Stress: The Hidden Force Shaping Our Bodies and Minds and How to Navigate Its Impact

By Camelia Burns, Counsellor at The Eaves

Stress often walks into the therapy room. It is most palpable during the initial part of a first client session until we both establish that the other is ‘ok’ and we are ‘ok’ and willing to work together. It is on my shoulder right now, as I am writing, motivating me to fact check what I am about to type and to do a good enough job and it is with each of us across the day throughout our lives. In brief, stress can be traced back to ordinary life events or significant traumas.

What is stress? Often associated with the body’s fight-or-flight responses, stress is what happens to us when we are overwhelmed, or when we perceive the risk of a threat and judge it as greater than our perceived capacity to cope. For instance, I might perceive the risk of you, the reader, judging me on the basis of my writing. In my case, the stress is low and positive, because I feel able to cope and I am motivated by it. However, if I had an impending deadline and a demanding boss on my case or I felt ill-equipped or doubted my ability to do my work (as well as other people), the stress would be negative and over time it would leave an imprint on my body.

Although everyone experiences and responds to stress differently, there is enough research to show that at physical level, the brain under stress tells the body to release cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. When these flood the body, you may experience

• an increased heart rate
• palpitations
• sweaty palms
• hypervigilance
• your breathing might get a little bit faster

Cortisol increases the sugar in your bloodstream and slows down digestion and the reproductive system and immune function, to help you remain alert and ready to fight or flee. Adrenaline increases your heart rate and blood pressure, also keeping you alert. Norepinephrine pumps blood into your skeletal muscles preparing you for action.

However, what happens if your brain frequently signals stress to your body? While the hormones return to normal levels after a brief bout of stress, with a low impact on the body, like headaches or stomach pains, long term exposure also leads to more serious imbalances. Have you heard of Bessel van der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score? That is exactly what happens with chronic stress: the body stores stress hoping for a release until it eventually gets your attention through apparently unrelated health issues. You could struggle with

• sleep
• depression and anxiety
• decreased immunity
• weight management
• palpitations and high blood pressure
• migraines
• memory and focus
• coronary heart disease, strokes, hypertension
• digestive issues (e.g. IBS)
• reproductive issues
• pain in bones and muscles
• irritability or difficulty controlling your emotions, as so on

All of these potential physical symptoms are relevant to the issue you arrive to counselling with. In a first counselling session I am likely to ask you about your appetite, sleep patterns and existing medical conditions as well as significant life changes in the last couple of years (marriage, divorce, bereavement, relationship issues, new babies, new job, redundancy, financial concerns, health concerns, house move etc.) as I am trying to understand the sources and enduring impact of stress on your wellbeing. They are also the reason why, alongside traditional talking therapy, I take a holistic interest in you and may invite you to try out meditation, breathing exercises and certain types of meditative movement and creative outlets, like working with clay, shown to help relieve stress.

If you are interested in how you can release stress naturally and keep yourself well between counselling sessions, here are a few ideas to choose from:

• Maintain a good support network around you. Connection is a basic human need
• Establish healthy boundaries and stick to them. This will help to develop your autonomy
• Keep a stress journal to help you track your stressors so that next time you are prepared to deal with them in a different way, putting you in a position of control
• Make time for yourself
• Practice mindfulness or, even better, have a regular meditation practice. This will help you to practice ‘being’ without resistance and opposition, leading to acceptance and self-compassion
• Show yourself compassion – what would you advise a dear friend in your situation? Can you give yourself the same advice and follow it?
• Walk in nature – this is grounding
• Practice yoga, qigong, tai chi, Pilates – gentle forms of exercise that allow for conscious release of stress without putting additional pressure on the body also teach you patience and resilience. Running and high impact exercising are great, but they also rely on your body producing additional stress hormones, like adrenaline
• Try meridian tapping, or body shaking, or burst into spontaneous dance while heating up your dinner
• Massage your hands and feet
• Take up a creative hobby. Putting your brain in a state of flow helps to relieve stress and encouraging the production of ‘happy’ hormones.
• Practice gratitude
• Do some journaling
• Have a healthy and balanced diet
• Avoid stimulants such as drugs and alcohol

The Eaves Counselling and Psychology

Camelia Burns, Counsellor and Psychotherapist at The Eaves , is based at our Guildford practice. To find out more about Camelia, or to enquire about her latest availability, please visit her profile here.

The Eaves Counselling and Psychology Ltd is a select professional body of Counsellors, Psychotherapists and Psychologists, providing high quality psychological care Monday to Saturday between 9am and 9pm from our practices in Guildford, Godalming, Farnham, Haslemere and online.

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