Our lives are filled with small but annoying hassles. When our body reacts
to a stressful event, we stimulate a hormonal system called the Sympathetic
Nervous System (SNS) — our body’s way of preparing to defend itself. This
likely worked well in human prehistory, but in today’s world we are
bombarded with more stressors than occurred thousands of years ago. But our
bodies react the same way to a post saying mean things about us as it would
have if a lion was approaching our village.
Certain situations activate the SNS: if something matters greatly to us,
the greater our stress reactivity. Likewise, the more uncertainty, the more
stress. When we think other people – especially powerful ones — are
observing and evaluating us, our stress increases Our daily overwhelm can
also plague us: too much to do in too little time, whether it’s juggling
work and child care or looming deadlines at work.
When stressful events (even mildly annoying ones) build up, they create a
state of chronic stress; we feel frazzled. Such stress hormone surges
increase the strain on our body, mind and spirit, leaving us more easily
triggered emotionally. Stress also makes us fixate attention on the
perceived threat, impairing how well we can think and skewing how we see
people and the world around us.
We need the SNS to some degree. It helps us wake up in the morning, focus
our attention well, and, when needed, defend ourselves, our families and
our organizations. But the same stress hormones can create deleterious
effects when they are out of control. We can suffer from too-high blood
pressure and pulse rate, from hyperventilation, and from a weakened immune
system that leaves us more vulnerable to disease. It can even damage our
brain by blocking neurogenesis, the conversion of neural stem cells into
new neurons.
Our body has one major way to alleviate the damage from chronic stress –
arousal of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), the mode of rest and
recovery. The hormones released when the PNS activates reverse the effects
of the SNS. They help our blood pressure drop, our pulse rate slows, and
our breathing both slows and gets deeper. Meanwhile our immune system
operates at its maximum and the brain creates new neurons. And, we are at
our cognitive best: we can do our most complex thinking, be our most
creative, and be most open to new ideas.
While we cannot eliminate all the stress in our lives, (nor do we want to),
we can handle it better. Without regular stimulation of the PNS, we
literally wear out and slowly reduce our ability to function, adapt, be
pleasant, and enjoy life. Making PNS-positive activities part of our
routine offers a powerful path to personal sustainability, creating more
balance between our stresses and our renewals. There are many ways we can
boost the activity of our PNS. To help you start in that more beneficial
direction, we’ve listed a set of activities and events that often occur in
our lives that are stressful and those that are renewing. We each have our
own ratio of stresses to renewal. See where you stand.
This quick and easy survey can help you assess your own sustainability –
your capacity to shrug off stressful events and feel a sense of wellbeing.
You’ll reflect on how often and how intensely you feel stressed, and what
balances those stressors by making you feel good. This is NOT meant as
psychotherapy for traumatic events in your life, nor for eliminating the
ill effects of sustained and intense sources of stress. But most of the
time we suffer from hassles, and we can buffer their impact by increasing
the good feelings in our lives.
Our lives are filled with small but annoying hassles. When our body reacts
to a stressful event, we stimulate a hormonal system called the Sympathetic
Nervous System (SNS) — our body’s way of preparing to defend itself. This
likely worked well in human prehistory, but in today’s world we are
bombarded with more stressors than occurred thousands of years ago. But our
bodies react the same way to a post saying mean things about us as it would
have if a lion was approaching our village.
Certain situations activate the SNS: if something matters greatly to us,
the greater our stress reactivity. Likewise, the more uncertainty, the more
stress. When we think other people – especially powerful ones — are
observing and evaluating us, our stress increases Our daily overwhelm can
also plague us: too much to do in too little time, whether it’s juggling
work and child care or looming deadlines at work.
When stressful events (even mildly annoying ones) build up, they create a
state of chronic stress; we feel frazzled. Such stress hormone surges
increase the strain on our body, mind and spirit, leaving us more easily
triggered emotionally. Stress also makes us fixate attention on the
perceived threat, impairing how well we can think and skewing how we see
people and the world around us.
We need the SNS to some degree. It helps us wake up in the morning, focus
our attention well, and, when needed, defend ourselves, our families and
our organizations. But the same stress hormones can create deleterious
effects when they are out of control. We can suffer from too-high blood
pressure and pulse rate, from hyperventilation, and from a weakened immune
system that leaves us more vulnerable to disease. It can even damage our
brain by blocking neurogenesis, the conversion of neural stem cells into
new neurons.
Our body has one major way to alleviate the damage from chronic stress –
arousal of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), the mode of rest and
recovery. The hormones released when the PNS activates reverse the effects
of the SNS. They help our blood pressure drop, our pulse rate slows, and
our breathing both slows and gets deeper. Meanwhile our immune system
operates at its maximum and the brain creates new neurons. Also, we are at
our cognitive best: we can do our most complex thinking, be our most
creative, and be most open to new ideas.
While we cannot eliminate all the stress in our lives, (nor do we want to),
we can handle it better. Without regular stimulation of the PNS, we
literally wear out and slowly reduce our ability to function, adapt, be
pleasant, and enjoy life. Making PNS-positive activities part of our
routine offers a powerful path to personal sustainability, creating more
balance between our stresses and our renewals. There are many ways we can
boost the activity of our PNS. To help you start in that more beneficial
direction, we’ve listed a set of activities and events that often occur in
our lives that are stressful and those that are renewing. We each have our
own ratio of stresses to renewal. See where you stand.
