How Stress Affects Your Body and How You Can Reduce Stress | Featuring Methodically Maya

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Thanks for stopping by, this is 2 Minute Classroom and today we have a special guest to talk to you about stress. What stress is, how it affects your body, and what you can do to reduce the negative effects of stress.

Because being a student can be pretty stressful.

Take it away Maya!

Hi everyone, you don’t know me but I’m Maya from Methodically Maya where I make videos about applying psychology to everyday life and taking a scientific approach to self-improvement & mental health.

Today, as was mentioned, I will be talking about stress.

Stress is a normal and even adaptive defense mechanism that historically could have saved your life. Stress is required to trigger the body’s fight or flight reaction which could help you make quick and life-saving decisions in potentially dangerous situations.

Our fight or flight reaction triggers the release of epinephrine, or what is more commonly known as adrenaline, which acts to speed up our heart and breathing rates to prepare the body to do what the reaction’s name suggests, fight or flee the threatening situation.

Epinephrine makes our hearts beat faster and pumps more blood out with each and every beat as a way to prepare our muscles for action. Our muscles then tense up in an act to protect themselves from injury when having to deal with the threat.

Once the perceived threat has been dismantled, our hypothalamus should tell our central nervous system to stop releasing epinephrine which should return the body to its normal, relaxed state.

However, in some cases, our stress response doesn’t get turned off and our brains release stress neurotransmitters for longer than needed and this is what psychologists and doctors would call chronic stress.

Chronic stress has a multitude of negative side effects some of which include: irritability, anxiety, depression, headaches, and insomnia. Chronic stress can also take a toll on your organ systems: specifically, the cardiovascular system, the muscular system, and the immune system can all be greatly affected.

Epinephrine causes your blood vessels to constrict in order to divert blood to the muscles in preparation for action; however, the long-term side effects of this include elevated blood pressure leading to an increased risk of stroke or heart attack.

Because epinephrine is preparing our muscles for a fight or for a flee, chronic stress leaves our muscles tense. This can lead to muscle tightness which may present itself as back or shoulder pain, body aches, or even as headaches.

Our immune system is also affected by chronic stress. Stress will actually stimulate the immune system as a way to prepare for the healing of wounds or even as a way to avoid infections. This sounds great, doesn’t it? However, over time this prolonged stimulation acts to weaken our immune system and can make us more susceptible to viral illnesses like the flu, the cold, or even viruses like COVID-19.

So chronic stress is a big deal - and can have detrimental effects. Now let’s talk about what you can do about it.

There are some pretty basic things that you want to make sure you are doing - this includes getting enough sleep, eating a healthy and balanced diet, as well as being physically active. These basic but powerful tools will help to regulate your mood and manage your stress levels.

Additionally, there is a multitude of research that points to mindfulness as being one of the key tools used to reduce stress and improve many cognitive and behavioral functions. Your brain physically changes with consistent meditation by increasing the grey matter concentration in brain areas relevant to learning, memory, and emotional regulation. If meditation isn’t your thing, journaling consistently has been seen to have similar mental health effects.

If you are looking for additional mental health tips or if you like applying psychological principles to everyday life, then make sure that you check out my channel which will be linked below. I post videos every Monday and have lots of new content coming your way! Thanks for having me 2 Minute Classroom, and I hope to see some of you over at Methodically Maya on Monday.

Virgil here.

I also want to encourage you to check out Maya’s channel. She has high-quality content that you’ll love.

Let’s make her week and get her to 1000 subs!

You all rock.

Thanks for watching and I’ll catch you next time.

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