Cog Wheels of Brain Health: Stress Management

“Stress fills our daily life. It is the basis of ambition, motivation, and action. We experience stress when things are not as we want them to be. Stress is beneficial when it moves us towards positive activity and can be resolved. Stress becomes harmful when it is prolonged and unrelieved and when we feel powerless to address it.

Stress is generally considered good and useful when a person deals well with a short-term crisis, or even learns from the experience and masters new skills. In situations where the stress is precipitated by a cognitive or physical challenge, such as writing a report for work or performing in a sports competition, meeting the challenge gives people a heightened sense of accomplishment, mastery, and power.

Many risk factors damage the brain by disrupting our normal stress response. In order to understand how to minimize the damage done by risk factors, we need to understand the basic mechanisms of chronic stress. We cannot hope to eliminate all stress from our lives, but we can learn to manage our stress response and minimize the damage that it causes.  (Patterson, 2019)

“No matter your age, your brain is incredibly plastic. This means that the physical structures of your brain, the hundred billion brain cells and the gazillions of connections they make, are constantly changing their shape and their function. They respond to what you experience and how you interact with your external environment. They respond to how you treat your internal environment. You can shape and strengthen your brain by making smart choices that actually stimulate positive plastic growth, while minimizing damage and negative change. One of the causes of cognitive decline and dementia is the end result of unaddressed chronic stress caused by myriad insults and injuries that accumulate over the years. If not identified and addressed, this aggregation of damage will eventually overwhelm the brain’s ability to function properly. Some of this damage is inevitable with age. But, much of the damage can be avoided; much can be repaired. ”Dr. Gene Cohen, Psychiatrist, and pioneering gerontologist.

For more information about the CogWheels of Brain Health, contact Pam Redline at pam@brainbuilderpros.com or call her at (405) 888-0502. Please feel free to text “COGWHEELS” to the same number.