If you are a teacher and haven’t felt stressed in the past couple of years, you just might be a unicorn.
There are many factors that combine to make teachers feel stressed. You know them all, challenging student behaviors, demanding parents, lack of time, increased expectations, lack of work/home balance, …you name it.
Teachers are not the only ones feeling stressed. According to a 2022 research study by the American Institute of Stress, 76% of US workers say they have felt workplace stress and that it has had a negative effect on their personal life.
Many of the factors that contribute to stress are out of our control. So, is stress inevitable?
It’s complicated. There are things we can do to feel less stressed but most of those revolve around changing how we react to stress.
If we can’t control the things that cause we stress, we CAN control our reaction to stress.
In a book we both loved, Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, Emily and Amelia Nagoski discuss the stress cycle- what causes it and what we can do about it. Using the example of two women- a teacher and an engineer, the authors discuss how women can combat stress by completing the stress cycle.
When we experience stressors-our body engages in a neurological and physiological shift. It is an evolutionary reaction- if a lion is chasing you, your body responds with changes that will increase your chances of surviving. Epinephrine pushes blood into your muscles to help you run faster. Glucocorticoids keep you going, and endorphins help you ignore how uncomfortable you feel.
You’ve felt the affects of stress on your body- increased heart rate, faster breathing, and heightened senses. You may not have noticed that your digestive system and other organs slow down, including your immune system and reproductive system, so that other systems have priority as you face a perceived attack.
What happens when the stressful situation is over? You’ve outrun the lion, and your villagers have come together in celebration. You cheer and relax into the loving arms of your family and friends. The lion becomes dinner, and you all enjoy a feast. All of these things are cues for your body that the fight or flight is over, and you can now relax.
The stress cycles has been completed and your body systems return to normal.
What happens with modern day stress? There is no celebratory dinner or stress relief with friends. Sometimes, stressful situations keep coming, perhaps in a different place. We leave a stressful day of work behind only to find more stress at home. Our bodies, still full of adrenaline and cortisol, don’t relax. Our bodies don’t return to normal. We haven’t completed the stress cycle.
The result is an ongoing barrage of stress hormones. Toxic stress has many negative results including headache, anxiety, irritability, depression, insomnia, higher blood pressure, higher blood sugar, higher risk of heart attacks and even fertility issues.
All is not hopeless. Despite ongoing stress there are things we can do to complete the stress cycle so that our bodies can return to normal. We aren’t changing the stressors- just changing our reaction to the stress so that our bodies can let it go and reset to more normal pattens.
What can we do to complete the stress cycle? In the book Burnout, Emily and Amelia Nagoski suggest:
Do anything to help your body move and sweat.
This is the best way to complete the stress cycle. Run, swim, dance, chase your kids at the park- anything that keeps you moving for 20-60 minutes.
Stand up and take a few big breaths.
Tense all your muscles and then shake them out. Exhale deeply. This can start the cycle that reduces the physical and neurological changes caused by stress.
Breathe deeply.
Take multiple slow, deep breathes. Try this when you feel stressed and need to get through a difficult situation. Later you can do something more physical to reduce the stress.
Engage in positive social interactions.
Talking with friends or even chatting with someone at the grocery store tells your body that it is safe and allows the stress cycle to lessen.
Laugh.
You’ve heard that laughter is good for the soul- it is also good for reducing the effects of stress on our body. In a heightened stress state, we don’t laugh, so laughing tells our brains that we are safe and can let go of the stress hormones.
Show affection.
When our body recognizes that we are with people we care about, it will feel safe and stop the stress reactions. Hug your partner, your children, or even your pets. Hug until you feel safe!
Have a cry.
You’ve likely experienced having a big, sloppy cry and then feeling better afterwards. Crying is one way your body can reduce stress hormones. Put on your favorite tearjerker movie- the one that makes you cry every time. Let go.
Do something creative.
The arts encourage big emotions, and literary, musical, dramatic, or visual arts allow us a way to move through our emotions. Allow yourself to feel the emotions.
Telling yourself to let go of your stress doesn’t complete the stress cycle. We need to do something.
Sometimes, after doing any of the previous activities we will feel better immediately. Other times, especially if we have been hanging onto stress for a long time, it will take longer.
If you experience stress every day, you will probably need to complete the stress cycle every day. Try different strategies until you find which ones work best for you. According to Burnout, “ with practice, you’ll begin to notice what different stress levels feel like in your body, and you’ll get a sense of which days require more or less time or intensity to complete the cycle. (p. 23).
If you are feeling stressed regularly, we highly recommend this book. If you aren’t feeling a lot of stress, but want to prevent yourself from feeling stressed, this book will also be insightful.
Wishing you less stress,
Nagoski, E. & Nagoski, A. (2019). Burnout: The secret to unlocking the stress cycle. New York: Ballantine Books.
