Completing the Stress Cycle

Stress. It's the bane of our modern existence. Probably, it's part of the curse of sin, part of the toil it now takes to end the earth. Regardless, it's here, and it's real. I can fight it, or I can learn how to release it. I am working on the latter.

I read the book, Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski PhD and Amelia Nagoski DMA last year, and I have thought about the contents of it on and off since. A main tenet of the book is that our bodies are not mean to hold stress, and as such, we have to find ways to release it. Physical activity is one way to do this. “Physical activity is what tells your body you have safely survived the threat and now your body is a safe place to live. Physical activity is the single more efficient activity for completing the stress response cycle," they write. Sometimes physical activity is not possible, though, and things like social interactions, laughter, and affection can come into play. Really, I think figuring out how to release stress is a personal project, but an important one at that!

Walking is my primary way to release stress. I do it at work. I do it at home. I do it out in the community (and this is apart from my regular exercise). Walking helps me notice tension in my body. (Hopefully, it helps me release it, too.) It helps me think. It changes my environment. It exposes me to grounding stimuli. It is free, and most of the time available.

Other habits help me close out stress, too. A lot of these are "summary" activities, like finishing my notes at work, sitting down and doing my daily habit recording, writing a weekly e-mail to my family about life, journaling, and blogging. Writing helps me process, and the writing that I share helps me connect. Both help me close out the stress cycle.

Rhythm and routine help me, too. More and more so, I try to close out work on work days. I try to shut down my e-mail and not check it again until right before the next work week starts. When work thoughts crop up, I try to shut them down, saving them for reboot during work time. At my counselor's suggestion, I try to fill my mind with non-work things to crowd out those thoughts. I also try to fill my time with good things: time with my husband, special events, and rest. These all remind me that one cycle of work stress is over.

Work is the primary stressor of life right now, or at least the one with the greatest volume of stressors. Other things stress me too: traffic, grocery shopping, the pain of family and friends, etc. Not all stress is bad, either. Some stress just is. Stress can help us grow. All stress needs to happen in a cycle, though. All stress needs to be closed out, rather than cycling in an infinite loop.

Have I got this stress thing figured out? No, certainly not! I am learning, though, learning thanks to this book and so many other things. May God continue to help me so that I can continue to grow in his image, having more and more capacity to serve him when it's time to be, "on," and resting when I am not.

Reference:

Nagoski, E., & Nagoski, A. (2019) Burnout: The secret to unlocking the stress cycle. Ballantine Books.