How does stress impact our health and creativity? What is stress and how can we deal with it in healthy ways?
An article by The American Institute of Stress explains: “Stress is not a useful term for scientists because it is such a highly subjective phenomenon that it defies definition.
“And if you can’t define stress, how can you possibly measure it?
“The term ‘stress’ as it is currently used was coined by Hans Selye in 1936, who defined it as ‘the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.’ …
“Any definition of stress should therefore also include good stress, or what Selye called eustress.
“For example, winning a race or election can be just as stressful as losing, or more so.
“A passionate kiss and contemplating what might follow is stressful, but hardly the same as having a root canal procedure.”
From their article What is Stress?
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Trauma specialist Aimie Apigian, MD notes “There was a time when I thought that overwhelm just meant stress…That was one lesson I had to learn, and I want to share with you guys because it’s a very important distinction.”
This video is an excerpt – see longer video plus links to free resources by trauma healing specialist Aimie Apigian, MD, in article: How We Can Heal Trauma Using Our Nervous System with Dr. Aimie Apigian.
Visit her site to learn about Dr Apigian’s program The Foundational Journey for addressing stored trauma in the body.
Register free for 23-page guide “Steps to Identify and Heal Trauma – A Roadmap for Healing” by Aimie Apigian, MD – “Know what is trauma, how to identify it, and learn the steps to heal.”
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Photo at top is from article on the Anxiety Relief Solutions site: HeartMath Technology for Stress Relief and Emotional Balance.
See their site to learn about HeartMath tools for stress relief and emotional wellbeing
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Holiday Stress: Embracing Unpleasant Emotions for Better Health
“Oftentimes, people feel guilty because society tells us that the holidays are supposed to be filled only with positive emotions.
“But this isn’t realistic for everyone, and it’s OK to feel stressed, overwhelmed, sad or disappointed,” says Emily Willroth, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, Washington University in St. Louis.
An article notes “Willroth and collaborators found that people who habitually judge unpleasant emotions such as sadness and anger as inappropriate or negative are more likely to experience anxiety and depression than those who are more accepting of these types of emotions.”
“Our research suggests that it may be beneficial to accept those unpleasant emotions as normal responses to the situation that will likely pass with time, rather than judging those emotional responses as bad or wrong,” Willroth says.
From article Holiday Stress: Embracing Unpleasant Emotions for Better Health, Neuroscience News.
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“Most people whose motor is too fast experience feelings of anxiety.” – Sensitivity expert, psychotherapist, and author Julie Bjelland
As highly sensitive people, we may experience many positive aspects of the personality trait, such as being more creative. But we can also be more reactive and vulnerable to stress and anxiety.
There are many varieties of stress, fatigue, worry, trauma, unhealthy self-regard and other anxiety-related experiences that can impact our lives and creative expression.
Taking steps for self-care is important for anyone, but especially when you are highly sensitive or creative.
Julie Bjelland, LMFT provides many posts, books, podcast episodes, free classes (including the one mentioned in the above video), Sensitivity Quiz, the Sensitive Community and more at her Sensitive Empowerment site.
Also see resources for help throughout this article:
How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety When You’re a Highly Sensitive Person
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Below are a variety of perspectives and resources from psychologists, coaches and authors that can help you support healthy levels of energy and deal better with stress and anxiety, and other emotional health challenges.
Heidi Hanna, PhD is Executive Director of the American Institute of Stress, an integrative neuroscience researcher, a “former stressaholic” and provides many resources on understanding and mastering stress.
Dr. Hanna notes “one of the important things too for people to keep in mind is that there’s two different types of stress.
“A lot of people think about stress as being the extreme things that happen to us – you know, emergencies and losing a spouse or a loved one.
“And what’s interesting is that those really difficult, acute stressors… we’re pretty good at bouncing back from those situations.
“But what we see most of the issues coming from is actually everyday, nagging chronic stress like waking up in the morning and feeling like there’s not enough time to get it all done, or feeling like you don’t have the financial resources or the social support…”
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Stress can be a convenient label for our reaction to many kinds of situations – such as having many projects.
As one author says:
“The relationship between stress and creativity is not a toxic one.
“In fact, small doses of stress — like juggling multiple projects or working under a tight deadline — are likely to produce the best ideas because they motivate your brain to work toward specific goals.”
The Surprising Relationship Between Stress and Creativity by Braden Becker.
[The image of Chinese acrobats is from my article Multitasking is really task-switching. Some people are good at it.]
But like other aspects of stress, people have different nervous systems and different capacities for handling multiple projects.
Yes, it can be necessary and even stimulating in positive ways, but too much is too much and we can get overwhelmed.
This can be especially true as a highly sensitive person, as many artists and other creative people are.
Being aware of when our nervous systems are getting “overloaded” and taking better care of ourselves can make our lives better and give more access to our creativity.
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The stress response: fight or flight (or freeze)
The “fight-or-flight response (also called hyperarousal, or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.”
Fight-or-flight response, Wikipedia.
Adrenaline is “commonly known as the fight or flight hormone, and is produced by the adrenal glands after receiving a message from the brain that a stressful situation has presented itself.
“Adrenaline, along with norepinephrine, is largely responsible for the immediate reactions we feel when stressed.”
From “Adrenaline, Cortisol, Norepinephrine: The Three Major Stress Hormones, Explained” By Sarah Klein, HuffPost, 04/19/2013.
Some animals and people may respond to stress with a third strategy: freezing.
Many people face extreme situations like terrorist attacks and school shootings, but for most of us the stress in our lives is likely to come from much less violent situations. That doesn’t mean it is necessarily less harmful.
Have you ever seen a nature documentary of a lion attacking a herd of animals?
The animals – antelope, zebras, whatever – use their stress response to flee, then when the attack is over, they calm down quickly and return to grazing.
But we humans may stay over-aroused from stress for years.
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Cheryl Arutt is a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, specializing in creative artist issues, trauma recovery, and fertility.
She notes: “Learning how to regulate internal states, how and when to use self-soothing techniques, and how to know when we are actually safe — these are key to emotional well-being for anyone, but for artists, they are especially useful.”
From her article Affect Regulation and the Creative Artist.
In our interview, she explains that “Learning soothing techniques – learning how not to have to keep going into fight or flight – allows us to use our whole brain, not just the survival reflexes.”
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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