Stress is an emergency mechanism that should be activated in matters of life and death.
In fact, according to Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky, one should experience stress once in their life, 5 minutes before they die. But we can take measures to deal with it in the best possible way.
Physical and psychological effects of stress
When the human being fled from a dangerous animal, the stress was the mechanism that activated the entire body to escape danger: corticosteroids are secreted, muscles tense, the heart pumps blood to the extremities to promote escape. Once safe, the parasympathetic nervous system was activated, promoting rest and recovery.
The experience of stress should be short, because it wears one down, saps one’s energy and leads to exhaustion. Also changes perception: When you are stressed your vision narrows. One sees only the problem and is not able to see and take into account anything else. This inability to see the big picture does not allow you to take advantage of opportunities, which makes it impossible to find optimal solutions to the complex problem.
Stress makes one more egoic. When you are stressed, all your attention goes to yourself. Being so focused on oneself affects personal and professional relationships and has a negative effect on listening and communication skills.
Neuroscience of stress and resilience
In our brain there are areas responsible for managing the response to everything around us. Any stimulus (from the sound of the cell phone to the email we read) passes through the limbic system, the system older than our “rational” brain. The limbic system is a system that we share with other mammals and that, together with the brain, is responsible for keeping us alive.
An area of the limbic system, called the amygdala, assesses the importance of any stimulus to us and evaluates whether it may represent a possible danger or threat. It is responsible for activating the sympathetic nervous system in fractions of a second, ordering the discharge of corticosteroids that prepare the body to fight or flee (as I described at the beginning of this article).
However, not everyone reacts the same. There are people who manage to maintain mental clarity and give an adequate response in challenging circumstances. And there are those who cannot think clearly, make a decision they later regret, or continue dwelling on what happened, insisting that “things should be different.”
In other words, There are people who are more resilient to stress (they tolerate it better and remain “operational”) and there are others who are affected by stress in a more intense way.
What does resilience against stress depend on?
20% is genetics, 80% is life experience (in this matter, childhood experiences have a very high weight). The areas of the brain involved in stress management and emotional response (limbic system and prefrontal cortex) have greater or lesser activation and connection depending on genetics and life experience.
Dr. Richard Davidson’s trials have shown that the resilient profile has greater activation of the left prefrontal cortex, a greater number of connections between the left prefrontal cortex and the amygdala (in both directions), and a calmer amygdala.
That is, how one perceives things and how one reacts to them, depends on the activation of certain neuronal circuits.
How to reduce stress naturally?
To reduce stress naturally We must take into account that “predisposition” that we have at an individual level reflected in the activation and connectivity of the left prefrontal cortex and the amygdala.
Basically, according to Davidson’s essay, resilience to stress happens naturally if the amygdala is less explosive, the left prefrontal cortex is more active, and there are good connections between the two.
To see if change is possible in those areas, Davidson and his team conducted a trial, using the MBSR program (Stress Reduction with Mindfulness). For 8 weeks, participants attended two and a half hour sessions once a week and carried out the practices at home.
The MBSR program is made up of formal and informal Mindfulness and meditation practices along with a theoretical-practical part and individual and group exploration in relation to different experiences related to stress and resilience.
After 8 weeks, the significant shift towards activation of the Left Prefrontal Cortex (the result tripled 4 months after the program).
In 2016, a systematic review of several trials confirmed that the MBSR program contributes to the activation of the prefrontal cortex, insula, hippocampus and cingulate cortex (brain areas involved in learning and memory processes, emotional regulation and perspective taking). The amygdala shows less activation and a better functional connection with the left prefrontal cortex after 8 weeks of the program in people with stress, people with anxiety and healthy people. In addition, it was confirmed that the amygdala “calms down” more quickly after detecting an emotional stimulus as a result of participating in the program.
