Becoming easily agitated, frustrated, moody, and feeling overwhelmed: are all emotional symptoms of stress. These factors can change your brain’s size, structure, and function. However, stress can give you a burst of energy to accomplish your tasks and make your brain healthy when felt in moderation. So how can we manage stress at a healthy level?

1. Gain control of your free time. Time management expert Laura Vanderkam studies how busy people spend their lives, and she’s discovered that many of us drastically overestimate our commitments each week while underestimating the time we have to ourselves. In her TED talk, she teaches us to identify our priorities, plan the week, and break down the steps to accomplish proper time management. This helps us manage our activities and deadlines more efficiently.

2. Make stress your friend. In Dr. Kelly McGonigal’s TED talk, a Ph.D. health psychologist, she urges us to see stress as a positive; because how you think and act can transform your experiences of stress. When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress. A pounding heart prepares you for action because breathing faster gets more oxygen to your brain. Not only that, but stress makes you social. Oxytocin fine-tunes your brain; it primes you to do things that strengthen close relationships, makes you crave physical contact, enhances your empathy, and helps heart cells regenerate and heal from any stress-induced damage. This stress hormone strengthens your heart.

3. Exercise and meditate. Exercise, specifically dance, has mood-enhancing benefits. Dancing causes your brain to release endorphins, a chemical in your brain that acts as natural painkillers; it improves your ability to sleep, in turn, reduces stress. Meditation itself can also give you a sense of calm which helps decrease your stress and help improve your memory. It gives you the time to reflect and enhance self-awareness.

To sum it up, when high levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, is felt over a long period of time, it can wreak havoc on your brain; however, if you can adequately manage your time, change your perspective on stress, and meditate; stress can keep your brain healthy and productive.

11 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT STRESS MANAGEMENT: A SUMMARY

BACKGROUND OF STRESS:

• Stress begins with Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal Axis (HPA), a neuroendocrine mechanism, which controls your body’s reaction to stress.

• When you feel stressed, your HPA will activate and release cortisol, a stress hormone.

• High cortisol levels over a long period of time will change your brain’s size, structure, and function.

• Symptoms of stress: feeling agitated, frustrated, moody, and overwhelmed.

• Though stress can be harmful to your brain and body, stress can make you more productive at a healthy level.

HOW CAN WE MANAGE STRESS:

• Identify your priority tasks - concentrate on heavy workload.

• Plan out your week - use a planner to help you organize the set of tasks you have to do.

• Break down the steps one by one - this will give you control and time to accomplish your goals and make your work seem less overwhelming.

• Change your perception of stress - when you change your perception of stress, you change your body’s reaction to stress.

• Exercise - improves your mental health and mood.

• Meditate - meditation gives you a new perspective on stressful situations.