Harvard’s stress expert on how to be more resilient | Dr. Aditi Nerurkar

Harvard physician Aditi Nerukar explains how to rewire your brain’s stress response to live a more resilient life.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “pressure makes diamonds,” this video is for you.

Harvard physician Aditi Nerurkar was working 80 hours a week, and, despite what she was telling herself about resilience, the stress was taking a major toll. She explains how there are two different kinds of stress, aptly named “adaptive” and “maladaptive.” But how can you tell the difference between the two?

Dr. Nerukar explains that healthy, adaptive stress moves your life forward, while unhealthy, maladaptive stress wears you down and diminishes your productivity. When experiencing maladaptive stress, you may find yourself plummeting closer to burnout, or a complete shutdown. To combat these consequences, Dr. Neurkar offers two easily achievable methods for resetting your brain in high-stress situations.

Whether you're navigating a demanding job, balancing multiple life roles, or simply looking to improve your stress management, this information can help you thrive without compromising your well-being. Remember to slow down, take deep breaths, and regularly check in with yourself to ensure your stress remains healthy and manageable!

We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

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About Dr. Aditi Nerurkar:

Before becoming a Harvard physician specializing in stress, Dr. Nerurkar was a stressed patient looking for answers. When she saw a doctor for debilitating stress, she was told, “Try to relax more.” This dismissive response fueled her to study the effects of stress on the brain and body. Once she found her way out of her stress struggle, she vowed to become the doctor she needed during that difficult time.

This defining experience set Dr. Nerurkar on a path to help other stressed patients. “I discovered a startling finding in my research: even though stress plays a role in nearly 80% of doctor’s visits, only 3% of doctors offer stress management counseling. My work aims to close this gap.”

In her debut book, The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body For Less Stress and More Resilience, she takes a bold, solution-oriented stance, addressing the looming issue of stress that many doctors put on the back burner. Offering an actionable, practical, and science-backed approach to reimagining your relationship with everyday stress and burnout, The 5 Resets is a natural outgrowth and culmination of Dr. Nerurkar’s work, which has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, The Times of London and Oprah Magazine. She has appeared on The Today Show with Hoda and Jenna, Good Morning America, The Tamron Hall Show, The Mel Robbins Podcast and Diary of a CEO. She is a frequent keynote speaker with talks at the “Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit” and Harvard Business School’s Women’s Conference.

Named “100 Women to Know in America,” Dr. Nerurkar is a conversational expert, offering compelling, cutting-edge science through a voice that’s approachable and compassionate. “I wrote The 5 Resets to empower people in making meaningful change in their lives. I truly believe everyone deserves better mental health. We all have the power to take that first step towards a brighter future.”

[crew-coloradoriverentertai]

Knowing tons of others feel the same is not a way to feel better, it's just more evidence that there's something terribly wrong with our culture and how we're raised to never feel our best is good enough 😵‍💫

[markaja]

This a helpful video for me when I scaffold this knowledge with my existing framework of eustress vs distress. That negative stresses can produce resilience when there are breaks and we take time to process the stress. This is an example of eustress. Distress is prolonged.

A “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” attitude often mitigates how we perceive stress, but like every axiom of philosophy, it will break down when taken to the extreme. The most resilient axiom I’ve found is “everything in moderation”. (including applying everything in moderation).

[gloriawong]

I love this. I think "unaware" medical practitioners too quickly diagnose "depression" for people during these difficult times and then they prescribe (omg) heavy duty meds which have disturbing effects. My PCP did so recently. I advocated for myself and said no... no meds... I changed my diet, walked more, socialized more... resiliency. I think practitioners are too stressed these days (and probably self-medicating with who knows what). Dr. N... thank you. I listened to this twice right now!

[crystalclear]

I wish she was a therapist or just a specialist I could see. I need to build more resilience, less anxiety and believe I can change my brain for the better.

[LouisDillard]

Imagine if we taught kids early on how to manage stress healthily. Maybe we'd all be a little more equipped for adulting.

[ilbothegunner]

Thank you for sharing hope more people can listen to this topic.

[priyanshisingh]

i am practicing gratitude and breathing lately and this week feels so good now that i am more mindful, thankyou for this video

[Clra]

Superficial same strategies that don't do a great deal to stress. Learn to examine your life, your current reality and do some real hard core contemplation using self-inquiry. Your maladaptive behaviour that generates maladaptive stress will be revealed and you can change yourself. You will become adaptive and hold the potential for adaptive stress.

[HereTheHeckOfIt]

Toxic stress is other people. Otherwise, people can manage their stress.

[molly]

the background music is very stress inducing

[Golgibaby]

Mahalo for normalizing growth and imperfection to the idea of resilience and grit. How do we reconcile ideas of productivity with this more realistic framing of resilience for vocational rehabilitation and the sequelae of the labor shortage with this mental health/illness heightened awareness?

[ranha]

It s not the what if, but the i am or i feel. Anxiety is such a killer. I have severe insomnia bc of it. But no amount of breathing or gratitude will cure it.

[zfoska]

Wanted to learn about resilience since a few days, and this turned up on feed. Thanks Big Think & Aditi.

[sssutube]

One of the few BT videos that has some useful tips and not just theory 😊

[BeWriteThere]

Excellent, actionable content. A+ pick me up. Thank you.

[asteroideare]

The two important activities that help manage stress are breathing and gratitude.

[bigpurplepops]

Does anyone else just feel even worse off after listening to these kind of 'hope speeches'?

[linnetmbotto]

I like how modest and lady like she has dressed. Her makeup is just right, and her smile just adds sunshine to the message. 😊

[sherryhere]

Very straightforward, understandable and practical info. Thanks for sharing, doc ✨

[mjinba]

We often hear about inheriting the stress response from the early days of our evolution when we were vulnerable to attack from a wild animal. What I've never heard used as an example is vulnerability to attack from other humans, which continues to this day - both instrumentally as with crime or physical abuse, and socially as occurs in any of our affiliations when others and we ourselves direct aggression towards each other.

Chronic sniping, exclusion, exploitation, excessive competition, unreasonable demands, emotional abuse... There are many things that can go terribly wrong between people, and it's probably the most common stress we experience in modern life. In our distant past, chronic mistreatment or exclusion from the tribe was likely to mean death. It was - and is - way more common than being hunted by a predator. But we don't like to use it as an example when talking about stress.

We are social animals. And it pays to identify this as the most common source of stress we experience. Especially in our current lifestyle of online interaction, political polarization, and diminished in-person social cohesion.