Here are a few cold, hard facts when it comes to stress. Stress is part of our daily lives in the world we live in. It’s not only not going away, it’s actually increasing. Stress is a big reason why everyone develops significant health challenges as they age. 

Did you know that medical research estimates that as much as 90% of all illness and disease is stress-related? There is an epidemic of anxiety and depression, with both of them being stress-related. 

So the solution is much less about changing, reducing, or eliminating the stress in your life and much more about transforming your relationship with stress. 

Get your Free Guides on Overcoming Stress!

I’ve put together a couple of free guides related to stress; The Ultimate Stress Reduction Guide and Take Back Control of Your Anxiety and Stress. 

Stress is the Biggest Health Thief and Only Getting Bigger

Experts believe that adults are experiencing more stress today than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago. I don’t think we needed experts to tell us that! It’s pretty evident when you look at people’s health, the type of medications that are advertised and the rise of anxiety and depression. Why Are We More Stressed Today?

But why is the impact of stress growing so much? The easiest way to explain it is change. Not only is change by itself a stressor but the types of change we are experiencing is particularly stressful. Things like….

• Technology is becoming more and more a part of our lives 
• Relationship and family dynamics have changed dramatically
• The uncertainty of the world. It was probably always uncertain but it never seemed as much as it does now.

Let My Experience Help You Reduce the Impact of Stress!

In reality you aren’t going to be successful in reducing stress. It’s so pervasive and increasing all the time that managing it and reducing it could be a stressful full time job by itself.

I experienced a sudden and unexpected tumultuous series of changes in my life a while back that put me on a path to learn how to process stress more effectively. I did a deep dive into a number of practices ranging from chiropractic to ancient practices to biohacking. 

The result was nothing short of profound. In the process I dramatically changed how my nervous system responds to what we call stress. To be honest some of the most impactful practices weren’t started with any expectation of transforming my relationship with stress. 

But in the end it doesn’t matter why I explored something, it only matters if it worked. So let me share my path with you. 

Here Are the 5 Top Actions for Stress Reduction

The impact that stress has on you is dependent on how your brain and nervous system respond to the demands of your life. For most of us the response to stress is activation of the Sympathetic Nervous System.

The Sympathetic System is commonly referred to as the ‘Fight-or-Flight’ system or the survival system. When it gets activated it triggers a number of responses that would be completely appropriate if your life were in danger. Some of these are:

• Shunts blood flow from your organs to your muscles
• Releases glucose for immediate energy
• Increases tension in your muscles
• Shuts down digestion
• Increases heart rate and blood pressure
• Reduces sleep

The problem is that these responses are triggered multiple times a day, day in and day out. This happens so much that our nervous system begins to operate from that Fight-or-Flight state and with that our sleep, recovery, digestion, and healing suffers.

Keep in mind the goal is not to necessarily reduce stress but to improve how you respond to stress and therefore change the impact stress has on your body, your health, and your life. 

Action #1: Sleep Hygiene

You must make your sleep a priority. That can mean a wide range of things but to start here are the priorities:

• Regular sleep time 
• You should target at least 7 hours of sleep a night
• Dark sleeping environment with no lights or electronics
• Cool sleeping temperature below 65 F.

Action #2: Regular Movement Practice

Your body is meant to move. We move less than we ever did in human history. Every single day you must move. That can be as simple as taking a walk but more is better. Go for a hike. Take a gentle yoga class. Go dancing. Take up tai chi. Movement releases tension in your muscles and keeps your joints mobile. 

Action #3: Reduce or eliminate stimulants, alcohol, and drugs

It’s natural to try to get some relief from the pain and tension that stress causes. The relief is very temporary and actually results in an exacerbation of the stress effects. Moderation is key with these. If you really insist on drinking coffee then do not have any after 12pm. If you are drinking daily it is causing more problems than it is solving. 

Action #4: Activate Your Vagus Nerve.

The Vagus Nerve has the power to improve digestion, lower heart rate and blood pressure, improve sleep and relaxation, and support your body’s recovery and healing. Activating the Vagus Nerve is a combination of removing tension and pressure and increasing its activity. This needs to be a daily practice to be effective. Here are some of my favorites:

• Chiropractic care that focuses on balancing the pelvis and upper cervical spine
• Conscious Breathwork
• Diaphragmatic Breathing
• Nasal Breathing

With breathing the core concepts to activate the Vagus Nerve are to breathe in through your nose, into your abdomen, slowing the breathing rate, and putting emphasis on the exhale. The Free Guides I mentioned earlier have some video instructions.

Action #5: Rewiring Your System is a Process

This is less about one action and more about how you must approach this. The impact stress has on our lives is cumulative. It builds over time. A single exposure to a stressor rarely does anything harmful. It’s the repeated exposure over years and decades that shifts the nervous system into a chronic state of fight-or-flight. 

Shifting your system back to a baseline of the parasympathetic’s functions of rest, digest, recover, and heal takes time and repetition. That’s what got you to this point and the same principles are going to get you out.

The good news is if you activate your Vagus Nerve you will experience benefits almost immediately. Initially they won’t last long and the stressors will still activate your Sympathetics. With time and repetition you will strengthen your Vagus Nerve and achieve a state of what I call resilience. This is the state where stress might still knock you temporarily off balance but your system immediately returns to a state of balance.

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