“I’m so stressed!”

Sound familiar?  If you are like many people, you either say or hear those words almost daily.  We’re a stressed society.  From annoying co-workers to traffic jams to lost phones, our lives are filled with situations that land on us as stress.

The truth is, there is really no escaping stress.  It’s going to “land on us.”  But once it lands on us, what then? Well, the “what then,” is entirely up to you.  And that’s good news.  We’ll talk more about that in a few minutes. But first, a crash course in stress.

The Hormones of Stress

Your body is designed to very efficiently deal with stress.  When something happens that you interpret as stressful, your body reacts by releasing two hormones:  adrenaline and cortisol.  Normal amounts of these hormones are fine.  But when stress is high, our systems get overloaded with too much of them.

You will feel the effects of adrenaline immediately as your body is flooded with energy and alertness.  This hormone is sometimes called the fight or flight hormone, because it equips you to either fight the perceived danger or to escape quickly.

The effects of cortisol are a little slower to be felt, but when they kick in, you will want to do one thing:  eat!  Cortisol is the perfect answer to adrenaline. Adrenaline turbocharges your system and causes you to burn the calories. Cortisol is the trigger to replenish.  But this replenishing needs to happen fast, to compensate for the energy loss that adrenaline brought about.

And what brings quick energy?  All those comfort foods that you know you shouldn’t eat:  potato chips, brownies, donuts, candy… see the problem?  Stress causes you to crave these unhealthy foods.

But wait, there’s more

Driving you to binge on brownies is just the beginning of the effect of too much cortisol.  There are other effects as well, such as:

• Abdominal fat:  Cortisol causes your body to store extra fat, especially in the abdominal area.  Unfortunately, this is a toxic place to store fat because it increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

• Appetite confusion:  Cortisol may interfere with the chemicals in your body that tell you when you are hungry and when you are full.  The result is that you may end up eating when you aren’t even hungry.

• Muscle loss:  Cortisol decreases the levels of testosterone in your body, which interferes with your ability to build muscle. Muscle loss slows down your metabolism which leads to weight gain.

• Cognitive disruption:  The increase of cortisol that comes from too much stress can cause cognitive dysfunction.

Because cortisol levels in your blood take a long time to come back down to normal levels, chronic stress can keep you in an almost constant state of toxicity.  If you are constantly under stress, you may not recover from one surge of cortisol before another surge is released.

The Solution to Stress

So now we are back to the “what then” from above.  We established that stress happens.  We can’t stop life from coming at us.  Does this mean we are helpless victims to the effects of stress on our mind and body?

Not at all.

You get to control this.  You decide how much adrenaline and cortisol your body releases.  How?  By controlling how you react to the stressful situations in your life.

You may not be able to control what happens, but you can control how you respond.  It is not the life event per se that causes the hormone surges; it is your response to the event that causes the surges.

Use the following tips to manage stress and release your body and mind from the toxic effects of too much cortisol.

• Get a grip.  Really.  Many of us tend to overreact to things that happen in our life.  A traffic jam, a sarcastic remark from someone, an unexpected change of plans—all of these things and hundreds like them are often the sources of stress in our lives.  But they don’t have to be.  Try to consciously ‘underreact’ or at least ‘appropriately react’ to the curve balls that your days bring.  By doing this, you can literally impact the hormone balance in your body.

• Sort it out.  Got real, genuine stress?  Fair enough—we all have some of this from time to time.  When something truly stressful has you feeling anxious, study the situation.  What is making you feel stressed?  Are you putting off an unpleasant task?  Do you have a project that is overwhelming you?  Figure out what you need to do to defuse the stress and just jump in to the solution.  Do the task, break the project into manageable chunks, have that hard conversation—whatever you need to do.  Meet the stress head on and conquer it.

• Get up and move. This is critical.  Exercise is the antidote to stress.  You can reduce cortisol levels in your body by exercising just 30 minutes per day.  Exercise will also cause your body to produce endorphins which have been proven to be as effective as Zoloft in alleviating the symptoms of depression; this is a perfect way to combat the anxious feelings that chronic stress brings.

• Sleep it off. Seriously.  Sleep is the enemy of stress.  Cortisol levels are 50% lower in people who get 8 hours of sleep each night than in people who get less than 6 hours.

So let’s make this a stress-less summer.  Decide now to take back control of your mind and your body.  No longer be content to be at the mercy of circumstances and the agendas of other people.

You steer the ship; you control how you react and how you will deal with the inevitable curve balls that life throws at you.  Be strong and be healthy.