the-stress-proof-brain.md

the-stress-proof-brain.md

Summary: This book reaches brain-based coping skills to be more resilient to stress based on literature. It covers the science behind why we feel stress and a number of exercises that can help mitigate stress including: mindfulness, acception, reframing, exercise, social connections, etc. It argues that stress has no value for most activity into today's world that need long term planning. This is a reference that I hope to get back to when I, or someone close to me, is going through stress.

Introduction:

• understanding the hardwired response can help stay calm and focused under stress.
• don't criticize yourself for feeling stress. amygdala has been evolutionarily designed to do that.
• stress is only justified when you're in immediate danger, as you don't have the time to think. it's not necessary to motivate any actions that has a longer horizon.
• you can use prefrontal cortex (decision making) to help reduce stress of your amygdala. keep the prefrontal cortex in charge

Brain's stress response:

• The only situation in which stress helps is when you need to take immediate action. It's never helpful for long term actions.
• You'll learn to calm your brain's automatic stress response.
• acute (before the exam, before public speaking. <2 hours) vs chronic stress (bad relationship. >2 hours).
• when you're stressed, it because your amygdala tags it as a threat.
• fear: acute response directed at a situation (prospect of losign job) and anxiety: similar to fear but long-lasting (what will happen after I lose my job). If you face continous stressors, you feel depressed
• jargon: amydala: initiates stress response, hypothalamus: manages the release of stress harmones, hippocampus: retrieve memories of previous stressors, prefrontal cortex: the CEO
• the physiology:
  • first few seconds of stress: a cascade of harmones are reeasae that spike blood sugar, more oxgygen to brain, more heart rate, etc.,
  • stress > few mins => cortiso is released. makes you more robust to stress, pain or injury. affects non-emergency functions such as digestion, reproduction, growth and immunity. that's why you're more likely to get sick if you're chronically stressed.
• effects of chronic stress on brain:
  • brain function: poor repairability of cells, weakening connections from amygadala to PFC (mindfulness does the opposite)
  • heart: damages lining og blood vessels increasing risk of heart attack or stroke.
  • weight gain: weight plaeu's even when you reduce calories
  • immune system: increases likelihood
  • cellular aging: more likely
• perceived stress:
  • 1,1,2,0,1,1,2,1,2,2

what type of stress are you facing?

• for most of us developmental transisions are manageble, we adapt to the new situation in a few months. factors that determine adaptability: social support, meaning, resources, controllability, etc.,
• acute stress + recovery ==> brain was designed for. continous stressors: brain is not used to it. even having continous small stressors can wear down your system (eg. broken washing machine, leaking pipe, bad landlord, rats, etc.,). when you already have a big stressor in life, you have fewer resources to deal with these minor stressors.

calming your amydala:

• We have pain, sadness, and other negative experiences in life. Suffering results from our attempts to cling to positive experiences and push away pain. It is not possible to avoid pain, but it is possible to avoid suffering.

• According to Buddhists, we are hit by two arrows when we're stressed: (i) pain and stress which are inevitable part of being human, (ii) is the one we shoot ourselves in the foot by reacting to pain with aversion. It's like the "the cover up is worse than the crime" "we suffer more in imagination than reality"

• ways to incorporate mindfulness into your day: use any external triggers as a way to be mindful for three breaths. observe nature, observe thoughts, feeling and sensations.

• research found that when anticipating a stressful image, the meditators were much less stressed when using their skills of meditation.

Facing and accepting emotions:

• having an ambient level of stress can change your behavior: more short tempered, more fear, etc., distracting yourself from that emotion doesn't make things better. emotions will pass.
• specific mindfulness exercises are in the book.
• strategies:
  • grounding: shift attention mindfully to some experience in your present moment.
  • acception: whatever your presenet moment is, accept it as you have chosen it. all emotions peak and drop, observe this mindfully. (maybe try to feel this as deeply as possible, the deeper the better)
  • functions / reframe: see as brains misguided attempts to keep you safe. see it as exciting. think to the past and see that fear because of stress is not reality.
  • writing
• controlling you breath can affect your stress levels.

gaining control of stress:

• humans are wired to see lack of control as a threat to survivability. uncontrollable stress is triggers more emotion than controllable stress. uncontrollable stress can lead to lack of motivation and depression.
• lower grade workers are most stressed where you have high levels of responsibility and low levels of contorl.
• having stress in controlled doses helps you be more robust to future stressors.
• if you have an area of your life where you're doing well, stress won't drag you down as much. (eg. running, community service)
• if you're stressed, but if you think working hard can change things around, you will be less stressed. but make realistic judgments.
  • don't be too optimiztic about things out of your control.
  • focus on what you can control. put things you can't control into a container.
• see yourself as someone who can do anything if the situation calls for it.

self-compassion:

• not taking a break converts acute stress into chronic stress.
• juggling young kids and high-powered careers leads to stress, especially if you don't have support from family.
• let go of perfection, it's okay to not take perfect care of kids. adjust your expectations to fit the situations. perfectionists are more likely to be depressed or anxious.
• guilt doesn't help,
  • accept that you're doing enough to others.
  • ask people if they expect more of you. discuss.
  • do things fast, instead of well.
  • when things are hard, give yourself credit for merely surviving

bringing in the positive:

• negative experiences biases the brain to think about loss and creates a scarcity mindset. scarcity makes you focus on that one thing, and deprioritize more important things such as health and relationships.
• creating positive emotions can help recover stress faster. eg. play, creativity, exploring new activity, humor, etc.,
• gratitude can change you to a sense of contentment, acceptance and openness.
• see stress as meaningful. reframe it like skydiving / excitement, don't try to supress it.
  • it makes us more resilience. helps reprioritize money, relationships, health.
• have grit: to take some stress for achieve a higher goal.

living healthy with stress:

• get enough sleep, eat healthy and regular exercise helps.
• eating, tv, alcohol, random surfing of the internet only make things worse. coffee affects sleep.
• people who have stress drink more alcohol is more sabotaging. leads to earlier aging.
• exercise releases chemicals that help manage stress. aerobic exercise helps age slower.
• it's better to overcome the mental burden to exercise when you feel stressed.
• 6.5 to 7.5 hours of sleep is optimal. >8 or <4 hours of sleep have higher risk of dying. sleeping pills have too many side effects.

Twitter:

• My favourite activity currently is to read and think. None of the externals (money, fame, status, etc.,) affect how much pleasure I take from this activity. I feel incredibly grateful to be living in a world that enables to do this.
• Would the average life satisfaction have been much higher if all of society become monks? I think so.
• If I a business , freedom comes first.
• Mike Tyson's thing.