Episode 02: What’s Happening Inside Our Bodies When We Are Stressing Out?

Many of us confuse our ability to acclimate to chronic stress as resilience when, in reality, it’s taking a far greater toll on our health than we realize. In this episode, we take a look at what exactly is happening inside your body when you are experiencing stress and, more importantly, when you’re living in a state of chronic stress. Our brain doesn’t discern between real and perceived threats and, today, we explore a few scenarios of commonly perceived threats that could send our nervous systems into fight or flight mode. The impact of chronic stress on your physical, mental, and spiritual health can be devastating, and this episode will equip you with some tools to observe your body’s response to stress and calm your nervous system. It’s never too late to change your stress management habits; tune in to learn about the physiological effects of chronic stress and how to make the necessary adjustments!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Introducing today’s topic: what happens inside our bodies when we experience stress.
• How Annemarie was unexpectedly diagnosed with breast cancer which she believes resulted from an immune system that failed to optimally perform because it was ravaged by chronic stress for many years.
• Annemarie defines chronic stress and emphasizes the individualized nature of stress.
• Examples of situations that could potentially cause chronic stress.
• How we acclimate to chronic stress and confuse that ability with resilience.
• Our bodies’ physiological fight or flight response to stress.
• Examples of real and perceived threats, and the brain’s inability to discern between them.
• Encouragement that it’s never too late to change your stress management habits!
• What happens in your brain and body when you’re regularly in fight or flight mode.
• The role cortisol plays in the body’s response to stress and its other regulatory functions.
• The physical symptoms we experience when our bodies go into fight or flight.
• The devastating impact chronic stress can have on your physical, mental, and spiritual health.
• How to shift your stress response: observe and notice, and rely on your breath.
• How to use your breath to calm your nervous system.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Annemarie Bell on Instagram

Annemarie Bell Email

National Institute of Health

Disclaimer

This podcast represents the opinions and views of Annemarie Bell and her guests. The content herein should not be taken or construed as medical advice or therapeutic services. Additionally, the views and opinions expressed in the podcast are those of Annemarie Bell and/or her guests and do not represent those of her employer.