A few weeks ago, I read an interesting article by Helen Thomson for the New Scientist magazine, entitled "Always on your nerves", which tackles the age-old topic of stress.
In particularly difficult situations, like the one we are all living through now, there are people who seem not to let themselves be overwhelmed by emotions, who never lose their good mood and can even make a joke after breaking a leg... We all know some...
But what is stress? What we call stress, and which incidentally is inevitable, albeit to varying degrees, is a chemical reaction that starts from the brain, more precisely from the amygdala, which is always alert to identify potential threats. The amygdala associates information with memories to judge whether it is necessary to react to the emergency. If the alarm is triggered by two types of response: adrenaline levels can rise and the heart rate increase, or hormones, including cortisol, that keeps the stress response active and releases stored glucose in the body to give us more energy. When the danger has passed, levels normalize.
Of course all this is useful if we are in a situation of real danger, however it happens that the response clicks unnecessarily or so strong to overwhelm us, also causing depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Stress can therefore have positive or negative consequences depending on how we manage it, and the ability to quickly return to normal when the danger has passed is called resilience.
But what can make people more resilient? I refer you to the article if you want to deepen, but I was especially impressed
THE SENSE OF HUMOR, because seeing the ironic side of things, and laughing mitigates the negative effects of stress. Laughing releases hormones that make us feel good and make us less likely to "ruminate".
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS, because friendships and affections give us fundamental support to develop resilience.
LISTEN TO MUSIC REGULARLY, to balance the soul
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, because it boosts the hormones that lower the perception of stress.
MEDITATION, in fact many recent studies show that regularly practicing it triggers significant changes in the brain already after 8 weeks.
Let’s not forget that a little stress is inevitable and it doesn’t hurt, it’s up to each of us to identify what his "beneficial stress" is, but in the meantime... let’s put some music and laugh!
