[00:00] Stress is an ancient superpower&nbsp; that is slowly killing you. It evolved as one of the most powerful&nbsp; tools for survival but has turned into&nbsp;&nbsp; It grants your wish to rise to a gnarly challenge&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:15] or to work harder – but claims a&nbsp; chunk of your life force in return. What is stress, why is it harmful and what&nbsp; can you do to escape its consequences?
[00:29] All living things strive for homeostasis,&nbsp; a state where their body is in balance. To maintain this balance they make adjustments&nbsp; like moving into the sunlight or eating nutrients. corner and organisms need a way&nbsp; to react to extreme situations.
[00:47] response to a stressor – which is&nbsp; anything challenging or dangerous. Stress is a very fast, drastic change of the&nbsp; state of the body that prioritizes survival.
[00:59] An emergency program that lets the organism&nbsp; push way out of its comfort zone to survive. To understand how stress works in humans,&nbsp; let's visit a scene fifty thousand years ago… The Superpower Awakens
[01:14] A group of early homo sapiens are huddled&nbsp; around a fire – when suddenly a desperate&nbsp;&nbsp; Their leader, Urr the Bearsmasher&nbsp; jumps up as time slows down.
[01:27] His brain classifies the tiger as a critical&nbsp; stressor and unleashes the stress response. through Urr’s body activating&nbsp; “fight or flight” mode.
[01:39] His heart starts beating faster and&nbsp; his lungs accelerate, providing an&nbsp;&nbsp; emergency supply of nutrients and&nbsp; oxygen to all critical systems. organs and activates them for rapid action&nbsp; – their strength and speed are ramped up.
[01:57] while his senses become super&nbsp; sharp and lock in on the threat. Urr perceives every detail with maximum clarity&nbsp; and realizes the tiger is getting ready to pounce!
[02:09] Adrenaline forces Urr to make&nbsp; a quick, impulsive decision: Without thinking about it he chooses&nbsp; to fight and attacks with full force. is desperate and will not back&nbsp; down, our humans risk exhaustion.
[02:27] Cortisol is the slower, more strategic&nbsp; hormone that manages a longer stress response. Ramping up the fuel supply while suppressing&nbsp; all non-essential functions like resting,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:42] Urr's body isn’t his own&nbsp; anymore, it belongs to stress. Finally Urr the Bearsmasher&nbsp; deals the killing blow. Their bodies shut down “fight or&nbsp; flight” and activate “rest and digest”.
[03:01] It is time to recover and heal, bond and tell&nbsp; stories about how they killed the angry tiger god. The tribe relaxes and&nbsp; homeostasis is being restored.
[03:17] When did this amazing&nbsp; superpower turn into a curse? Our world has changed so quickly and&nbsp; profoundly that our biology couldn’t keep up.
[03:32] Stress is still the same it&nbsp; was fifty thousand years ago: React immediately and with full force. Prioritize present moment survival,&nbsp; make sacrifices if necessary.
[03:45] But most stressors we encounter nowadays&nbsp; are abstract, acute and more numerous,&nbsp;&nbsp; often intangible, persist for much longer and&nbsp; usually don’t even require physical action.
[03:59] The tigers of the past are&nbsp; now angry emails, deadlines,&nbsp;&nbsp; online dating, rush hour traffic or doom&nbsp; scrolling the news and social media. But our brains are built to&nbsp; take fear very seriously,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:12] so if you experience even a short&nbsp; burst of anxiety over an email or&nbsp;&nbsp; because you scrolled through twitter, the&nbsp; helping hand of stress springs to action. You can have dozens of these micro stressors per&nbsp; day constantly activating your stress response,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:25] While these micro-threats stack up we also have to&nbsp;&nbsp; deal with bigger stressors like unpaid&nbsp; overtime, angry clients, rising rents,&nbsp;&nbsp; inflation and healthcare or tariffs and&nbsp; chaos making our future more uncertain.
[04:42] you have to study for an exam, run a&nbsp; marathon or complete a big project. It is a proper superpower and can&nbsp; feel exhilarating, even addictive.
[04:54] Especially if you work in a competitive&nbsp; field you may keep pushing and challenging&nbsp;&nbsp; yourselves and others, relying on stress&nbsp; to get your best performance possible. be used in short spurts and critical situations.
[05:11] it becomes chronic stress, one of&nbsp; the deadliest conditions for humans. How Chronic Stress Destroys You
[05:23] The price of chronic stress is the slow&nbsp; destruction of every part of your body and brain. As the stress cascade is activated over and over,&nbsp; adrenaline and cortisol keep flooding your body. Your „fight or flight“ systems are&nbsp; overactivated while your „rest and&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:38] Your muscles tense up for a fight&nbsp; that never comes – instead your back,&nbsp;&nbsp; shoulders and neck scream under the&nbsp; tension and you get pounding headaches. Your digestive tract cramps and suffers, either&nbsp; holding things in too long or rushing things out.
[05:55] Your fat metabolism is disrupted and&nbsp; starts slowing down fat breakdown,&nbsp;&nbsp; Your cells become less responsive to insulin&nbsp; increasing your risk of metabolic diseases.
[06:08] Your heart keeps pounding, eager to&nbsp; supply your body with fuel but your&nbsp;&nbsp; blood vessels aren’t built for this constant&nbsp; overactivation and get destroyed in the process,&nbsp;&nbsp; massively increasing your risk&nbsp; of a heart attack or stroke.
[06:20] in a way that causes maximum damage to you. because who cares about a cold&nbsp; if you have to fight a tiger? This increases your risk of infections,&nbsp; cancer and autoimmune diseases.
[06:36] Meanwhile cells that cause inflammation&nbsp; for wound healing are massively boosted,&nbsp;&nbsp; Your brain gets rewired to serve stress. Perceiving an ongoing critical emergency&nbsp; it slows down calm reflection and thinking.
[06:51] You literally get worse at thinking&nbsp; clearly and lose wisdom points. You are much more likely to make bad,&nbsp; impulsive decisions like breaking up,&nbsp;&nbsp; You become worse at solving your&nbsp; problems while creating new ones.
[07:08] Under chronic stress you are&nbsp; simply a worse version of yourself. worse as you slide into anxiety and depression. modern world worsen the longer&nbsp; you are chronically stressed.
[07:26] If you can’t escape it, odds are that you may&nbsp; die earlier and suffer greatly along the way. How to use Stress As Intended
[07:38] In measured doses, acute stress enables you&nbsp; to conquer mountains and push beyond your&nbsp;&nbsp; comfort zone, helps you to improve&nbsp; your skills and grow as a person. And it can make it feel amazing&nbsp; to perform at your very best.
[07:52] it’s critical that you properly wind down&nbsp; your flight or flight response and relax. If you feel stressed, you are stressed, full stop.
[08:04] There is no universal threshold you have to reach&nbsp; before you’re allowed to do something about it. Is your stress response productive in your&nbsp; situation and is there an end in sight?
[08:16] helping you unlock your full potential. Be it meeting friends, working&nbsp; out or going for a walk in nature.
[08:29] Relaxation is not being lazy,&nbsp; this is serious self care. If you relax actively and regularly&nbsp; you will keep stress from claiming a&nbsp;&nbsp; price on your body and mind and&nbsp; still be able to use its power.
[08:41] If you can’t do this at the moment, plan&nbsp; active relaxation time as soon as you can. Ok, but what if you suffer&nbsp; from constant unhelpful stress? You can’t control your body’s stress&nbsp; response, but you can influence it.
[08:56] mindfulness, like meditation or yoga,&nbsp; is scientifically proven to take the&nbsp;&nbsp; edge off stressful situations and to tell your&nbsp; brain that this email is not a deadly tiger.
[09:08] But the single most effective way to remove stress&nbsp; from your life, is to remove the stressor itself. where tiny bursts of stress are&nbsp; coming from during your day.
[09:20] Social media doesn’t show us what&nbsp; we want, but what makes us engage. So simply getting rid of the apps&nbsp; or unfollowing stressful people can&nbsp;&nbsp;
[09:34] actually remove a lot of stress from your life. Especially with the really big problems,&nbsp; removing the stressor is extremely effective. If you are bullied at school:
[09:47] While this is drastic advice and may not be easy,&nbsp;&nbsp; it will have the biggest impact&nbsp; on your chronic stress levels. Of course there are situations&nbsp; where you can’t just eliminate&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:01] If your brain is stuck in stress mode for too long&nbsp; it will get worse and worse at solving problems. In these cases the most powerful&nbsp; move is to ask for help.
[10:17] An extra pair of hands can make a huge difference. In the end, life will throw stressors&nbsp; your way, this is unavoidable. Stress is your superpower.
[10:32] But never forget to get to the other side of it. We’ve collected all the latest health&nbsp; science and designed a framework to help&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:44] If you want to reduce stress, start&nbsp; with the Rest &amp; Mental Health chapter. Each chapter is packed with&nbsp; real science, lots of examples,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[10:58] and inspiration to get you started – but you can&nbsp; make it completely your own to fit your needs. In the end, you’ll have built a&nbsp; custom health mix that works for you. (as taking care of your health should always be).
[11:13] We’ll check in from time to time,&nbsp; and we’d love to hear from you: share your progress and inspire&nbsp; other birbs on their health journey. this is the third part in our&nbsp; bestselling journal series.
[11:28] To kick-start your health journey, we’ve also&nbsp; created some exclusive Health Club Merch for you. Wear them as companions to&nbsp; remind you of your goal. See where it takes you.