Cortisol is not inherently harmful. Stress is not a bad word. All of the effects cortisol has in our body, long and short term, make sense from an evolutionary perspective. The function is to optimize our bodies in response to a threat. Short term, the effect of cortisol will help us deal with a threat like being chased by a lion. We need the stress response to run faster and to fight back. Even longer term the effects of cortisol make sense. The only time evolutionary we would have such long term stress would be if we are living in a dangerous setting or are in starvation mode, say if we have to travel through “tiger valley” or we are trying to survive a drought. Stripping all the sugars out of our food and storing fat in our stomachs make sense when trying to get through a famine. Unfortunately, because drought is not usually the long term stressors threat humans are experiencing these days, the function of cortisol can be less helpful. Stripping sugars off from your food and storing the fat is less effective when you are dealing with workplace or financial stress. It’s important, however, to recognize the utility of these functions so we can approach our bodies and our out of whack stress responses with more understanding and compassion. By working with the whole body holistically, we can get your stress response back into an optimal state. #stressresponse #cortisol #longtermstress #chronicstress #stressrelief #stressreduction #biologyofstress #physiologyofstress #neuroscience #mentalhealthtips #mentalhealthawarenessweek #mindbodyconnection
