So Your Stress is Through the Roof, Here’s Our Gameplan

We've all experienced it: talking about how stressful our life is at the moment, or how little we may have slept or eaten, and someone counters with the oppression olympics claim… "Oh, you slept 6 hours? Try the 4 I got!" "Oh, you worked a 9-hour day? I do 12-hour shifts."

Talk about minimizing! When this happens, our brain registers it as not being able to trust our own feelings and experiences, and we begin to think this high state of stress is normal. The truth is, we were never meant to live in the state of chronic stress that many of us do. The stress response is a biological and psychological reaction that our minds and bodies originally produced for safety. All of this to say — your body and mind are having the same reaction to sending an email to your boss as they are when you are being chased by a bear.

Let's summarize what is happening here.

Internal and external factors can both trigger the stress response. Once triggered, we move through the following stages:

Alarm: The initial reaction to stress — fight or flight is turned on. The sympathetic nervous system releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These chemicals increase your heart rate, heighten alertness, and redirect blood flow to muscles so you can fight back or run away. Common physical responses include faster breathing and heartbeat, dilated pupils for sharper vision, tense muscles ready for movement, sweating to cool the body, and slower digestion, since the body prioritizes survival.

The parasympathetic nervous system is what calms us back down once stress is reduced. But when we are in chronic stress — from work, health issues, unhealthy self-talk, or difficult relationships — the parasympathetic never fires. We are stuck in fight or flight. The continued release of cortisol and adrenaline is not healthy and can cause long-term issues. The remaining two parts of the stress cycle are:

Resistance: The mind and body attempt to adapt to the stressor; coping happens here.

Exhaustion: If stress persists without resolution, burnout and health issues can occur.

This is where hustle culture comes in. The message is: the more you work, the more successful you will become — and who doesn't want to be successful? But if we look more closely, the underlying message is "you can only succeed if you overwork yourself," which I will again ask: who actually wants that? Our world has conditioned us to believe that to be worthy of a break, we have to earn it. A reminder worth repeating — self-worth is not tied to productivity, and rest is productive.

Knowing this, believing this, and putting it into practice are all different things. And when the pressures of society are so heavy and largely out of our control, you are valid in thinking this is a difficult shift. But stress management is possible, even if different tactics work for different people.

Below you can find steps to identify and reduce stress.

First, identifying the different types of stress is key — we can't address stress if we don't know its sources.

"Acute stress is short-term stress that comes and goes quickly. It can be positive or negative. Episodic acute stress is when you experience acute stress on a regular basis — with this kind, you never get the time needed to return to a calm, relaxed state. Chronic stress is long-term stress that goes on for weeks or months, and it's important to find ways to manage it because it can lead to health issues." (Cleveland Clinic)

Next, we identify the sources. Common ones may include work, friendships, romantic partners, sleep disturbances, lack of hydration, inadequate nutrition, medical concerns, the death of loved ones, moving, a work presentation, a traffic jam, or even positive things like planning a wedding or having a baby.

Once these factors have been identified, the next step is setting boundaries as needed. Examples could include adhering to a regular sleep schedule, not working past set hours, leaving a toxic relationship, limiting communication with certain people, voicing what you are feeling, saying "no," or asking for help when needed.

After these boundaries are set, we can then implement treatment and preventative measures.

Biofeedback — Sensors attached to your body measure things like skin temperature and muscle tension, displaying that information back to you in real time. You then use mental imagery — like imagining your hands near a campfire — to actually influence those readings. The machine is just a mirror; you're the one making the changes.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation — You work through each major muscle group in the body, deliberately tensing it, then releasing it. The contrast teaches your nervous system to recognize and let go of tension. Over time, you learn to keep muscles relaxed even during stressful situations.

Autogenic Training — You silently repeat calming phrases to yourself — like "my hands are heavy and warm" — while forming mental images that match. These phrases are designed to trigger the body's own self-repair mechanisms, working through passive focus and visualization rather than physical tension and release.

Breathing Methods — Slow, deep breathing from the belly rather than the chest directly activates the body's calming response and lowers heart rate. Breathing is foundational — nearly every other stress management technique builds on it in some way.

Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches — Stress doesn't just come from situations; it comes from how we think about them. When we label our arousal as "fear" or "anxiety," that label becomes its own stressor and can spiral. CBT teaches people to examine and restructure those thoughts, which in turn actually changes the body's stress response.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction — The practice of paying deliberate, non-judgmental attention to the present moment. Techniques include body scans, sitting meditation, and mindful movement. It's especially effective for breaking the cycle of rumination and worry that keeps the stress response running even when no real threat exists.

Yoga — Combines physical postures, controlled breathing, and mental focus to work on both body and mind simultaneously. Even gentle forms have been shown to reduce stress and have earned a place in modern clinical treatment.

Applied Psychophysiology — The core idea: mind and body are in constant two-way communication. Every mental and emotional state produces a physical change, and every physical change affects your mental state. Understanding this is what makes all the other techniques work — and why something as simple as slowing your breath can shift how you feel emotionally.

Stress is a normal part of life; we have all experienced it. But we don't have to stay there.

American Psychological Association. (2023, March 8). Stress effects on the body. https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/body

Alijani Baei, F., et al. (2025). The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on perceived stress in adolescents with social anxiety disorder. Journal of Assessment and Research in Applied Counselling, 7(2), 109–115. https://journals.kmanpub.com/index.php/jarac/article/download/3287/5065/19514

Chu, B., Marwaha, K., Sanvictores, T., & Ayers, D. (2024, May 7). Physiology, stress reaction. In StatPearls. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541120/

Cleveland Clinic. (2024, May 15). Stress: What it is, symptoms, management & prevention. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/11874-stress

Mayo Clinic. (2023). Chronic stress puts your health at risk. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037

Muhammad Khir, N. A., et al. (2024). Efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation in adults for stress, anxiety, and depression: A systematic review. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 17, 345–365. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S437277

Pan, Y., et al. (2024). Effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction on mental health and psychological quality of life among university students: A GRADE-assessed systematic review. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2024, 8872685. https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/8872685

Schleinzer, A., Moosburner, A., Anheyer, D., Burgahn, L., & Cramer, H. (2024). Effects of yoga on stress in stressed adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1437902. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1437902

Visible Body. (2022, June 1). The endocrine system: The adrenal glands and the stress response. https://www.visiblebody.com/blog/the-endocrine-system-the-adrenal-glands-and-the-stress-response

WellRight. (2024, April 17). Hustle culture and mental health: Overcoming the toxic grindset at work. https://www.wellright.com/resources/blog/hustle-culture-and-mental-health

Workhuman. (2024). Hustle culture in the workplace: Understanding its impact & how to deal with it. https://www.workhuman.com/blog/hustle-culture/