Societal stress is something that plagues us all and can be hard to escape from at times. What's even worse is that the impact of societal stress is harder to pinpoint than other stressors. Our peer educator, Sanam, reflects on this herself, in this post, and suggests an article that she found helpful in learning how to reduce the impact of societal stress as well as other stressors.
Acknowledging Societal Stress
By Sanam Noorani
There’s no doubt that societal issues are strong stress inducers and it’s difficult to think that sometimes there isn’t an easy way to resolve them. This article discusses the difficulty in identifying stress and ways to pay attention to your body. Oftentimes, a change in your body’s natural clock (Circadian Rhythm) and changes in appetite can be symptoms of chronic stress. This made me think about times when my sleep pattern has been adjusted without my conscious doing. The article also focused on the scientific aspect of stress and how “stress” feelings are caused by cortisol, a hormone produced in the brain. I liked that this article addressed the importance of acknowledging stress and when reading about the physiological aspects of stress, I was interested to understand how researchers have studied stress in the brain and it gave me some hope, because there is still very little known on what stress actually is and if there is a “cure” for it. It’s our responsibility to pay close attention to our bodies so that we can avoid long term illnesses in the future. I know I will probably experience chronic stress, and when I do, I’ll be able to identify the stress, try to conduct preventative measures, take extra self care, and listen to my body. I hope others who read this might find it useful.