Seven Top Tips for Completing Your Stress Cycle.

“Stress has a beginning, middle and an end.  It’s a tunnel you have to go through to see the light at the end.”…..”But sometimes we can get stuck in the stress tunnel…..and risk illness and burnout”- Emily and Amelia Nagoski.

In their book “Burnout: Solve your Stress Cycle” Emily and Amelia use this metaphor of a tunnel.  They emphasize that you will get stuck in the tunnel and risk getting ill and burnt out if you don’t support your ventral vagal nerve and deactivate your stress response.

As caring professionals, doctors can get stuck in situations that activate their stress response, especially at this crazy busy time of year.  Connecting with patients in need every day at work can be both rewarding and draining.

We often hang onto the stress and emotions until we can safely express them but there may not be time or a safe space to do this. We often pack them down and ignore what our bodies are telling us.  We carry on working, re-exposed to our stressors, get stuck in our stress tunnels and illness and burnout follows.

Our bodies are amazing, they manage the days stress, but they need you to do something to complete the stress cycle, to soothe our nervous systems, to get us back down to our ventral vagal state of rest, relaxation, connection and calm.

When you notice that you are feeling stressed and are stuck in a stress tunnel, what can you do to get through that tunnel and complete your stress cycle? Emily and Amelia Nagosky describe 7 evidence based strategies which are the most efficient ways for you to complete the stress cycle to return to a more calm and relaxed state.

1. Physical Activity– any movement of your body will release the physical stress and chemical soup of adrenaline and cortisol in your bloodstream. Try shaking your whole body for 1-2 minutes in your office (with the door closed) if you can’t get outside for a break. 

• Breathing.  This down regulates your nervous systems and activates your ventral vagal nerve bringing you to a calmer, more relaxed place.  Use your favourite breathing technique such as box breathing, 5 finger breathing, 5,7,11 breathing or heart coherent breathing.  Even gently lengthening your exhalation will activate your ventral vagal nerve. 

• Positive Social Interaction: This could be chatting with your family, a shop owner, a passerby or someone in your team. Connection is one of the most important factors in your wellbeing. 

• Laughter:  Genuine real belly laughter is the best, even reminiscing about a comedy gig help to complete your stress cycle. As they say laughter the best medicine.  Gou could watch a comedy clip on YouTube or share a joke with a colleague. 

• Affection: A warm hug in a safe and trusting context can do the same as jogging for 2 miles. Research has shown if you hug for 20 secs, it changes your parameters and your observations with a reduction in heart rate and blood pressure, with an increase in mood, measured by higher oxytocin levels at the end of a hug.  Try hugging for 6-20 seconds until you feel relaxed. Hold your body against someone else’s and both lean in equally and hug. Breathe together until you feel your body shift.  Your body will feel like it’s come home to a place of safety. 

• Crying: it won’t solve a problem or eliminate your stressor, the thing that’s activating your stress response, but having a good cry to enables your body to express the emotions it feels rather than the body holding on to them and getting trapped in your body. When an emotion takes over your body it’s a physical expression of stress.

• Creative self-expression: Take whatever is inside of you and put it outside of you- the act of creation by your preferred way of being creative.  For example, art, gardening, or cooking.  Whatever creative activity works best for you to complete the stress cycle.  You can get really creative with this one for example pretending to be Godzilla whilst on the treadmill to get through the stress tunnel and complete your stress cycle. 

When you next notice you have left calm and are feeling stress in your body, pause and tune into you.  Ask yourself “What do I need right now?” and notice how your body answers.  Choose one thing from the list that you can do right now and give yourself permission to do it for a few minutes. Practice this for a few days and it will start to become intuitive. If one of the above doesn’t work for you, try another tip and experiment to find the most effective and efficient ways for you to complete you stress cycle.

How will you know you have completed the stress cycle? You will feel the shift in your body.  You will feel more relaxed with clearer thinking. The tense muscles where you were holding your stress will also feel more relaxed. You will feel more open to connection.  You will feel grounded and present. 

In modern day life, it’s not possible for us to remain calm and relaxed all of the time. We all dip in and out of our stress response. However, the most important thing is to notice when you have left calm and feel your adrenaline kick in. Then you can use whatever strategy works for you to complete your stress cycle and return to ventral vagal calm.