A few weeks ago I read an interesting article by Helen Thomson for the New Scientist magazine, entitled "Always with the nerves balances", in which the tireless argument of stress is addressed.
In particularly difficult situations, like the one we are all living now, there are people who seem not to be overwhelmed by emotions, who never lose good humor and maybe they may make a joke of spirit after broke a leg... we all know each other someone...
But what is stress? What we call stress, and that incidentally is inevitable, although in varying extent, it is a chemical reaction that starts from the brain, more precisely by the Amigdala, which is always careful to identify potential threats. Amygdala associates information to memories to judge whether it is necessary to react to the emergency. If the alarm triggers the brain from two types of response: they can climb the adrenaline levels and accelerate the heartbeat, or hormones are released, including cortisol, which maintains the stress response and releases the glucose stored in the body for give us more energy. When the danger has passed, the levels normalize.
Obviously that all this is useful if we find ourselves in a situation of real danger, however it happens that the answer shots unnecessarily or so strongly to overwhelm, also causing depression or post-traumatic stress disorders.
Stress can therefore have positive or negative consequences depending on how we manage it, and the ability to rapidly return to normal when 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 they hit above all
The sense of humor, Why see the ironic side of things, and laughing mitigates the negative effects of stress. Laughing We release hormones that make us feel good and make us less likely to "brood".
Establish reports, Because friendships and affections give us fundamental support to develop resilience.
Listen to music regularly, To balance the soul
Physical activity, Because it enhances hormones that lower stress perception.
Meditation, In fact, many recent studies show that it regularly practicing it in the brain significant modifications already after 8 weeks.
Let us not forget, however, that a bit of stress is inevitable and does not hurt, it is at each of us to identify what its "beneficial stress", but in the meantime... we put some music and we laugh!
