You Can Beat Stress In Today's World - Here's How

Join us in today's video as we explore how to retrain your body's response to stress, distinguishing between its evolutionary purpose for survival and its interference in mundane tasks like checking emails.

Our discussion focuses on the fascinating mechanisms behind stress and how, evolutionarily, it was designed as a response to life-threatening situations. However, in today's fast-paced world, this primal response can often be triggered by everyday tasks, causing unnecessary strain and tension.

▼ Timestamps ▼
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00:00 - Introduction
00:17 - What was our stress system designed for?
01:32 - Inappropriate activation
02:25 - Dr. K's guide CTA
03:08 - Keeping stress in check
05:58 - Recruit those systems
07:47 - Stop engaging in avoidance behaviors

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#healthygamergg #stress #beatstress

[Eeiv.]

So basically, sprint away from your problems, walk back to them and they will be more manageable.

[farenough]

Once I had a very difficult operation at the dentist. The night before, I did not sleep because of anxiety, and that says it all. The next day I went to the clinic by public transport and got lost along the way. Guided by the map of the area, I still got to the place, but in order not to be late, I had to run like never before. When I entered the waiting room, my face was red, but inside I no longer felt a shred of fear.

[TejubescDM]

A tip, whenever you react for a stressful situation/trigger with "this is scary, I have to avoid it at ALL cost", your nervous system remembers it as a threat, gets sensitized and overreacts next time. This is how anxiety/phobias/traumas develop. Allow yourself feel all the sensations and do whatever you have to do. Don't stay in comfort zone. Anxiety will pass itself.
Avoidance creates spiral of anxiety.
I used to be the person to avoid checking e-mails, talking to people (especially if I was attracted to them, and so on).
Facing fears is scary but that's the only way to freedom.
Start from facing smaller fears and go to the next ones. Works with trauma the same.
Procrastination, waiting for "better day" to do difficult things is avoidance too, and it keeps the anxiety alive.
The book "hope and help for your nerves" by Claire Weekes is priceless help 👍

[DivergentObserver]

This man is a genius. Let's give him a nobel price for explaining science properly and giving us tools to live a better life.

[sanecatlady]

Bottom line: exercise vigorously when you are stressed (e.g. sprinting)

That's real interesting cause I've always noticed that when I exercise after experiencing social anxiety, I feel a lot less anxious and stressed.

[davidmarkleach]

That last little point about not feeling de-stressed after completing the task and giving into your cravings is so accurate. I just completed a stressful task today and immediately got fast food after. Barely felt better after finishing it.

[andrewmacdonald]

I've been going to the gym pretty regularly since I was 20, and now I'm 28. I've been inadvertently doing this over the last few years. Once I got stronger I found that my workouts weren't as taxing and because of that I wasn't getting the same benefits. I was losing interest in going to the gym and it was not good. So I changed up my plan and every time I go to the gym it's a fight for my life and I wouldn't have it any other way!

[mtg]

I've been dealing with feeling overwhelming stress recently. As a therapist I feel a bit like a hypocrite and a fraud when I'm struggling so much. This video couldn't have come at a better time!

[small_dropin_the_big_ocean]

He is so correct about not feeling satisfied even if one completes their task. I always feel like I am finishing my work just for the sake of it and never feel truly happy. I also procastinate a lot.

Imma try this because I feel stressed out all the time over little of things like doing my studies or chatting to my friends or going out (already developed anxiety for sometime now)

[AmbiguousGxrlzCluster]

Kinda ironic that running away from your problems literally works to make you stop running away from them figuratively.

[gargipopere]

My psychiatrist suggested heavy exercises and I can see the difference between the time when I used to do vigorous exercise vs when I stopped doing it because of conflicting schedules of my college. And yeah it works. Note: I was also on antidepressants

[lilyl]

Needed this reminder, thanks. I used to do 20-50 star jumps when I realised I was getting too angsty to think straight while studying. It really helps. Nice if you can step outside too, for that fresh jungle air. I wouldn't go 100% tho, didn't seem necessary. getting the heart pumping and big wide movements, letting your limbs swing wide, seemed like the main goal for this.
I think a key part of this is people get more stressed when they don't allow physical responses, because it's 'not cool', or other social reasons. That's part of the problem. Healthy kids do it naturally and more resilient people don't care, and will probably 'get it'.
You can worry about looking like a dork, ...or be the sharpest mind in the room.

Anything that moves your limbs quickly will do! That's what your body wants you to do with Sympathetic activation. Fling your limbs around. Shadow box, bounce around, run up a flight of stairs etc. it's just what ever mimics fight or flight energy...

(getting out of freeze state is a bit different tho, if you're already totally overwhelmed try gentle movement)

[johancastro]

In my experience, running helps me because of this. It's really hard, but because the body is tired and working in maintaining the pace, breathing, motion, etc., you pretty much can't think about anything else while going at it.

Then there is this "runner high" after you're done, your mind is clear and none of the anxieties bother you for 30 minutes to a couple of hours (at least in my experience it was like that)

Thanks for the reminder Dr. K. Haven't run in a couple of years and I'm getting overwhelmed easily lately.

[voorman]

I always had the feeling that I physically want to start running when my stress gets triggered (which happens a lot). But I also always suppressed that feeling because it felt awkward/inappropriate. It might be a bit inconveniënt to start sprinting whenever I feel stressed but I'll give it a try for sure. I don't have anything to lose because living with a constant high amount of stress is not an option anymore either. It is taking a physical and mental toll on me. I hope I don't forget to report back on this post to let everyone know how it went in a month or so. Wish me luck!

[mrs.potatohead]

🍉✨️ Personal summary: ✨️🍉
Whenever you're feeling stressed, engage in high intensity workouts (e.g dancing) for a short period of time until you're physically out of breath and your heart is beating very quickly. Then, you should be able to engage with the thing that's stressing you out. 💛✨️

[halloherbert]

How do these videos always release at the perfect time?! Love it

[erichmcmillan]

In the long term, you can also prevent stress by reframing your perception of the 'chronic stressors' that are normalized in society today. For instance, all of these stressors involve your perception of time. It's that you perceive that you don't have enough time or may not have enough time to 'find a job', 'find a SO', 'meet a deadline', or whatever else. Ofc your time is limited but does it need to be perceived as a liability? If you perceived yourself as always having more time than you need, then there would be no reason to stress out about any of these things because you always have more than enough time to deal with them. Then you are relaxed and as a result, more productive and because you're more productive you end up getting more done in less time and end up having time to spare. So instead of time being a liability, it's an asset.

That said, you have a habit / muscle memory of perceiving these things as stressors, so retraining yourself / body to have a different response takes time and practice. So, sprint and then maybe see how you can reframe your problem so that eventually you don't have to sprint every time you have a problem like it.

[dend]

I went outside and got on my exercise bike, max difficulty and peddled as hard as I could for 1 min 40 seconds while listening to 30 seconds to mars i'll attack. Visualized the part of my mind that was stressing over work to be running away while I choose to run forward and attack the fear head on with everything I had.

10 mins later im inside, recovered and feel more relaxed than I have all day. Ready to shower and engage the work. Dr K is amazing

Im convinced more than ever that our emotions and passive thoughts are a function of systems, not to be indulged or taken too seriously

[Wineblood]

I don't exercise and have some stressful things I need to deal with. As expected, I engage in avoidance behaviours: I've been gaming in small bursts a lot more but not getting much satisfaction from it and still feel wound tight. I'll try a short burst of intense exercise tomorrow morning (not now, it's hot and humid, ew) and report back what I notice.

Edit: I tried it and didn't quite get the result I expected, but I did get something. Firstly, it takes a while to get some benefit out of it, a few minutes when I initially expected it to be a matter of seconds. Once I had caught my breath and the muscles had somewhat recovered, I felt better. This was closer to getting out of the shower or being pumped up after some energetic music. I didn't notice a drop in my stress level, the things I had been putting off weren't magically easy, but the temptation of youtube/gaming was lessened. Dr. K. mentioned how technology can dampen your emotions in other videos, this felt like the opposite effect, like kickstarting yourself. Of course that's a sample size of one, but for 20-30 seconds of blasting out pushups, it was definitely worth it.

[pGHz]

This is so timely for me. I have had OVERWHELMING debilitating stress and anxiety from work lately. It's so weird because I know it's illogical and that avoiding stressors, procrastinating, and even caring about most of this stuff makes no sense. But I just keep having this like... chemical reaction to thinking about these not super terrible things.