CoachBenj'sGamePlan

In my last post, I talked about New Years and goals. Congrats! Making a decision or picking a goal is a step in the right direction. But, what does your mindset look like? You talk to yourself more than anybody else throughout the day, what are these conversations like?

I’m sure you have heard this old Cherokee story before about a grandson talking with his grandfather.

“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil–he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

This “fight” can be your own thoughts. are you saying things like “I’ve got this” or “Nothing is going to stop me from reaching my goals. Or are you saying “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not smart enough”?

These types of behaviors can have cascading effects on us. A negative mindset can cause unnecessary and unneeded stress on our system. (see post #4 and #5).

If we can control the mind and focus on the positives rather than the negatives, it can go a long way in improving our overall mental and physical health. In my next post , I will get into more detail on how to do this.

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them. Have a great Sunday!

New Years Day is upon us. Here comes the “New Year, New Me!” posts on social media. People will pledge to eat better, exercise, save more money etc etc. They will make a hundred different goals. And to quote one of my favorite teachers Yoda. “That is why you fail”.

Don’t get me wrong, setting new goals is a great thing to do. When we look at the usual new year’s resolutions, we are talking about behavior change. In the book Power of Less, it is stated that if you have 1 clear objective, you have an 85% chance of success. When you have 2 goals, that percentage drops to 35%. If you have 3 goals, it drops to 10%.

If you read my last post about the stress bucket, this would be trying to add more than one valve on your bucket. So, as you prepare to make changes this year. Try to make it as specific as possible and only focus on one. Look for small victories and build from there. If you need any help, leave a comment or shoot me a message.

Many things in life add to what some call “The Stress Bucket”. This is not a new concept and people have different opinions of what the stress bucket looks like. Here is mine.

Imagine that your ability to manage and handle stress is a bucket. Buckets are used to hold things like water. Now, if you continue to add water to the bucket, it will overflow. In this metaphor, water is stress. Overflowing of water is when we become stressed out and start to breakdown. There are a couple of things that we can do to prevent the overflow of our bucket. The first, is manage how much water gets put in the bucket. The second is, put in some valves in the bucket so we can let water out. Third, increase the size of our bucket.

Option 1: Decrease the amount of water coming into the bucket. In one of the last posts, I asked you to write down all the things that can stress you out. Minimizing exposure to those things can help decrease the amount of water coming into your bucket. Maybe on your list you wrote down: “Negative people at work”. I avoid these people like the plague at work and in life. If you are around people that are constantly looking at the worst possible situations or the downside to everything, they can cause your stress levels and anxieties to rise. They can really be depressing. By avoiding them, you are less likely to get caught up in their drama and bring you down.

One thing I try to avoid because it causes me stress is the news. It seems EVERYTHING on the news is negative and usually makes me sad or angry (more water in the bucket). Simple solution, I rarely watch the news. “But what if I miss something important?” If there is something that needs my attention that is reported on the news, someone will tell me. I think this option is the easiest to implement. Find something on your list that will be easy to eliminate. Is there an intersection that always has traffic? Find an alternative route, even if it adds a few minutes to your commute. Twitter makes you angry because of all the politics? Delete it from your phone. Go for the low hanging fruit here.

The next 2 options require a little more time to implement.

Option 2: Water valves on your bucket. The upcoming posts will be heavily involved in adding water valves to the bucket to effectively “let stress out”. The 5 areas of: Mindset, Nutrition, Recovery, Movement and Environment give us many different options that we can use to help lower the water level. These things include: Mindfulness and meditation, eating better, sleep hygiene, exercising, and planning fun. I will get into more detail this week.

Option 3: Building a bigger bucket allows us to become Anti-Fragile. If you have a bigger bucket, you can fill it with more water before it overflows (stressed out). There are probably people in your life that get stressed out over the smallest detail (small bucket). Sometimes, these people get told that they are “over-reacting”. I use to think that, but I now know better. Then there are people that don’t get phased by stress, even when it looks like they are taking on the world (large bucket). Becoming “Anti-Fragile” is building a bigger bucket. Building a bigger bucket requires a lot more work, habit forming, and training. Option 2 are things that we can do to manage our stress (water level) on a daily basis. Once those things start to become habits (for example-getting more sleep) they increase the size of our bucket. Therefore, making us more resilient to stress and becoming more “Anti-Fragile”.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section. If you are enjoying what you are learning, please hit “like” at the bottom, join the email, and share it on social media.

Have a great Sunday!

Every year, many people complain about the holidays and it stresses them out. I understand why. There is shopping, cooking, cleaning, baking, wrapping presents, decorating etc etc etc. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the demand. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Please try to remember the spirit of the holiday, it doesn’t matter if you are religious or not. Peace, love, caring, family, kindness, friends and generosity.

As the craziness starts to ensue, I ask that you take a moment or two and answer this question, “What will Christmas look like next year?” For most people, it will probably look very different. Maybe, there will be new additions, or maybe people will be missing, or maybe loved ones will be gone. Maybe…..this year already looks drastically different than last year.

I ask this question to bring attention to the present moment. Try to find gratitude in the space that you are in. Enjoy it, for whatever it looks like. If you cook the turkey upside down, or if your dessert doesn’t turn out just right, remember that is OK.

I hope you have a fun and loving time with those you hold dear. This is my Christmas wish for you.

Over the last few weeks, I have discussed how stress impacts us. From what it is, the different types of stress, to how it affects us at the level of the brain, and physical responses. Where does all the stress come from?

Here is a short activity. Before you read on any farther, get out a pen or paper or make a document on your device. Take about 5 minutes and write down everything that you can think of that stresses you out. Seriously, do this. I have time and I will wait 🙂

All finished? Good. If you didn’t, here is a list that a group of colleagues (teachers) put together after I did this exercise with during a presentation I gave on stress:

Job, job security, family, bills, mortgage, children’s schedule, making meals, shopping, social media, school violence, yard upkeep, negative thinking, sick children, making lesson plans, grading, worrying about students, not enough time to workout, gaining weight, pets, student loans (for themselves and children), preparing students for state testing, test scores, curriculum, emails, spouse lost job, sick parents, and past trauma.

Your list probably has some similarities to the above list. It is my belief that all things that cause us stress and our ability to manage stress, can fit into one (or multiple ) of 5 areas. These five areas are: Our Mindset, Nutrition, our ability to Recover, Movement or exercise, and our Environment.

Mindset– This area deals with how we view the world and the way we talk to ourselves.

Nutrition– Do we eat for performance? Both physically and mentally.

Recovery– Do we take the necessary time to allow our bodies to heal and repair?

Movement– Do we give ourselves time to move the way we were designed to move?

Environment– Is our physical environment supportive of our ability to manage stress?

Over the next few posts, I will dive a little deeper into each of these areas. As always, thank you for reading. Please sign up for emails and share with someone you know who might benefit from these posts. Have a great day!

This is going to be a short and sweet post. Going deep into physical effects, I think will only bring on more stress for people. I think if we can address the mental side of stress, it will take care of most physical effects.

In the last post, we discussed what stress does to us at the level of the brain. Now, I can’t stress enough of how this is not a linear process. The effects of stress on us can widely differ from one person to the next. Some of the physical symptoms that we can develop are: Weight loss/gain, frequent colds or getting sick, fidgeting or foot tapping, headaches, low sex drive, upset stomach (nausea) and diarrhea, trouble sleeping and tight muscles. These are just to name a few.

When it comes to weight loss and weight gain, there are many factors at play. I have seen people under a lot of stress start to put on weight and I have seen people lose lots of weight. Everyone is different. Some people “stress eat”. Maybe it is from an overactive amygdala that has impaired their prefrontal cortex and they make the bad decision of eating a whole sleeve of Oreo cookies (not saying if I have ever done that). Some people stop eating because of nausea, because they are constantly worrying and don’t feel like eating. There are also a lot of hormonal issues that are going on that can influence this as well.

Our immune system can be compromised when we are over-stressed. When cortisol is surging through our system, it reduces the number of lymphocytes we produce. Lymphocytes are our white blood cells, the guys that fight off bacteria and other pathogens.

People that are under a lot of stress often complain of their muscles being tight. It makes sense for our bodies to tense up. Muscles tend to tense up to protect themselves from pain or injury. If our sympathetic nervous system is on high alert and feels threatened, this is the right thing to do. Think about the last scary movie you watched. The teenagers in every horror movie ever made makes the worst possible decisions and you know what is going to happen to them. It’s like that GEICO commercial where 4 teens are running from a murder and one of them says “Let’s hide behind the chainsaws!” You know what is going to happen, you can feel your body start to tense up, even though the threat is not real.

This is just a short list of physical impacts of stress. As mentioned earlier, in my opinion, if we can help our brains out, everything else will fall into place.

As always, thank you for reading! Please sign up for emails and share the blog!

Next up: The 5 main areas of our life that can cause us stress.

What happens when we can’t turn the noise down? What if we are consistently spinning the proverbial hamster wheel? There are some severe consequences if we can’t keep our stress hormones in check. If you look at the quote from my first post “90% of all doctors visits are stress related”, you can probably start connecting some dots. I am not sure if these happen in particular order, but I think you might be able to relate to some of these.

Alters/Interferes with Brain Function

If we are constantly stressed, we are consistently producing stress hormones. This can lead to the death of brain cells. Cortisol will lead to the production of free radicals in the brain. Free radicals are basically little bullets that are hitting and destroying brain cells.

Stops new brain cells. Not only will the cortisol help kill brain cells, it also interferes with the production of new ones. Cortisol will inhibit Brain Derived Notrophic Factor(BDNF). BDNF is vital in the formation of new brain cells.

Inhibits rational decisions. We have the fight or flight response to help us in dire situations. One of the trade-offs that we make, is that our prefrontal cortex shuts down (remember the student throwing the desk from the last post?). This is because it is more important to divert our energy to fighting off a bear than it is solve a math problem.

Cortisol interferes with memory formation. Since stress can lead to a decrease in the number of cells, it shouldn’t be a surprise then that stress can lead to a reduction in brain size. Especially the hippocampus. This is where a see a lot of problems in my occupation. So many of my students are dealing with so many stressors, they have a real hard time learning and remembering what we did in class. If a student is worried about where their next meal is coming from, they will have a hard time paying attention. Then you couple this with not getting enough sleep because they are worried at night, memory and attention will suffer.

Excess cortisol depletes other neurotransmitters. Stress can lead to a decrease in the production of Dopamine and Serotonin. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that is responsible for behavior and rewards. Let’s say you have set a goal to run your first 5km race. You lay out a plan and start training for it. After a few months of sticking to your plan, you run the race and you finish. Not only did you finish, but you ran it faster than you ever thought you could. Hellllllooooooo dopamine! Getting a win (even a small one), will increase the amount of dopamine. Now that you have accomplished something, dopamine will reinforce the behaviors that allowed you to be successful( sleep, eating right, training). This can be a huge carry over and motivate you to keep training. Success breeds success.

Serotonin is the hormone that is involved in our mood, social behavior, memory and learning and sleep. If serotonin levels start to drop , it can impact these areas of our lives.

He is an example. If serotonin levels are low, maybe it starts to impact your sleep. This makes you more tired and you have problems staying focused at school or at work. Then, you start missing key parts to what you should be focusing on. Now, you start to worry (triggers stress response) about performing. More stress hormones are released, which lowers your dopamine and serotonin even more, killing your motivation to get caught up. Now you are stuck in a negative feedback loop.

Hopefully you are starting to see the connections and that it is never “one thing”. There are a billion different scenarios that can play off one another that can cause problems. It is all connected and there are so many ways this can unfold.

Next post, we will look at impacts on the body.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know. If you haven’t already, please sign up to have updates emailed to you directly!

Thank you for reading.

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 EFFECTS OF CHRONIC STRESS

What happens when chronic stress goes unchecked? The two main players here are the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. When we are presented with a stressor (stimulus), our amygdala determines if the threat is real (or perceived real) or not.  For example, if we walk into a room and the tv is on, the dog is on the couch and the remote is on the coffee table, our amygdala will receive information from our senses and let our bodies know if we are in danger.  If everything appears normal (the brain predicts subconsciously what it expects to see) nothing happens.

If we walk into a room, and your nephew jumps out at you and screams, in milliseconds, the amygdala hits the panic button and your body releases stress hormones. Some of these hormones are cortisol and adrenaline (discussed in a previous post).  These hormones immediately get our bodies ready to fight or flee. Now the problem is, everyday stress can trigger this response, so we can be on high alert all the time. Part of the problem is when the amygdala is sounding the alarm, our prefrontal cortex performance drops. Our prefrontal cortex is one of the parts of the brain that makes humans, well..humans. We will have a hard time making decisions, being attentive, learning, remembering, and being rational. All of these things basically reside in the prefrontal cortex.  Being able to form short term memories and be able to pay attention is inhibited during times of stress. 

A few years ago, we had a student who had a terrible home life.  He came to school with a lot of baggage. He was having a tough day and exploded in one of his classes.  He ended up throwing a desk and hitting a teacher. After the student was removed and was able to calm down, he had no recollection of the incident.  The environmental stress that this student was under had put him in such a high level of fight or flight, his prefrontal cortex wasn’t working. That’s why he doesn’t’ remember throwing the desk.  His prefrontal cortex was so impaired, he couldn’t make the rational decision of not throwing the desk.  

We see this often in all areas of life.  For whatever reason someone is on high alert, they make poor decisions.  Road-rage is a perfect example. People behave like animals when they are driving.  No one likes being in traffic. Traffic means you will probably be late to wherever you are going, and this increases your stress level. Is this a life-threatening situation? Probably not. But the frustration is enough to put our amygdala on high alert and it shuts down our prefrontal cortex and we make poor decisions.  If someone has a lot going on and they get stuck in traffic, this might be enough to “send them over the edge” where they make the irrational decision to ram a car, swear their head off, or even pull a gun. Remember the 90’s movie “Falling Down” with Michael Douglas?

What about long term health concerns? If the brain and body stay on high alert and are continuously producing stress hormones over the long term,these are the possible consequences:

1. Kills brain cells
2. Forgetful and emotional
3. Anxious-overactivated amygdala
4. Cortisol inhibits Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor(creates new brain cells)
5. Depletes brain chemicals (Dopamine/Serotonin)
6. Increase risk of mental illness
7. Shuts down prefrontal cortex
8. Shrinks brain- hippocampus (memory center)
9. Relaxes blood brain barrier
10. Increase chance of Alzheimer’s and Dementia

In my next post, I will go into more detail about this list.

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If you have any comments or questions, please leave them!

“If you’re stressed like a normal mammal in an acute physical crisis, the stress response is lifesaving. But if instead you chronically activate the stress response for reasons of psychological stress, your health suffers. ” Sapolsky- Behave

Dr. Robert Sapolsky’s book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst is one of my favorite books. It explains why organisms behave the way that they do. I highly recommend.

What is the stress response?

Fight, flight or freeze- Organisms on this planet really only have a couple of goals.  One is to stay alive, the other is to reproduce. Over millions of years of evolution, organisms have developed adaptations that will increase the chance that their DNA will be passed on and secure the future of the species.  The fight or flight response is one of these adaptations. The fight or flight response is an adaptation that can help an organism survive when it is faced with a life or death situation. Do humans face life or death situations regularly? Maybe if you are in law enforcement, if you are a firefighter, or in the military.  For the majority of the population, we are not in these situations. But our brains don’t realize this and reacts in the same way as if we were in danger.

The Hormonal Response-  So what is happening in our body when we are presented with a stressor?  Commonly called the “stress” hormone, cortisol is released. When your amygdala ( our brains threat detection system) signals the alarm that something bad might happen, the adrenal gland (looks like a hat on your kidneys) releases cortisol into your bloodstream.  Cortisol will do the following for us: Increases the amount of glucose (blood sugar), control your sleep/wake cycle, reduce inflammation, regulate your blood pressure, suppress your immune system and downregulate metabolism.

The next hormone that is released is Epinephrine or commonly known as Adrenaline- it is a neurotransmitter that is produced and released from the adrenal glands and the medulla oblongata.  During the stress response, Epinephrine increases blood flow to muscles by increasing the blood output of the heart(beats faster and with more force). Dilates the pupils in our eyes which allows more light in. It will also help increase the amount of blood sugar (fuel) coursing through your body. This is highly advantageous if you need to fight a predator off or jump out of the way of an oncoming car on the sidewalk.

Under normal circumstances, all of these levels SHOULD go back to normal after the perceived or real threat is gone.

There are basically two types of stress responses. Acute and chronic. When an acute response occurs, stress hormone levels return to normal once the threat is gone. Chronic stress response is the body will keep producing stress hormones AFTER the threat is gone. This can have many unhealthy consequences. This is where many people live. According to the American Institute of Stress in 2014, “77% of people in the United States (245 million people) regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress.”

If you aren’t sure if you are chronically stressed, take a look at this website that has the 50 most common signs of stress. https://www.stress.org/stress-effects/

Side note. With the holidays officially kicking off tomorrow, I know it is the most stressful time of the year. Please remember what the holidays are all about. Family, tradition, and friends. In the grand scheme of things, our time on this hurtling rock is finite, enjoy it with the ones that you love. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.