Stressed Out

 I love my job.

I find the work I do interesting, rewarding and challenging in equal measures. When it’s good, I feel completely on top of all my teaching responsibilities, I am organised, and I have the time and capacity to make the valuable additions to teaching. Encouraging student reflection to make learning meaningful. I take time to read books and trending articles on childhood practice that support my teaching and the students subsequent learning. A total feeling of being ‘in my element’ and on top of the world.

In an instant I can be sent into a nose-dive of anxiety and stress. Fight or flight kicks in, coffee consumption increases, confidence dips and late-night working and restless sleep follows. This can be triggered by a single email, the thought of an upcoming task or project or simply being in the thick of a busy marking period of the semester. This sounds worse than it is, but the pattern of peaks and troughs is indeed real. Thankfully, these times of uncertainty don’t last long and as soon as the drama has resolved itself or the deadline has been met, I once again feel that all is good. I can cope knowing that these phases will shortly pass, and they are lessening with experience. I recognise this as a reflection of my confidence, self-esteem, and resilience. During these periods, my wellbeing can be affected short-term, but I question the affects to my long-term physical health?

I made some interesting links while listening to the most recent podcast by Dr Rangan Chatterjee in his conversation with Dr Jenna Macciochi on How to Keep Your Immune System Healthy. (Episode 125. 30^th September 2020). I have a keen interest in health and wellbeing so immediately purchased Dr Jenna Macciochi’s book ‘Immunity – the science of staying well’ (2020).

Dr Jenna Macciochi (2020) explains that stress is a normal part of life. When periods of stress are short-lived, we benefit. Stress prepares us for challenge, keeps us alert and ready for action. Without stress we would not develop resilience. Our physical body is well-prepared for stress. With an effective autonomic nervous system our body releases the required amount of adrenaline to prepare us for ‘fight or flight’ in response to the perceived stress. Our body is effectively equipped to bring us back into a healthy equilibrium once the stressor has passed. I recognise that these rollercoaster dips I experience, as part of my working life are common, modern-day stressors.

What is concerning is that I am aware that prolonged stress can have a significant impact on our immune system. Especially if we are not giving ourselves the time to recover. Modern stressors have become ‘normalised’ and a way of life. However, our experiences of low-level stress make us even more vulnerable to further stress responses. (Macciochi 2020).

When I begin to feel ‘stressed’ or ‘busy’ I am much more likely to reach for the chocolate and fatty food snacks, I am inclined to stay up late into the night marking or preparing classes, I go to bed feeling ‘blue-screen wired’ which affects the quality of my sleep and I am considerably less active outdoors during the day. I know that these health-harming behaviours, coupled with emotional effects of stress, could be having a detrimental effect on my health, making me more vulnerable to viral infection.  Stress is further exaggerated with the current Coronavirus pandemic that has us all in a continued state of uncertainty and has caused us to rethink and make changes to our everyday behaviours to protect ourselves and others.

I began to revisit what I know about the impact stress has on children and young people’s health, wellbeing and development too. The ACEs movement (Adverse Childhood Experiences) has raised awareness of the impact toxic stress can have on children and its long-lasting effects on physical health into adulthood. This was documented well in the 2017 film Resilience: The biology of Stress and the Science of Hope and the work of Dr Nadine Burke Harris on How Childhood Trauma affects Health across a Lifetime. “A child with 4 or more ACEs has double the risk for asthma… hospitalisation increased with each ACE” (Macciochi 2020:174). I previously considered the effects of ACEs on emotional regulation in a 2018 Free to Reflect blog post I wrote.

For many of us stress is a fact of life. In the book Dr Macciochi discusses a range of stress-busting solutions that can help us to interrupt the build-up of stress and lessen the effect on our health. I was relieved to find out many of these life hacks can easily be incorporated into our daily routine. It goes without saying that a healthy, diverse diet and good quality sleep patterns will boost our health and wellbeing and help us deal with stress more effectively. Other influences include a strong social network of family and friends; deep breathing practices and mind-body therapies such as mediation, yoga, mindfulness; forest bathing and regular exposure to nature (Macciochi 2020)

But what I found most interesting was the concept of ‘hormesis’ – this is a good kind of stress that can help you build in resilience. This involves deliberate exposure to stressors, to become stronger. Anyone who knows me can imagine my excitement when I read that Cold Stress is an effective way to build resilience. I occasionally enjoy open water swimming in a local loch close to where I live. The water is cold, and it gets colder as winter approaches. The act of swimming turns into much shorter cold-water dips as the seasons change.

I could not have explained to you why I find this cold water exposure so appealing, all I know is that it’s not easy, it’s freezing, it can be painful but it just feels really great afterwards! Dr Macciochi helped me to understand why. Open-water swimming is an activity to be enjoyed with friends, for safety reasons, but the social comradery that is experienced is a stress release in itself - Where would we be without our friends? It releases ‘feel-good’ endorphins that last. It also, creates a sense of relaxation.

With repeated cold-water immersion, the body acclimatises to the cold, activation of sympathetic nervous system activity (fight or flight response) declines while the parasympathetic nervous system activity (calm and composed response) increases. It does not eliminate the stress response, but it helps us to build resilience and cross-adaption enables us to deal with other stressors more effectively (Macciochi 2020). There are so many other health and wellbeing benefits to cold-water immersion but an additional blog post will be required for that.

I still have a lot to do when it comes to managing stress effectively and I need to practice what I preach. I became so engrossed in my thoughts for this blog that I found myself reading and writing into the early hours of the morning.  The subsequent lack of sleep resulted in a feeling of lethargy the following day – not setting a good example. My ability to be resilient and deal with stress effectively continues to be a working progress but I feel equipped and I have a repertoire of stressbusting, life hacks as advocated by Dr Macciochi. For now, I aim to get a good night’s sleep and plan another resilience building, cold-water swim tomorrow morning – anyone want to join me?

Loch Morlich, 22nd December 2019

 

 

 Emma Sinclair. October 2020.