DSTRESS Podcast
D STRESS is a podcast hosted by D and Caz that re-frames stress as communication, not pathology. Using factual, simple, common-sense guidance, the show helps listeners understand themselves better and make lasting improvements to mental health and well being.
You don’t have a stress problem.
You have a stress understanding problem.
Most stress advice jumps straight to coping techniques.
D STRESS starts with explanation.
Stress is not random.
It’s a predictable biological process driven by stress hormones.
When you understand how those hormones are activated —
stress becomes easier to manage.
What D STRESS Explains
- What stress actually is (and what it isn’t)
- Why stress hormones stay active longer than necessary
- How everyday thoughts and behaviours influence stress levels
- Why awareness changes reduce stress more effectively than willpower
No life overhaul.
No motivational pressure.
Just understanding that leads to change.
This Podcast Is For You If:
- You feel mentally or emotionally overloaded
- You’re tired of vague or conflicting advice
- You want explanations that actually make sense
- You’re ready to understand stress instead of fighting it
DISCLAIMER
D STRESS is an educational podcast and learning programme focused on understanding stress through awareness and insight. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and does not replace professional healthcare. Individuals experiencing significant or ongoing distress are encouraged to seek appropriate, qualified support and to remain informed and actively involved in decisions affecting their well being.
DSTRESS Podcast
Episode 4 - Why Managing Unnecessary Stress Changes Everything
Stress isn’t the villain your feed says it is. The real trouble is the overflow—the unnecessary chemistry that lingers long after the moment has passed. We call that red stuff, and once you learn to spot it, measure it, and drain it, everything from sleep to patience to decision-making gets easier. We break down stress as a healthy, built-in response to change, challenge, and threat, then show how modern life turns that dial up and leaves it stuck there. You’ll hear gut-level metaphors that make the science feel human—volcanoes, red mist, fireworks in water—and a simple 0–10 self scale that helps you know when to act. We map how red stuff builds: first in the body with headaches, IBS, fatigue, and poor sleep; then in emotions with irritability, anxiety, and low confidence; and finally in behaviours like avoidance, snapping, or risky coping. None of it means you’re broken. It means your system is overloaded and needs a path back to balance. We share practical interventions you can use today: brief nasal breathing with longer exhales, natural light breaks, language shifts that defuse all-or-nothing thinking, and the pause that prevents reactive messages and messy fallouts. We also dig into why antidepressants can help as a bridge while you change thought patterns and routines, and how small, repeated choices rebuild a calmer baseline. You don’t need a monastery to find peace in a noisy world; you need a way to manage the excess and let useful stress do its job. If this resonates, hit follow, share the episode with someone carrying too much red stuff, and leave a review to help more people find practical mental health tools that actually fit modern life.
Stress is the biggest killer in the world.
Speaker 2:Welcome to DStress with D and Caz. Both our crowning achievements were not ending our lives. So we're talking about mental health.
Speaker 1:Too many of us are suffering silently. So go grab yourself a cupper.
Speaker 2:And let's get real and raw because you are worth so much more. Hello. Welcome to this week's episode. I'm D. This week our subject matter is something called red stuff, which is our way of discussing the concept of stress, because we're different. We don't talk about stress. In fact, the only time I ever mention the word stress is on this podcast. I don't use the word stress in my everyday language. Caz does. A lot. She Just gave me one of them looks. Because stress is not a problem. And I know that it sounds very strange when we're talking about managing this thing called stress. It's actually not the issue. And in time you'll understand more clearly what I mean by that. Because um stress has never been a problem. Without it, none of us would be alive. Without it, none of us would know how to function and have um warning signals and signs because stress is the way our body tells us something needs changing.
Speaker 1:I must admit though, until I came to see you D, um I I sort of I was slightly confused when you first explaining about good stress and bad stress. Um, because to me the word stress was just ra you know. So how you explain it to me when you talk about the bad stress, and we'll get on to it on another episode about good stress and bad stress. But we're actually going to be talking today about red stuff. So D, can you please explain to us what red stuff, how you explain what red stuff is? Certainly.
Speaker 2:So stress is what it is, a perfectly natural response to anything that changes, challenges, and threatens us. And we call that CCTs instead of being triggered, for example. So a lot of people think of the word as stress stress as being this immensely negative situation. Um but it's not. Without it, we would not survive. We have to have it, and there's a certain amount of stress we all need in our bodies to give us the energy and the alertness and the uh ability to function smoothly and to protect us, yes. So stress is not a bad thing overall. What's bad about stress is when it's too much, when it's becomes excessive, when stress is in our systems unnecessarily, so it's the unnecessary stress that is the problem. We don't want to take away all the stress because we wouldn't function, we would just collapse in a heap on the floor. So we have to have it for survival. But because we have so much of it, I'm just checking we're recording because I wasn't sure that we were uh because we have so much of it, unnecessarily because of the amounts of change, challenge, and threat that we experience, to refer to it as stress in its own right, is a bit confusing for people. So over the years, throughout my teaching, I came to the conclusion that there's something I need to rename it instead of calling it stress, as in the stuff that we need to manage and get rid of. Um, and so I named it red stuff for a very good reason because it's the red stuff which is the part of stress that's damaging, unhealthy, negative, painful, distressing. Um, that's the stuff that we've got to get rid of and manage. And so calling it red stuff for the people that walk through my doors was a lot more simpler for their brain to process than trying to differentiate between good stress and bad stress.
Speaker 1:When I first came to you, D, when you was explaining about red stuff, um the way my mind understood it, or how I believed um it to be, was it was kind of like a a volcano in my head, and um you know, if a volcano with its lava and red stuff, the more stress I got and the how overwhelmed I felt, it was like a volcano. It was almost like erupting, you know, something was going to explode in me if I didn't manage my red stuff. And that's how I first understood when you were explaining it to me. I now know differently, however, that's the image.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not that different, it actually still means that to you because that's the way that you've worded it in your brain to make sense to you. Um, another way of saying something like that is when people talk about the red mist, when they get angry and they lose their concentration in a responsibility sense and they get angry, yeah it's called the red mist. Um, and this is not necessarily just about getting angry, it is about your body having far too much stress hormone in your system. But if you think about it as um stress overall being the problem, then you're in trouble if you get rid of all of it because you don't need to, you only need to get rid of the unnecessary element of stress, which is why I call it managing your red stuff, and that's the bit that goes over the level that's acceptable and healthy and manageable, which is what depicts your quality of life.
Speaker 1:So the more red stuff you have in your system, which affects every aspect of your life, could affect your job, your relationships, parenting, everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, as a biproduct as well, no matter what experiences you're having that's challenging you, uh, this will always be a byproduct because of the nature of what it is. So managing your red stuff is what I teach people as opposed to stress management. It's red stuff, which is the unnecessary component of stress in our systems. And red stuff is just easy to remember when you're when I'm asking somebody what their levels of stress are, I just talk to them about their red stuff. How's your red stuff? You know, what level is it? And of course, in time I'll explain to you about the um 0 to 10 scale of how you can work out and explain where you are in your levels of stress. But I always just talk about red stuff because it just makes far more sense and it's much easier for in terms of simplicity to to understand what's going on, especially when you see what's actually happening mechanically, it makes perfect sense that this stuff is.
Speaker 1:And it's to it's to s and it's to stop as well. I like I explained um about the volcano, it's to stop that eruption, it's stop that explosion, yeah, that anger, that rage, getting to that point. Um, and that's how you know I understood it about managing my red stuff. So the volcano did not erupt.
Speaker 2:And also, if you're not close to being a volcano with the red stuff, because of serious, major, massive challenge and threats going on, because that's not everyday life for everybody. Sometimes it's chronic and it's low-key, but it still gradually builds up. Um, it's not necessarily about managing big heaps of it, it's about maintaining low levels and keeping on track and keeping it under the level of it turning into a volcano. And that's about what we we reference intervention, so we can all intervene on the way we think, feel, and behave as a result of learning the mechanics, and that will automatically help you manage the excess stress that is the red stuff from developing into a volcano.
Speaker 1:I believe that if I had managed my red stuff earlier or before I met you, that the impact of my health um and the way it's unfolded um would have a different story. I know hindsight's a wonderful thing, and but I do believe that because I didn't manage my red stuff um earlier on in my life, that it actually impacted my health, which I still manage with today, from getting i.e. type 1 diabetes, and the list goes on. Um so you know, it's so important for everybody to manage their red stuff.
Speaker 2:It's certainly it well, people until now, until I've gotten come out with this terminology, most people will still look at stress as being the enemy and stress being the problem, and the stress is terrible, and you know, stress is the thing that we've got to eliminate from our lives, and we haven't. We've just got to manage the excess, unnecessary part of stress, which is what I call red stuff, and that's the simplest way of putting it. It's stress is not a problem, stress is actually our best friend. People don't realise that, and I know you are still looking at your face in a place of I'm not sure I like that.
Speaker 1:No, I I do I do understand it, however, I did, as you know, I struggled with it all in the beginning because my brain would just alert to the word stress, anger, rage, red stuff.
Speaker 2:And that's the that's the bad press stress has got, and it really isn't a problem, it's only a problem when you allow it to get beyond that point of manageability that it becomes bad, dangerous.
Speaker 1:That's why it's so important that we're having this conversation about red stuff, because if you don't manage it, how different the outcome can be and what a different direction your life will be if you don't understand red stuff.
Speaker 2:Every single person on this planet, even children, experience red stuff frequently with the way that they respond and react to challenges or changes or threats, even because of the lack of power they feel, lack of control, um, you know, just anger, frustration, irritability, mood swings, you know, they're all very much evidence that their body is producing excess stress, and the way they are managing it is to externally explode and allow, you know, you're you're trying to alleviate it by getting rid of it, but in an unhealthy way. These unhealthy ways are what's causing the worst of the worst problems that are out there with regards to our mental health at the moment.
Speaker 1:I remember one time um when I wasn't managing my red stuff and it actually felt like I was swallowing or I had acid inside and it was going down my throat and bubbling inside my stomach, um, just where I hadn't caught anything. As when I say catch anything, I just let all the negativity build up and have all this excess red stuff, and it actually got to the point that it felt like it was burning me from the inside out, hence why I say about the volcano.
Speaker 2:But that's a really good description of it. I mean, my personal experience of it, I think we discussed offline about I said about having wizzy belly because I felt like I was just plugged into an electric socket 24-7. I had no way of switching it off, and it's the most horrendous out-of-control sensation that you can have. But then if I looked at it the way you just did, I would have felt the same. It would have been an acid-y feeling in my body that I had no control over. So it's really the way we perceive it and how our individual differences make a difference to the way we describe it and explain it. But it's the same thing, just unnecessary amounts of this stress hormone in our body that we have got no control over managing.
Speaker 1:And you think there's so many people walking around with this red stuff. Full of red stuff. Full of red stuff switched on continuously. Yeah. That not only affects them, you know, physically and mentally, but can lead to illness and diseases.
Speaker 2:Very much so. And not only personally they can experience and develop illnesses, but the people that they love and that care for them are also affected by watching you having this excess red stuff and the way you behave because of it. So it does just affect the individual. It affects every single person that's involved in your life, even if you're not directly involving them. The mere fact that they're watching somebody they love and care for suffering is is really very distressing for a lot of people in the world today.
Speaker 1:I have so much empathy and giant love to all of you out there that is walking about with red stuff at the moment. Keep listening so that we can explain to you how to deal with your red stuff and manage it.
Speaker 2:Well put. Big tick.
Speaker 1:D.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so red stuff is not something you want in your body at all, ever. And the only way of getting your head around it is by recognising the fact that it's there in the first place and that you can do something about it. So, you know, red stuff is something that as I said, even children can experience. Oh, have a little Ralphie moment there. Um, and it's it's not something that you can you you want to eliminate totally because we're all human and everybody is allowed to have moments of uh you know overt challenge that it warrants a reaction, but it's not necessarily always unhealthy. It's when it becomes excessive and unnecessary uh constantly and becomes chronic that it becomes the damage, the damaging impact that it can have on you.
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Speaker 1:So D, can you explain to our listener what will happen if you don't manage red stuff? Do you know what?
Speaker 2:All they've got to do is look at social media. I haven't got my headphones on. I'm thinking something's very different around here. Okay, forgive me. My lovely people.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's better. I'm that loud, you can hear about rear flowers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can hear now. Um, yeah, you've only got to look at social media and all the different things that are out there with regards to mental health. Um, yes, it's not just about mental health. Physically, you could like yourself, type 1 diabetes. Uh and again, let's make it clear that that's not a common thing that happens. However, there are lots of other physical illnesses that wouldn't be classed as mental health issues. Um, but yeah, physical health, a breakdown, quality of life generally per se is going to be affected. Um ruining your you know, love relationships romantically. Just every single aspect of life can be impacted on by having too much red stuff, which turns into um a negative health situation. And it's not always about health. For example, think about narcissism and egoism. At the end of the day, lots of people have behavioural problems that are very much stemming from excess red stuff over time. Overall, the way you look at it, I I personally feel is the best way to look at it is if you're feeling out of sorts and under the weather and you're not quite sure if it's just life in general, you've got a virus, it's pretty easy to recognise excess um stress in the form of red stuff by thinking about you know your physical health. Are there things in your physical health that weren't there before but they are now, and that you're having a problem getting rid of them? For example, skin complaints, digestive disorders, sleeping, fatigue. Absolutely, all of that. Aches and pains, tiredness, yeah, everything. I mean, the amount of people now that are being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, you know, they're perfect indicators that the vast majority of the onset of that stuff is excess stress, red stuff. And the more of that you have, the more your physical body is going to be compromised. And if you don't deal with the physical issues um efficiently and effectively, which is what your brain and body requires in order to get back to homeostasis, which is the balance when it comes to stress, because that's all stress is doing in your body is to try and get you back to balance. It's upsetting your balance. Yeah. Um, you know, if you don't deal with that, then the next thing that's going to be impacted on is your emotional health. So your feelings, you know, whether your you know your self-esteem and confidence takes a bash, your insecurities, you know, the beginning of fears and phobias, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Paranoia. Paranoia.
Speaker 2:But that's a little bit more down the line with your behaviour, but that's another um example of the fact that if you don't deal with your emotional health, i.e., your lack of confidence and self-esteem, etc., irritability and mood swings, um, if you don't deal with that efficiently and effectively, what's going to be affected after that? It's it's a natural progression, is your behaviour. So things like you'll stop wanting to go out because your confidence is low, you know, you'll start to get things like um, you know, feeling insecure and and and and just literally not having the confidence and self esteem to cope with life, and you start having behavioural issues that are blatant, and your friends will recognise it, your family will recognise it, you know, agrophobia, claustrophobia, all of those fears and phobias start creeping up until you get to the point where it starts affecting your behaviour. Big time with anger and violence and aggression and drug taking, and let's be honest when suicide becomes something that people contemplate because they're in so much pain, and it is just horrendous, and it's all to do with excess stress, and we call it red stuff. So that's what's going to happen to people, and it is happening to millions of people because they're not managing the excess stress in their b bodies and brains. We call it red stuff because it's just more palatable to discuss. Um, and and it's just um, you know, it's a war zone waiting to happen.
Speaker 1:Also, as well, I felt like it where you explain about you know not wanting to go out, you can be sort of dissociated from um from life, social life, reality, and it's where you almost become alone in your own pain and suffering.
Speaker 2:You cannot believe somebody else would feel like that. That it's possible for you to feel like that. And you couldn't well, I know how I feel. I I I didn't have the words, I didn't have the vocabulary to explain how I felt. So it was just easier to say nothing. Because no matter how many times you said, I don't feel right, there's something not right, this isn't right, I'm not, this isn't normal. Oh, well, you're bound to feel like that because XYZ's happened. Um, yeah, I know it's okay to sort of experience stuff because XYZ has happened, but there's nothing worse than not knowing or being able to express and articulate how you're feeling.
Speaker 1:When the red stuff really started to creep up with me, um, when I would go out, I'd almost like put on a mask um and everybody had be like, okay, she's so happy, she's so floaty, she's you know, that kind of thing. And inside I was sort of, you know, it was bubbling and the acid, and I felt um very alone and unwell. And then it got to the stage where, like you've just turned around and said, I wasn't able to mask it, so I would stay indoors and I wouldn't go out, and I didn't feel like I had the confidence, it just affected every single thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, I'm just thinking about how many episodes we've done and what we've talked about. We don't really haven't really mentioned depression and anxiety, which are the most common mental health conditions that are out there. And I I don't think you need to be a rocket scientist to actually rocket scientist? Does that make sense? What's a rocket scientist? It's not rocket science, is it rocket science? Rocket science, forget about that. Ignore that I said that I'm not deleting it either, because we're all human and we make mistakes, and that was a good one. Um, but it doesn't take a lot to actually work out that underlying all depression and anxiety are immense levels of red stuff, which is the unnecessary component of stress that we're not managing and we're not handling. So, in answer to your question, Caz, that's what will happen to people if they don't manage their red stuff.
Speaker 1:But when people explain about the words, i.e. depression, and they explain then anxiety. Um depression I always thought was like you're sad, and it didn't really include anger, and when you're anxious with anxiety. Whereas I believe that red stuff, the way you explain it, covers all of them.
Speaker 2:It is all of it. It's what all of that is, because it's your body's way of according to you, the individual, and the way your brain has logged and stored and filed its experiences over the years, will determine how your body reacts to the excess stress, i.e., red stuff. So some people will be more inclined to be depressed, others will be more inclined to be anxious. Uh, I'm a perfect example of having both of them at maximum levels all at once, because it was just too much for my brain to comprehend. So it was just chucking out every stress hormone it could. But there, I mean, th there's just too much mental health um suffering unnecessarily in the world today, simply because people don't understand the basic concept of what stress is and that it's a perfectly understandable um topic, but people are just so wrapped up in the fact that it's a bad thing and we don't really want to go there avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, we mustn't avoid it anymore.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine if everybody in the world, or maybe say three quarters of the world, um understood what you're explaining about red stuff, how different their lives would be, how different this world would be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the quarter of the world that you're talking about that hasn't learnt it are naturally like it, like the Buddhists of this world. Wonderful, like those wonderful people that have not necessarily learned it because of information they've got in this century, for example, but it's an almost a spiritual understanding of what makes the brain at most um rest and relaxed and comfortable, and it's not the world we live in and and the amount of changes, challenges, and threats that we're being bombarded by. So, yeah, I I I can see, I know that world, and for 35 years I've really wanted to express this and get it out there in the way that I am now, and you know what? I'm happy.
Speaker 1:I'm happy. I like the way you brought in um, you know, the Buddhism and when I was explaining about three quarters and quarter, because obviously Buddhism they live a very simple, basic life with no technology. Whereas what you're teaching everybody and what our listeners would like to know is how to live in today's society with all the choices, with the gadgets, um, because not everybody wants to be a monk or what it's it's impossible to have that much change in your life, but how to deal with living today in this world in this century.
Speaker 2:And that's a beautiful thing you've just said there, because it makes it so easy to hit home the fact that if you can manage your red stuff, you can have the quality of life and the peace of mind and the environment in which a monk lives by not having the unnecessary stress in your life, the red stuff. So managing that can give you a whole new lease on life. It doesn't mean that you are immune to the impact of stress. For example, if you have some really serious bad news, you wouldn't be human if you didn't have a response. But it's being able to manage that situation, that challenge or that threat in the most healthiest way possible. And it's not always going to be nice, it's not always gonna be okay. Sometimes it's gonna be the volcano, sometimes it's gonna be an outburst or or a reaction that you don't like. However, you can always pull it back when you know what you're dealing with, you can always grasp and pull it back and and get back on on the stage, really.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, because you know, there's no way of escaping some suffering in life that it throws at us. It's about how managing to deal with it with the red stuff so that it doesn't escalate onto another area of your life, yeah, which then explodes or could, you know. 100%, Caz. You've got it there. Um just add on and add on and add on until you become explosive.
Speaker 2:Which is why when you learn the stuff that we're talking about, you have um uh an element of control, and that's half the problem, really, feeling so out of control and not having a way of believing in a solution, because you can take your antidepressants, but if you don't change what's in your mind and how you're thinking and how you're processing, then you know that antidepressant is not going to change anything, it's just gonna numb you. And I'm the first one to say if you need them and they are relevant and they're going to do you a good job as an interim um method to to help you, no problem. But managing your red stuff is always going to top any antidepressant that there ever was produced, because at the end of the day, it's about what you've got inside you and what you're carrying around. And if your thought process is is um very much in the negative, for example, and you're constantly switching on your stress response because of being very negative in your thoughts and your vocabulary, then you know, as much as antidepressants will sort of help you uh initially in the short term, the minute, say, for example, you come off them because you think you're okay, all your original files that have not been adjusted and adapted will come back into play.
Speaker 1:And so you're on that roundabout that goes because you kind of just put them negative files, you know, to the side and haven't actually dealt with them or managed them in your life, it's all about recognising what it is that you're doing.
Speaker 2:Uh, let's just say, for from a thinking perspective alone, if you don't know that the way you're thinking is exacerbating your red stuff, um, you know, and doubling it and trebling it every single time you think that thought, or or let's say you behave in a certain way, every time you do something that's reinforcing the negative, you're just keeping your stress reactive, and you keep topping up your red stuff, you're never going to come away from it. So you have to understand what it is, how it got there, and what you can do to prevent it and stop it. And that's what we call the intervention. We can consciously intervene on our inner worlds by understanding how the way we think mechanically has an impact on the amount of red stuff we produce.
Speaker 1:And this can change your future and your happiness for forevermore. Forevermore.
Speaker 2:Doesn't mean that you're a robot and you don't have emotions, but it means that you can recognise what's happening quicker than if you didn't understand it and intervene and do something about it, as opposed to just thinking that's your lot and it's the way I am. I was born like this, and I'm always going to react like this. You don't always have to react like that. You don't always have to have excess red stuff in your system. It's only something that's there because of your lack of understanding and knowledge about what this thing called stress really is. So that's what we're about, really, is getting people to understand that stress is a really fascinating, interesting subject to understand, and that it's not a problem. It only becomes a problem when it becomes this red stuff, which is the unnecessary component of stress, and lots of people have too much of that too often.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's definitely Did that answer your question? It sure did, D, as always. Good I You've explained to us about um what will happen if you don't manage your red stuff. Can you explain to our listeners what will happen or how different your future will be once you've learned to manage your red stuff?
Speaker 2:There's so many benefits to managing this red stuff. It's uh virtually impossible to describe all of it, but initially uh if you think about the way you feel, so everybody when you ask somebody how they feel, they generally have a sensation that they will talk about um with regards to what they think their feelings are. I'll talk about myself. Mine was my my belly. I had this horrendous inner sensation that I think I remember in the first episode talking about if I could unzip myself, take out the feeling that I had in my gut, put it on the side, zip myself up again, I knew I would be alright. It was only that feeling that was stopping me from having the life that I felt I could have. Um, because my life over a couple of years did change, but still having that chemistry in my body early on made me realise that it was that that was the problem, which is why I do all what I do. So the feelings that we have, so when we're asked how we feel, most people really probably still cannot describe fully articulately how they feel. It's a sensation that we know, but if we just talk about being gutted and having a sensation in our guts, which is um a lot to do with depression, for example, or anxiety, that feeling of um overt excitement but fear. Um, you know, there's lots of people describe it different ways, but if we're talking about managing red stuff, that all goes, and there's a peace and there's a calm and there's a quiet within you, and not only do you feel more relaxed and more content, and that you can actually appreciate quality of life, but your physical health improves, your sleep improves, your body improves, your relationships improve.
Speaker 1:I know that when I've managed my red stuff, you know, if something does when I say um challenge me, if I was full of red stuff, I'd react. Um, but if I'm not full of red stuff or I've managed my red stuff, I would pause, take a minute, think about it, think how I would reply back in a message or in a discussion um or in an email, just taking out where you have peacefulness around you through managing your red stuff, you can just pause, take a minute and and reply responsibly.
Speaker 2:If you just think about that red stuff as being like a um a firework in your guts, and it's like somebody just dunking that firework in water, putting it out, and it's gone. And you don't have to deal with that sensation of irritability, of anger, of frustration, bitterness, all of those feelings that we have when we have excess stress, i.e. red stuff, it just dissipates and you become much more relaxed. And and it just is just the most beautiful sensation. And let me just say at this point, when you learn to do this stuff and you're not, you know, you're human and you you have a major CCT and and you and your levels go up because they do and they will, because that's the nature of stress. Um knowing this stuff, what you can do is literally take a few seconds, even a split second, a deep breath, do what you've got to do, do your magic, and you can immediately dissipate that sensation.
Speaker 1:Can you just explain to the listener again um what CCTs mean?
Speaker 2:Certainly. So um stress is a perfectly natural response to anything that changes, challenges, and threatens us. Now that can be from an internal or external, so it's things that you could say to yourself, things that you could ingest, things that you smell, even light and dark, anything that changes, you know, hot, cold, fast, slow, anything that changes will have uh a stress response. Obviously, in a normal environment, in a normal world and a normal life, these things are there all the time to just balance you out. Your stress response is there, you know, causing and creating something called homeostasis, which is the balance word for balance. Um, and this is why, because we have so many changes and challenges in the world today, especially in the last, let's say, 20 years, since 2000, 25 years, what with technology coming along, our brains are just finding it so difficult to manage the amount of stress hormones in our bodies because of those changes, and it becomes a threat. Without any of the threats that are out there, with the likes of the cost of living, um, you know, uh social media, the impact that that's having on our children, um, you know, it it's just immense. Change, challenge, and threat are rising, rapidly growing, constantly giving us reasons for our bodies to produce stress, which is becoming excessive. And produces red stuff. And that's what red stuff is. The overt experience of change, challenge, and threat. So, you know, you take away society, for example, and just live your little self, you know, just think about your own brain and body. Um, you know, anything that you have, from the time you are born to the time we are no longer here, it's every single day is constantly fuelled by changes, challenges and threats. And by and large, we get through it and we manage it. But because of the way the world is at the moment and the nature of progress and technology, it's so simple to appreciate, or so easy to understand, I should say, that our bodies are producing too much, and therefore that's why we have got so many mental health problems, because we're just full of red stuff, which is unnecessary amounts of change, challenge, and threat that we are not dealing with efficiently and effectively because we're not really being shown and taught how to do it.
Speaker 1:Well, D, let's just hope the whole world is listening right now to your explanation explanation of red stuff, so that we can have a brighter, happier, and much more peaceful future.
Speaker 2:What's the word I want to use here? Rock on. Roll on, bring it on, yes, yes, yes. So the more people that you can share this podcast with, uh the the better and brighter their futures may be too. So pass us around. We don't mind. We're happy to be shared. Very much so. So hopefully you understand why we use the term red stuff now, because we will be referencing red stuff with um the vast majority of our episodes from now on, because stress isn't the problem. Red stuff is the problem, and red stuff is quite simply unnecessary stress that we are not managing. Or even recognising that we have. Here endeth your lesson today about red stuff and why we call it red stuff and why you must manage your red stuff much, much better in the future. So thank you for listening today. We'll see you next week. Bye from me, I'm D. Bye from Caz. Bye bye. Stress is everywhere, and it's winning if we stay quiet.
Speaker 1:If you or someone you know could benefit from hearing our podcast, please follow and share.
Speaker 2:Because everyone's breaking these days, and silence can kill the
