#9 Chronic Stress - The Modern Epidemic and How to Escape It.
In today's episode, we'll look at chronic stress as one of the biggest challenges of the modern age and show you how to finally break free from this vicious cycle once and for all.
Welcome back after a short break, during which I focused on other projects I'm working on. One of them is my new online meditation course, which, if you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed just launched. It's called HealYour Stress. Today's podcast episode, which will be dedicated to chronic stress, is directly related to this topic.
Right at the beginning, I'd like to invite you to my online meditation program. You can start anytime – it consists of pre-recorded episodes, meditations, and videos, so you can set everything up according to your own schedule, whether it's in the morning, evening, or even skipping a day. It's entirely up to you. The program is beautifully put together; I really put a lot of effort into it and I'm proud of it. It will guide you perfectly through what it's meant to.
Chronic stress is, I dare say, something most people encounter at least once in their lives. From my own experience, I know that meditation – if it's explained correctly, chosen appropriately, and practiced regularly – can help tremendously with this. It will then also help with all the other things linked to chronic stress, which we'll be discussing today.
If you're interested and would like to start meditating but don't know how, I often hear from people who want to start but don't know what to do. For a long time, I didn't have anything to recommend in Czech; there are many more resources in English. That's why I created a program that contains everything I wished I had access to when I was starting out. Everything is explained; I'll guide you step by step from the very beginning until you can meditate on your own without any help.
The journey from your first meditation to enjoying 20 minutes of quiet solitude is possible. I struggled with it myself at the beginning, and it would have helped me greatly if I had a guide who would motivate me at the point where most people want to quit. I know you want to give up, that it's boring, but hang in there; it's just starting to take effect, and you'll feel it soon too.
If you're struggling with chronic stress and want to start meditating, you can try my online program for free for the first three days. I'd be very happy if you let me know how you liked the course or the first three days, and any feedback will be appreciated. When I release something new, I'm always a bit nervous until I hear the first reactions that it has truly helped someone.
If you've already tried the program, let me know if you learned anything new, if it was beneficial for you, and if it motivated you to dive into the whole program and start meditating with me. That's my main intention – for you to start meditating, whether with me or with anyone else. From my own experience, I know that when someone guides you with a clear structure and provides support when needed, the process is much simpler.
According to some sources, up to 90% of all doctor visits in the Western world are linked to chronic stress. That's an incredible number. You might be wondering how that's possible. If you recall my episode on chronic inflammation, I mentioned that chronic stress is the number one factor in increasing inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation is at the root of almost all chronic diseases, and it needs to be reduced for us to heal.
When chronic stress increases inflammation, it can trigger illnesses or prevent us from healing. Those who came up with the 90% figure also linked chronic stress to other harmful habits for our mental and physical health, such as poor eating habits, overeating, eating in a hurry, or smoking. When we're on vacation or at a yoga retreat, we often manage to reduce these bad habits because we're calm and stress-free. However, as soon as we return to daily stress, we reach for a cigarette or unhealthy food again as an escape.
I myself used to have a problem with overeating when I was overwhelmed with responsibilities. The first impulse was to go to the fridge and eat to escape the stress. It wasn't about the taste, but about that escape, just like with smoking. Most people know it's not good for them, but it's about short-term stress relief.
Another vicious cycle is poor sleep. When we're stressed, we have trouble falling asleep, we're tired, and then we accomplish less, which stresses us even more. This stress keeps getting worse and deepening, affecting our relationships and other areas of life.
Looking at it from a broader perspective, it's truly possible that up to 90% of all doctor visits in the Western world are somehow linked to stress. It may not be the primary cause, but it's often the final trigger that exhausts our organism and causes health problems.
Many experts today speak of an epidemic of chronic stress. Only in recent years have we begun to realize how much the toxic environment of performance and capitalism affects us, where we feel like we always have to achieve, grow, create, and meet expectations. For women, it's often even worse, as in addition to work, they also manage household chores and family.
It's important to realize that stress itself isn't bad. Our body is perfectly adapted to handle short episodes of even intense stress, as long as they are followed by calming down. The stress response is important for us – we need it, for example, to get out of bed in the morning.
We often explicitly need stress hormones to take some action. This is also used, for example, in Wim Hof breathing – this technique works by completely overloading your system during the breath. So much adrenaline and cortisol are released into the body that the organism becomes so stressed that it then has no other option but to completely calm down. In my opinion, however, there are better ways to calm the nervous system than to first completely stress it out so that it then "can't" do anything but calm down.
Of course, the Wim Hof method also has other benefits, for example, in how it affects the immune system. However, if you primarily use breathing exercises to manage stress, for me, Wim Hof is not really the best option. If your system is already very overloaded, with high levels of cortisol and adrenaline, further strain can be that proverbial last straw that completely breaks you down. It's similar to intense exercise – when we're already stressed, it's not ideal to add further strain. The same applies to cold showers – if you're already very stressed, it's not advisable to burden the body even more. It's better to first reduce stress with something that regulates the nervous system and lowers stress hormones, and only then possibly add a cold shower or Wim Hof breathing.
Interestingly, the Wim Hof method has mostly been studied primarily in men. I think that men often find this technique more suitable because it energizes them and gives them the drive to act. I myself practiced this method regularly, I was enthusiastic about it and even wanted to get certified. After some time, however, I realized that it didn't ultimately do me good – that energy is very strong and harsh. In combination with female hormones, which have trouble functioning with large fluctuations in cortisol and adrenaline, it can be unsuitable for women. I'm not the first woman to hear this from – for example, women with PCOS often say that this intense stress doesn't suit them. However, every body is different; some women, on the contrary, like this drive and need it.
Returning to today's episode's topic, which is chronic stress. If your main goal is to manage chronic stress, it's good to know how the Wim Hof technique works – it first overloads the system, stresses the hormones, and only then does the calming come. In my opinion, it could be done without that initial stress and perhaps it would suit you better.
Why are we so often stressed? How is it possible that we are experiencing a global epidemic of chronic stress? It's important to realize that the world has evolved so quickly that our bodies haven't been able to adapt. We still have the nervous system of hunter-gatherers who lived in a completely different environment. Back then, the stress response often saved lives, because it really was about survival. Today, most of us are not in serious daily danger; we live in a safe society, but our nervous system still reacts as if we are in constant threat.
Our body hasn't managed to regulate this and still reacts the same way as if we were in danger. In the modern world, there are so many stimuli that our nervous system isn't prepared to handle them all. We are often in an environment where music is playing, there's street noise, someone is talking to us, notifications are coming in, emails, we have a lot of obligations and tasks. All of this is perceived by our nervous system as a threat and keeps us in chronic stress, sometimes even permanently.
You might have experienced it – you go to bed with a worry, you sleep restlessly, you dream about what's bothering you, and you wake up in the morning with the same thought. Your body doesn't regenerate at all during the night because it was stressed even during sleep. This continues on and on until the system eventually collapses, because long-term chronic stress is very harmful and negatively affects all systems in the body, leading to illnesses.
We can't completely change the environment around us. We can't just quit our jobs and move to the woods – even if it sometimes sounds tempting. Not everyone has that option, or would even want it. We are naturally creative; we enjoy creating things and moving forward. So, if we can't change our environment, we can change ourselves and our nervous system to be more resilient to external stressors.
So, how do you regulate your nervous system to make it more resilient to chronic stress? One thing you can incorporate into your daily routine is movement. It can be anything you enjoy – even just 10-15 minutes of yoga, a walk in nature. If you can exercise outdoors, it's even better, as being in nature and physical activity both reduce chronic stress.
However, dosage is important. If you work 12 hours a day and then go "relax" with a 60 km bike ride, that's not ideal – you're heading towards burnout. For an overloaded system, something with less impact is always better, such as yoga or a short but intense workout. Long and demanding activities can, on the contrary, be harmful.
When managing stress, it's important to be mindful of what you're doing during the activity. For stress management, something that requires you to engage your mind is even better – for example, guided yoga, coordinated activities, partner dancing, or group games where you need to be present and focused. If you run and can completely immerse yourself in it, that's great – it's essentially a form of meditation in motion. If not, it's better to choose an activity that occupies your mind.
And now, something that can truly "fortify" you against chronic stress – regular meditation. I know it sounds like a cliché, but we truly have scientific studies showing that meditation helps with almost everything because it rapidly reduces chronic stress. Chronic stress is at the root of many physical and mental illnesses. Meditation can influence brain structure and releases substances into the body that aid regeneration and healing.
I've described in detail how chronic stress arises and how meditation affects the brain in my online program, the first episodes of which you can access for free. I conclude each episode with a meditation, and with this episode, you'll also get three additional podcast episodes on the same topic, where I go into more depth. We gradually move on to various breathing exercises, because conscious breathing is another tool that can instantly reduce stress.
As a bonus, you'll also receive a beautiful sleep meditation that will help you if you're troubled by thoughts and can't fall asleep. It will help you drift into deep, regenerative sleep. Just for this meditation, it's worth trying the first three episodes of the program. The entire program lasts 21 days and includes many bonuses, materials, and other meditations, for example, on mindful eating or on walks during the workday.
I tried to design it so it wouldn't be boring, because I know that's the biggest stumbling block with meditation. Mindfulness meditation can be repetitive, and that's why I always tried to bring something new to keep you engaged and motivated to continue.
I use binaural beats, and the program is based on the foundations of yoga and Buddhism, but it's connected with the latest research in neuroscience and in cultivating happiness, contentment, and stress regulation. Everything is presented concisely, without unnecessary fluff, to keep it engaging and not lengthy.
I hope that if you start, you'll truly enjoy it and it will help you bridge that gap from wanting to try meditation to it becoming a regular part of your life. I know the path to regular meditation isn't easy, but I've tried to make it as simple as possible.
You'll find the link to my online meditation program here.