Stress that does a body good

YES! There is such a thing as good stress and I’m going to tell you how to get in on it and reap those benefits.

It’s called HORMESIS - A phenomenon that demonstrates the beneficial effects of low-level stressors.

Not so fast though, this is what MOST people miss telling you…

If you are dealing with fatigued adrenals already, or very high stress levels, you need to address that first. Adding more, even though it’s ‘positive’ will not always help in a depleted state- in fact the opposite of what I’m going to suggest will be better for you. Work on managing that stress and really putting in time, energy and boundaries to love up your body + mind at every opportunity. Depending on where you’re at on the stress spectrum, know that it takes time and consistency to come back from a depleted state, possibly more that you expect.

Chronic, long-term stress from things like high-paced demanding jobs, economic uncertainty, unstable relationships, work/life imbalance, kids, financial instability, loss, grief, and other factors can wreak havoc on our health. However, short-term and/or mild stressors can have the exact opposite effect if you aren’t burnt out to begin with.

Small bursts of stress, were only ever meant to really help us out. 

You’ve probably heard about most of these before and you may even be doing them already as they’ve really taken off over the last 2 years - for good reason. Let’s cut to the chase and give you some options shall we?!  

1- COLD/HEAT THERAPY

Shocking your body with extreme temperature changes (for a short period of time) causes some of these same protective mechanisms, like antioxidant and anti-tumor protection, to be switched on. And this is super easy to do at home. Simply switch your hot shower water to cold water for the last minute of your shower. Talk about a wake-up call! Not only will you leave your shower totally awake and refreshed, but you’ll have turned on some super powerful longevity-boosting hormetic pathways. If you have access to the ocean, rivers, plunge pools those are fun ways to do it too.

2- FASTING

There are some fascinating studies looking at the hormetic benefits of intermittent fasting, or shortening your eating window . Essentially, it comes down to this: fasting (a mild stressor) causes your body to turn on certain protective mechanisms for short-term survival that end up benefiting your long-term survival, increasing your healthspan into your lifespan. If you are constantly in a state of caloric abundance, your biology gets lazy—it knows where its next meal is coming from. Take away some of that security, and your biology pays attention.

This can be as simple as a 12 hr fast from dinner to breakfast, which many of us do naturally, but if not, start here. If you have low-no stress in the morning, you can let it go a little longer. If you’re rushing to get out the door for work or with kids and those stress levels are elevating, you’re much better off having breakfast to support your hormones. 

Some people enjoy a very short eating window of 6hrs, however I don’t recommend it for everyone, particularly females as an ongoing practise- it can mess with hormones- what doesn’t lets be real! It also may not work or benefit people with adrenal dysfunction or diabetes. Men seem to do better with that cycle. Somewhere between 12-14 works for most ppl to do on a daily basis and is very beneficial.

3- EXERCISE

In order to build and grow muscles, you first have to damage muscle fibers.

When you practice resistance training by lifting heavy weights and inflicting damage on your muscles, your body responds by repairing the damaged fibers, thus creating bigger and stronger muscles. This is an example of hormesis.

Weight lifting, resistance training, high-intensity interval training, and short bursts of movement, like sprinting or rowing are great options for this. You should be working hard enough in these short bursts that you can’t chat to your mates… with ease. To add more good stress in your life, aim to practice this type of exercise about three times a week.

This is NOT for my friends that have been experiencing higher levels of stress for a prolonged period of time- if “drained, exhausted, so stressed, can’t deal with it, super busy” are part of your every day language- listen up. You know who you are and its a fine line to whether this will benefit you or deplete you. Tune into your body, does it need a further push or would it benefit to just chill the F out?!

If you feel like you’ve been hit by train that afternoon or even the next day and maybe it takes you a few days to recover- it’s not for you right now. Go with more yoga, pilates, weights are great and walking. Maybe you just need a total break right now but in order to heal use that time to build yourself up again, with a goal to get back into some movement. 

4- ORGANIC PLANTS

When plants are grown organically, they produce phytochemical defences to ward off oxidative stress and pests. This protective mechanism gives humans great benefit in the form of a mild hormetic stressor. However, we don’t notice this effect as strongly in non-organic plants that are sprayed with insecticides and other chemicals—those plants tend to get lazy since they don’t need to produce protective compounds to ward off bugs. Interesting, huh?

Organically grown plants (especially from your own garden) have high levels of phytonutrients, polyphenols, phenolic acid, and other compounds that give your health an enormous boost. If your not used to nourishing yourself with a plant centric diet, take it slow, steam or cook what you can and work up to 7-9 servings of fruit (2) and veg (5-7) a day as your goal. A wide variety of plants helps with building diversity in the gut which is what we want.

I hope that was helpful and you feel your inspired to reap the benefits that hormesis can offer you if the time is right. Here’s to stressing less and living more.

Aging well with you, 

Jess