Controlled Stress as a Quality-of-Life Exercise

My dear friends,

The thing we call stress is waiting like a lurking tiger in every moment of our lives.

But here is the critical question: Is stress necessarily a bad thing?

No.

Because if you use it correctly, it can even become a training device to give you extra strength and resilience!

In this session, we will talk about how we can determine whether stress is a scourge that consumes us or whether it can actually be turned into a source of strength and resilience. We will talk in particular about controlled stress as a stress survival tool.

Let's start with the most fundamental question: What is stress?

When our bodies sense danger, they immediately activate an alarm system. The hypothalamus region of our brain tells us, “Friend, something’s not right here!” and quickly sends the body into fight-or-flight mode. This was a great survival mechanism for our ancestors millennia ago when they encountered a wild animal in the woods. But today, it might be activated by a barking dog while out for a walk.

When the body receives this signal, hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol immediately kick in. Adrenaline speeds up the heart rate, while cortisol tells the body, "Raise your sugar levels, forget about digestion and the immune system, all we need to do right now is survive!"

So, what’s the problem?

It’s right here: we humans can activate this stress just by thinking about it. So even without a real threat, we can activate this fight-or-flight response through concerns about the future, or traumatic memories from the past.

Now think about it:

• You're going into an important meeting at work. A little stress is good, it makes you a better speaker. But if you start treating every meeting as a life-or-death situation, then you’ve got a problem.

• You write an e-mail and read it ten times, wondering if you might be misunderstood.

• Someone glares at you in traffic and your day is ruined.

• Every notification that comes to your phone starts to feel like a mini crisis.

And the result? You become tired, anxious, and unfocused, living in constant stress mode.

This is what we call chronic stress. In other words, the body is constantly on alert. And this changes not only ones mood, but also the brain physically. The amygdala (the center of fear) is constantly on alert, the prefrontal cortex (the center of logic and decision-making) shrinks, and the center of memory and learning (the hippocampus) suffers. The result? Depression, attention deficit, immune system collapse, sleep disorders, even heart disease.

So, what is the way out?

Solution: Controlled Stress

This is important: You can't eliminate stress completely, but you can learn not to be affected by it, or only to a minimum degree. This is where controlled stress comes into play.

What does this mean?

Controlled stress is a type of stress that you initiate on purpose and can stop at any time. Like a muscle, the mind can become resilient to stress. By practicing stress in small doses, you can raise your stress threshold.

1. Physical Training:

Weight lifting, interval training (HIIT), endurance running. When lifting weights, your muscles first reach the point of tearing, then they repair and become stronger.

2. Biological Stress Exercises

• Fasting (methods such as intermittent fasting, water fasting).

• Don't eat things you don't like, nor spicy food.

• Exposure to cold (cold showers, ice baths).

• Hypoxia (Oxygen Depletion): High altitude training or breathing exercises.

• Temperature changes: Such as using a sauna or walking on hot ground.

These controlled stress practices, also called hormetic stress, which we frequently use at TheLifeCo, activate the body's repair mechanisms and strengthen the physical/mental immune system.

3. Psychological Resilience Exercises:

• Facing fears, such as public speaking.

• Conscious stress exposure (willingly engaging in disturbing but growth-provoking experiences) raises the anxiety threshold over time.

• TheLifeCo's mental wellness program can help you feel better.

These are all methods of exposing the body and mind to stress in a controlled manner and raising their resilience.

The point here is not to completely eliminate stress from your life, but to establish the right relationship with it.

If you know how to manage stress, it will not consume you; on the contrary, it will make you stronger.

It’s not about whether there’s stress or not, it's about how resilient you are to it!

So let's set sail together to strengthen ourselves with controlled stress.

Please feel free to let me know the topics you want me to write about through the comments section.

Take care until we meet again in the next issue.

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With love,

Ersin Pamuksuzer