed? Follow these three simple steps to calm your nervous system and return to a more balanced state.

Transcript

Today I’m going to talk about how to calm your stress response.

When you’re stressed, you’re more likely to be forgetful, unfocussed and reactive. In contrast, when you’re calm, you’re more resilient, compassionate, and mentally and physically agile. 

Getting to this calm place, however, can be quite a journey — especially if you’re in a vulnerable category, which depends on your age, genetics or life experiences – but, as with every journey, it starts with a single step, and in this video I’ll share three to help you on your way. 

First, it’s critical to appreciate that stress is your body’s natural response to a perceived threat or challenge. It’s important to recognise this because when we demonise our stress response we actually end up exacerbating it. So, next time you notice your heart rate or breathing speeding up this is part of your completely natural physiological response. 

And this leads us onto step 2, which is to address your physical symptoms. Down the track there’s a place for cognitive therapies and resilience exercises, but first-up, your best bet is to tackle (or rather, soothe) your stress-response at the physiological level at which it’s occurring. Ideas for down-regulating your stress-response include mindful breathing, humming, dancing, stretching, walking — any activity with a gentle physical bent that you enjoy. 

And finally, perhaps most importantly, you need to prioritise rest. Inadequate sleep inhibits stress-regulation, cognitive function, emotional regulation and physical health, as well as aggravating psychiatric disorders. If you can ideally get around eight hours of uninterrupted sleep every night and on top of that work in 20-30 minute power naps everyday, that can make a huge difference to boosting your coping skills. 

If you’d like a hand to navigate any of these steps so you can build resilience and focus on the things that matter most to you, get in touch.