BEFRIENDING STRESS As a Path Home to Ourselves WEEK 3/6 Stress IN THE HUMAN BODY?

Welcome to Week 3!

A 6 Week Series on BEFRIENDING STRESS As a Path Home to Ourselves.

 

In the first week we explored some of the most common blocks that can get us stuck before we  even start to listen, and learn from our stress response.

We also learned WHY stress is prevalent topic to draw our attention to in modern day life.

 

In week 2, we learned about Stress on a fundamental level and how it functions in physics, mechanics, and engineering.

 

Throughout this 6 week Series I am inviting you to step off the comparison track and choose to enter onto your own path of the Conscious Curriculum, in service of your own healing and growth.

We will be focusing on more deeply UNDERSTANDING your unique STRESS RESPONSE as a way of moving towards greater Stress Resilience & Self Leadership in the areas of your life that are most stubborn.

We are going to explore different ways you can meet, tend to, and befriend how STRESS (or the sympathetic Fear Response) is the most common block to you actually slowing down, and acting into a place of inner alignment and personal power towards your most meaningful and value aligned goals.

 

If you want to revisit any of the prior series blogs, find the link to the beginning of the series HERE.

 

 

6 Week BEFRIENDING STRESS as a Path Home to Ourselves OVERVIEW:

 

Week 1 | 

WHY CARE ABOUT STRESS?

 

Week 2 | 

WHAT EXACTLY IS STRESS?

  

Week 3 |

WHAT IS STRESS IN THE MINDBODY NERVOUS SYSTEM? 

FOUNDING EXPERTS OF STRESS RESEARCH

WHAT IS HEALTHY ADAPTATION?

WHAT IS IMPACT OF IMBALANCED ADAPTATION?

 

Week 4 | 

WHAT IS STRESS IN THOUGHTS, THINKING, MIND, & EGO?

 

Week 5 | 

WHAT IS STRESS IN BEHAVIOUR?

 

Week 6 | 

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

8 L's of LIFE LEADERSHIP as A TOOLKIT for STRESS RESILIENCE.

TRANSFORMING DISTRESS into manageable and PURPOSE INSPIRED EUSTRESS.

 

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Friendly Reminder:

Before we start, I want to recognize and honour that talking about stress in itself, can spark a stress response and potential fear, so my invitation is to enter this journey slowly from a place of genuine curiosity, and self compassion as a way of increasing AWARENESS.

Initially "parts" may feel overwhelmed, learning about the experience of stress. So please tend to your own system, and needs as you feel necessary.  Return to the Blog when you feel you are in a regulated and balanced place and perspective.

AWARENESS is the FIRST step in giving us back our AUTONOMY to have a felt sense of CHOICE, and control over how to be with our Stress Response in new more healthy, and helpful ways.

 

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Welcome to Week 3!

 

Now that we have explored the concept of Stress on a foundational level. 

Let's shift our focus towards how Stress shows up in the Human body. 

 

Week 3 | Stress Through the lens of the Human Body

 

Before we look at where we currently ARE in the field of Stress Research on the human body, and where we are potentially GOING in the future.

Let's start by looking at how FAR we have come..

 

Origin of Stress Research | Through the Founding Field Experts

In appreciation to decades of in depth scientific research, we can stand on the shoulders of giants to really grasp and understand how the Stress Response (Internal Resistance), or Fear response sequentially get's triggered/activated, completes it's cycle, or in certain circumstances can get stuck in the "ON" position, in the face of a perceived stressor, threat, risk, or danger.

 

From the beginning, we can introduce Claude Bernard.

Claude Bernard (July 12, 1813  - Feb 10, 1878)

was a French physiologist, working out of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. 

 

Bernard was known primarily for his idea of Milieu intérieur, the "internal environment".  

He explained that the body is "relatively independent" of the outside world, and that a healthy "internal environment" adapts to deficiencies in the surrounding environment, thus keeping the physiology balanced.

His research and discoveries concerning the concept of the internal environment "Milieu intérieur",  led to the present understanding of homeostasis (a term coined by Walter Cannon.)—i.e., the self-governing of inner systems, or self regulation of vital processes. 

 

Bernard's discoveries are as numerous as they are varied.

 

His research and experiments showed that ORGANS CAN HAVE MULTIPLE FUNCTIONS, one of which is secreting chemicals into the bloodstream to effect other organ systems.

Before Claude Bernard, it was thought that each organ had only one function. By showing that the liver not only produced bile that poured into the digestive tract, but also secreted glucose into the blood.

Claude Bernard (1813–1878) did not discover the first specific hormone (which was secretin in 1902), but he is generally credited with discovering the concept of internal secretion in the mid-1850s, which laid the foundation for endocrinology.

 

ROLE OF THE PANCREAS, SMALL INTESTINES AND NUTRIENT ABSORPTION 

Bernard first major work was on the functions of the pancreas. His discovery that the juices (Now known as enzymes) of the pancreas play a significant role in the digestive process that won him the prize for experimental physiology from the French Academy of Sciences.  Bernard showed that the principal processes of enzymes, bile, and the pancreas in digestion take place in the small intestine, not in the stomach as was previously believed.

 

 LIVER, GLUCOSE BALANCE & METABOLISM

Some say his best-known discovery is the glycogenic function of the liver.  He demonstrated that the liver function, regulates blood sugar levels by both storing glycogen and secreting glucose, which was a pioneering study in metabolism, energy management, and internal regulation.

When glucose is in excess in the blood, the liver captures it and stores it as glycogen, a molecule discovered by C. Bernard. Conversely, when the blood is too low in glucose, the liver transforms its glycogen reserves into glucose, which it pours into the blood. 

 

NERVES, BLOOD VESSELS & BLOOD FLOW REGULATION 

Examining the effects of isolating, or exciting certain parts of the cervical sympathetic nerve, resulted in different blood flow pressures in the head.

This discovery of the vasomotor system also established the existence of both vasodilator and vasoconstrictor nerves, that assist in regulation of the blood supply under excitation.   

 

EARLY ADVOCATE OF THE MODERN DAY SCIENTIFIC METHOD

On a broader stage, Bernard’s fundamental approach to experimental research played a role in establishing the principles of experimentation in the life sciences, evolving into the formal practice of the Scientific Method we use today. 

He wrote that “It is what we think we already know that often prevents us from learning”, and “Theories can only be destroyed by new theories”.

 

He criticized scientists who cherry-picked their data only to prove their own hypotheses.  Bernard’s historic role was to demonstrate the experimenter’s need for a guiding hypothesis to be either confirmed or refuted by the results. 

Relying on Empirical method of research where discoveries were based on verifiable, and observable experience rather than theory or pure logic.

Unlike inductive reasoning, which makes broad generalizations from specific observations, deductive reasoning guarantees a conclusion based on presently undeniable, unfalsifiable or established facts.

In An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), he emphasized the importance of trusting evidence over clout, even if it "contradicts a prevailing theory," as theories are only hypotheses" proven or disproven by facts.

“The complete scientist is one who embraces both theory and experimental practice”. - Claude Bernand

At the end of the 20th century, the acronym OPHERIC was used for this hypothetico-deductive approach:

1. We make an Observation which poses a Problem, that is to say, a question.

2. Then, we make a Hypothesis to solve this problem.

3. Then, we design and carry out an Experiment to invalidate or confirm this hypothesis.

4. The Results of this experiment are noted, and we Interpret these results and draw a Conclusion.

5. Of course, a discovery always opens new questions; this is how medical science always progresses today.

 

Claude Bernard summed up this symbiosis between thought and experimentation: “A skilled hand, without the head to direct it, is a blind instrument; the head without the realizing hand remains powerless” 

 

 

Bernard summarized his theory of medicine, and research in his book; Introduction à la médecine expérimentale (1865; An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine).

 

 

Evolving on this original theory of "Milieu Intérieur", was researcher Walter Cannon.

 

Walter Bradford Cannon, MD (October 19, 1871 – October 1, 1945) 

Known as “the godfather in the field of stress research.” 

He was an American physiologist, professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School.  He coined the term "fight or flight response", and developed the theory of homeostasis.

Walter Cannon began his career in science as a Harvard undergraduate in the year 1892, working along side Henry Bowditch, who had worked with Claude Bernard, and directed the laboratory in physiology at Harvard.  

Cannon's research, experimentations and findings include…

 

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

In 1915, Cannon coined the term "fight or flight", to describe an animal's response to threats in Bodily Changes in Pain.

He asserted that not only physical emergencies, such as blood loss from trauma but also psychological emergencies, such as antagonistic encounters between members of the same species, evoke the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream. 

Cannon research highlighted the importance of adrenaline, and it's effects on different body organs, all of which aim to optimize energy management, and return the organism to balanced homeostasis after threatening situations.

 

ADRENALINE, THE SYMPATHOADRENAL SYSTEM

In the 1930's, Cannon proposed the existence and functional unity of the sympathoadrenal system.  He theorized that the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal gland work together using the same chemical messenger "Adrenaline", as a unit to maintain homeostasis in emergencies.  

Through questionable experimentation on animals, Cannon would modify the electrical nerves supplying the heart, and in other instances modifying the adrenal glands supplying hormones to the heart. Cannon was able to deduce that if the heart rate increases without the nerve impulses it could be concluded that increased heart rate must have resulted from the actions on the heart from the adrenal system hormones.

Moreover, the amount of increase in the heart rate, provided a measure of the amount of adrenaline hormone released.

Cannon’s notion of a unitary sympathoadrenal system persists to this day.  

 

HOMEOSTASIS

Building on the earlier idea of Claude Bernard of milieu, Cannon developed the concept of homeostasis, the bodies natural inclination to adapt to ones surroundings in efforts to return to a state of balance. Some bodily states that Cannon was measuring was glucose concentrations, body temperature, and acid-base balance. He concluded, the regulating system that determines the homeostatic state consists of many cooperating mechanisms acting simultaneously or successively.  Homeostasis does not occur by chance, but is the result of organized self-government.

 

Cannon popularized his theories in his book The Wisdom of the Body, first published in 1932.

 

 

Next we'll meet Hans Selye, who continued to advance the field of stress research including research and discoveries on the impacts of chronic stress on our health.

Hans Selye, MD (January 26, 1907 – October 16, 1982)

was a Hungarian-Canadian, and pioneering endocrinologist who became known as the "Father of Stress Research".

 

At the age of 27, became Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at McGill University. Later working as a professor and director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery at the Université de Montréal.

Selye acknowledged the influence of predecessors Claude Bernard, and Walter Cannon.

 

Selye's research, experimentations and findings were vast and provided further evidence on the following..

 

ACUTE VS CHRONIC STRESS (Impacts on Health and Disease)

His primary contributions included expanding on Cannon's description of acute stress response of "flight or flight", to an understanding of the chronic, or prolonged effects of the Stress response system on the organism.

 

Selye, experimented by placing the rats in various stressful situations, inclement weather, or under extreme physical demand.  What he noticed was a consistent failure of similar biological systems.

He identified a "stress triad" associated with this syndrome: enlarged adrenal glands (adrenal hyperactivity) , shrunken thymus/lymph structures (lymphatic atrophy) , and peptic stomach ulcers.

Selye recognized that his discovery was an expression of Claude Bernard’s milieu intérieur and homeostasis at work. The organism fighting to regain homeostasis, and yet self damaging through it's attempts.

He termed this latter condition and impact of prolonged stress,  ‘General adaptation syndrome’, which is also known in the literature as Selye’s Syndrome. 

 

GENERAL ADAPTION SYNDROME (GAS)

Selye deduced that stress is a choreographed state of events, not a mere psychological term, and is encountered by all individuals during a period of prolonged stress and demand.

Unlike acute stress responses (like sudden danger), GA syndrome outlines the body's long-term, chronic reaction to ongoing pressure.

Diseases of Adaptation: Selye suggested that if the resistance stage lasts too long, it causes "diseases of adaptation," including high blood pressure, heart disease, and mental health issues.

 

Selye established that the body responds to diverse stressors (cold, injury, fatigue) through a consistent, three-phase mechanism:

Alarm Reaction Stage: The initial, immediate "fight-or-flight" response, where the body recognizes a stressor and prepares for defence by releasing stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

Resistance Stage: The body attempts to adapt to the ongoing stressor.  If the stressor continues, the body attempts to adapt and repair itself, remaining on high alert while normalizing heart rate and blood pressure, but still producing higher-than-normal levels of stress hormones.

Exhaustion Stage: A pathological state from ongoing, unrelieved stress. Following prolonged or chronic stress, the body's resources are depleted. The immune and nervous systems can no longer function normally, which can lead to illnesses, physical exhaustion, severe burnout, illness or death.

 

HYPOTHALAMIC- PITUITARY- ADRENAL SYSTEM (HPA AXIS)

Selye was the first to link the sympathetic system whereby the body copes with stress, is through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) system.

The release of neurotransmitters from the central and sympathetic nervous systems, as well as hormones from the Hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal and other endocrine glands, mediate the response in acute stress.

Selye’s proposal stipulated that stress was present in an individual throughout the entire period of exposure to a nonspecific demand.

 

STRESS IMPACT ON HEALTH & DISEASE

Diseases of Adaptation.

Selye was the first scientist to identify STRESS, as underpinning the "nonspecific signs and symptoms of illness."

Selye argued that many diseases, such as high blood pressure and, gastric ulcers, are not caused by the stressor itself, but by the body's maladaptive attempts in response to it.  

Where prolonged stress or internal resistance itself, can become a NEW STRESSOR to the body, contributing to dysfunction and imbalance. Posing the curiosity and question that sometimes our MINDBODY's resistance to an event, can be more damaging then the original pain of the event itself.

Selye's research laid the groundwork for modern understanding of how environmental and psychological pressures affect physical health.

 

DISTRESS (NEGATIVE STRESS) and EUSTRESS (POSITIVE STRESS)

In the mid 1975's, Selye was the first to differentiate between "Eustress" (positive, motivating stress) and "Distress" (negative, harmful stress). 

Combining the Greek prefix eu- (meaning "good") with stress, to describe positive, motivating, and beneficial stress that helps people grow, feel fulfilled, and improve performance.

He argued that stress differs from other physical, emotional responses in that it is identical whether the provoking impulse is positive or negative.

 

Selye's view on work was deeply founded on purpose.  Work was never work for Selye; in this regard, he has been compared to Thomas Edison, who saw work not as labour but as leisure.

Selye actually transformed his home, a brick house built across the McGill University campus, into the International Institute of Stress, where he planned some of his experiments.

 

His relentless work ethic was evident in his publications, which numbered more than 1,600 scientific articles and 39 books.

His 1936 Nature paper introduced the concept of biological stress to modern medicine.

The Stress of Life (1956, revised ed. 1976): His seminal work, written for both professionals and the general public, explaining the concept of stress.

Stress without Distress (1974): A highly popular book offering practical advice on managing stress, focusing on using stress for personal growth.

Selye's Guide to Stress Research (1980): A compilation of research findings on the physiological responses to stress.

From Dream to Discovery: On Being a Scientist (1964): A book describing his life as a researcher and his approach to scientific discovery.

Stress of My Life: A Scientist's Memoirs (1977, 2nd ed. 1979): His autobiography, chronicling his career and the development of the stress theory.

 

In 1975, he founded the International Institute of Stress, and created the Hans Selye Foundation. Later Selye and eight Nobel laureates founded the Canadian Institute of Stress.

 

 

 

   

Advancing Stress Research, through the 20th Century, Peter Sterling, brilliantly modernized Walter Cannon's homeostasis theory, into Allostasis

 

Peter Sterling, PhD (Born June 28, 1940) 

is an American anatomist, and neuroscientist and was appointed Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1980.

His work spans from the Microscopic (Studying the brain's synaptic connections), to the Macroscopic (Studying human/social behaviour).

Peter developed frameworks for understanding how the brain predicts and manages physical needs.   

 

ALLOSTASIS THEORY

In 1988, Together with Joseph Eyer, Peter Sterling coined the term “ALLOSTASIS”, the bodies constant adaptation process, seeking stability through change.

Allostasis is the body’s adaptive response, and natural ability to ramp up or down, the body’s energy supply, and mobilize internal resources to meet the demands, and stressors of life.

"Allostasis Theory" describes how the brain orchestrates adaptations across multiple systems to minimize errors and optimize survival.  The flexible, and dynamic biological processes by which a MINDBODY system constantly responds, and adapts to stressors in order to regain, re establish, maintain, and balance towards homeostasis.

 

Homeostasis is like a thermostat, keeping things steady.

Allostasis is more dynamic, recognizing that stability requires change and flexibility in response to the environment. 

Allostasis works through regulating our autonomic nervous system through micro adjustments of internal functions (Including changes in Heart rate, Temperature, and various chain reaction chemical and hormonal releases) to meet demands, rather than just maintaining a fixed set point.

 

In times of demand, Allostasis works to activate our Sympathetic Stress response (Fight or Flight Fear response).

In times of safety, Allostasis works to down regulate through our Parasympathetic nervous system (Rest and relax state). 

Fluctuating on a ongoing continuum to balance our Energy/Activation, and Rest, Recovery and Reserves needs, returning these internal organ systems to a healthy baseline responsiveness (Allostasis) and optimal functioning when the stressor has passed.

 

 

Known for his research on brain architecture and the concept of allostasis, he has published significant work on health, depression, and neural design. 

Sterling is the author of What Is Health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design (2020).

He see’s health as the capacity for "adaptive variation" and disease as the shrinkage of that capacity. 

 

Sterling's views align with a WHOLISTIC VIEW OF HEALING THE COLLECTIVE.

An emerging argument in modern health sciences posits that health is optimal responsiveness—the ability of an organism to adapt to environmental, physiological, and emotional stressors,

and that treating these imbalances and conditions is best achieved at the system level, rather than focusing solely on individual organs or symptoms. 

This approach moves beyond reactive, disease-specific interventions to a holistic view where health is maintained by the dynamic, coordinated interaction of molecular, cellular, and environmental networks.

 

 

Partnering with Peter Sterlings, in the advancements of Stress on Health and Disease is Bruce McEwen and his associates. 

 

Bruce McEwen, PhD (January 17, 1938 – January 2, 2020)  

was an American neuroendocrinologist and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University.

His research focused on how stress hormones (glucocorticoids) affect brain structure and function, and neuronal degeneration, particularly in the hippocampus.

 

 

ALLOSTATIC LOAD

Bruce McEwen & Peter Sterling and are key figures in the development of allostasis and allostatic load theory, which explains how the brain and body maintain stability through change, and left unmanaged in the long-term, contribute to the damaging effects of chronic stress. Their focus is on the specific biological costs of prolonged, imbalanced, and dysregulated adaptation.

Their work bridges neuroscience, psychology, and epidemiology to understand how psychological, social and environmental factors affect physical health.

 

Known for his work on the effects of environmental and psychological stress, Bruce and his team, built upon Peter's idea of Allostasis, developing the concept of ALLOSTATIC LOAD, in the early 1990s.

The argument that while allostasis (maintaining stability through change) is adaptive, the persistent, chronic activation of these systems causes long-term damage (allostatic load).

Allostatic load, refers to the "wear and tear" the body experiences from chronic, repeated activation of the Stress Response.

 

Their joint work emphasizes that the brain is the main organ of stress, interpreting environmental cues and triggering responses that can lead to disorders like hypertension, immune dysfunction, and cognitive decline if maintained for too long.

 

McEwen was a former president of the Society for Neuroscience and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

McEwen published his first paper in 1959, and eventually published more than 700 peer-reviewed articles in journals including Nature, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal of Medicine, Neurobiology of Aging and The Journal of Neuroscience.

Bruce Co-authored several books including:

The End of Stress as We know it (2002) with Elizabeth Lasley, this book introduces the concept of "allostatic load"—the cumulative "wear and tear" on the body and brain caused by chronic stress.

The Hostage brain (1994) with Harold M. Schmeck Jr., it describes how the brain is vulnerable to both internal hormonal changes and external environmental forces.

 

McEwen's notable doctoral students include Robert Sapolsky, Catherine Woolley, and Heather Cameron, and Elizabeth Gould.   

 

 

Stephen W. Porges, Phd (born 1945)  

is an American psychologist, and currently the Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Porges is also currently the Director of the Kinsey Institute Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at Indiana University Bloomington, which studies trauma.

He served as president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (1993-1994), and the Federation of Associations in Behavioural & Brain Sciences (1999-2002).

 

POLYVAGAL THEORY

In 1994, Porges developed and proposed one of the most commonly used theories on Stress Responsiveness in present day.

It is a trans-disciplinary synthesis weaving together evolutionary biology, neurophysiology, observable behaviour, with clinical insights into a framework for understanding how our nervous system states drive our behaviour in the world and with one another.

This model updates and builds on prior conceptualizations predicated on the notion of the body's need for homeostasis, allostasis, and autonomic balance.

Polyvagal Theory, a systems-level, pathway-specific framework of autonomic regulation of the stress response.

It attempts to explain how the autonomic nervous system (ANS), regulates behavioural and emotional states through a three-tiered hierarchy based on evolutionary development.

Steven proposes that the nervous system responds to stress in a specific order, and Three-Tiered Hierarchy: 

Ventral Vagal Complex (Social Engagement): The newest system. When safe, it promotes calmness, connection, and "rest and digest" functions.

Sympathetic Nervous System (Fight-or-Flight): Activates when danger is detected, increasing heart rate and mobilization.

Dorsal Vagal Complex (Shutdown): The oldest system. Activated during extreme danger, leading to immobilization, freezing, or fainting.

 

Alongside the Sympathetic Stress Response, Polyvagal Theory distinguishes two core vagal systems, with differentiated vagal efferent pathways, and regulatory roles to maintain allostasis.

The two efferent (motor) pathways of the Polyvagal theory, which modulate cardiac output and visceral states are the ventral vagal pathway (The "Smart Vagus" Promotes social engagement, communication, and emotional regulation.) and the Dorsal Vagal Pathway (The "Vegetative Vagus" Shutdown Response, when the organism exhausts it's adaptive capacity and prepares for self preservation as last efforts to escape and avoid death.)

NUEROCEPTION

Porges coined the term "Neuroception", as the subconscious mind, alongside the vagus nerve's role in detecting and predicting safety or threat, to promote specific adaptive responses (social engagement, fight-or-flight, or shutdown.)

Neuroception: The unconscious, reflexive detection of environmental cues (safety, danger, or life-threat) that dictates which autonomic state is activated. Safety (Ventral State) or Danger (Sympathetic, or Dorsal State).

 

WINDOW OF TOLERANCE

Dr. Dan Siegal (with his focus on secure attachment and interpersonal neurobiology), and Dr. Stephen Porges have worked together collaborating on the neuroscience of trauma, nervous system regulation, and interpersonal neurobiology. They are both leading figures in relational neuroscience, often appearing together in educational seminars and workshops to discuss how the "Window of Tolerance" (Siegel) and Polyvagal Theory (Porges) integrate to improve mental health and psychotherapy.

 

 The Window of Tolerance describes the OPTIMAL AROUSAL ZONE (Flow State) where individuals feel self regulated, have flexibility and can manage emotions, think clearly, and act from a grounded and confident place.

This VENTRAL VAGAL PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (Social Engagement state) is largely governed by the access to the "brake function" of the VAGUS NERVE, as explained in Polyvagal Theory.

 

When faced with stress, it is common for people to get pulled out of this zone, into one of two states, either:

Over expressive HYPERAROUSAL - SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (Fight, Flight/Flee, or Fawn)

Gas pedal of Energy/Arousal/Activation is Stuck in the "ON" position.  Too much energy, leading to busyness of thoughts, irritability, anxiety, anger, panic or urgency.

or

Over passive/submissive HYPOAROUSAL - DORSAL VAGAL PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (Freeze/Flop)

Too Little Energy, leading to numbing, depression, or shutting down.

Exhausted, disconnected, or dissociated from ones healthy Energy/Arousal/Activation system.

 

 

Porges is the author of more than 400 peer-review journal articles across several disciplines including anesthesiology, biomedical engineering, critical care medicine, ergonomics, exercise physiology, gerontology, neurology, neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, psychology, psychometrics, space medicine, and substance abuse.

 

 

 

Finally a few modern day Experts, actively working to advance the Field of Stress Research and social awareness of how we can better cope with, and even thrive in relationship to our Stress Response.  

I am thankful for reading these authors, who's books I have appreciated and are helping me garnish a wider perspective on the impacts of stress on a Bio/Psycho/Social level include:

 

Robert M. Sapolsky (Primtologist & Nueroscientist) Author of Why Zebras Don't get Ulcers |  A guide to stress, stress related disease, and coping

Jessica Mcguire Author of the Nervous System Reset, Founder of the Vagus Nerve Program and Nervous System Regulation Certification Course

Gabor Mate MD (Trauma Specialist) Author of When the Body says No | The cost of Hidden Stress, and Myth of Normal | Trauma, Illness, & healing in a toxic culture

Mo Gawdat & Alice Law Author of Unstressable | A practical guide to Stress Free Living

Emily & Amelia Nagoski PhD Author of Burnout | The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

 

 

 

 

 

Stress in it's healthy state, is our ADAPTIVE STRESS RESPONSE to activate our energy, in the face of an external resistance, or need to act on or change our surroundings. 

Without our Stress response, we simply wouldn't be here as a species.

 

STRESS is not bad.

Imbalanced, Overused, and CHRONIC stress is contributing to the deterioration of health, and slow death of many un noticing bodies.