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Stress and our Emotions · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to talking facts.
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  What you need to know about family food,
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  finance and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and consumer sciences extension program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
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  families and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello and welcome to talking facts.
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  What you need to know about family food,
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  finance and fitness.
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  I am your host,
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  Mandy McCulley,
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  Family and consumer sciences extension specialist for instructional support at the University of Kentucky.
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  Today,
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  my guest is paul Nord,
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  our extension specialist for rural health and farm safety.
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  Welcome paul.
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  Hey Mindy,
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  thank you for having me today.
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  We are going to fire up our conversation from last time about how stress affects the brain and today we're really going to focus on our emotions and our feelings and how stress can affect our mood.
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  So let's just kick it right off with what does stress do to our effect,
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  I guess is what we're talking about.
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  Right,
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  right,
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  right.
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  So,
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  you know,
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  last week we talked about how stress really affects our ability or even create an inability for us to think clearly.
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  We talked about that fog that we experience in when when we experience stress in our life,
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  especially for chronic stress or things that we consider very difficult those issues,
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  those stressors really affect our emotions as well.
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  I want to connect back to last week Mindy real quick in that the same area of our brain that is affected by stressors and puts us into this survival mode reduces our ability to think clearly and puts us in the fog is the exact same area of our brain that's responsible for our emotions and our feelings.
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  And so so any perceived stress or or real stressor that's that's difficult for us impacts the exact same body system.
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  And so oftentimes we don't,
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  we're unable to separate those or think through those,
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  right?
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  So it's the exact same areas of the brain.
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  And so,
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  you know,
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  a lot of people when they think of feelings,
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  I think how we feel.
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  And so that can be attributed to I feel really tired or feel exhausted,
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  but in other cases persons may feel fear.
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  They may feel feel fearful.
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  And so that can be expressed is like feeling anxious,
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  right?
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  Or worried.
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  And then they may feel sad.
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  That's another very real emotional we experience when we're stressed,
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  we may feel sad and they may talk about experiencing some depressive symptoms.
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  Now,
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  those things do not mean that we have a diagnosable mental health challenge of anxiety or depression.
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  It just means we're under such a high amount of stress that we're experiencing that anxiousness that we're experiencing that sadness and then that can manifest and feeling tired,
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  feeling fatigue.
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  We may experience apathy where we just don't really care about engaging in some of those normally pleasurable activities like um,
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  you know,
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  going out for a hike,
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  right?
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  Or watching our favorite tv show well.
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  And I think sometimes we talk about stress eating or other activities that are brought on by stress and that kind of plays into that does.
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  Yeah,
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  absolutely.
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  And so people talk about stress eating.
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  I'm a stress eater,
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  right?
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  I have some favorite foods.
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  My favorite stress food is Pringles.
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  Like I can just absolutely get rid of a can of Pringles in a matter of minutes when I'm stressed and that's our body.
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  We're trying to cope.
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  We're trying to find something that brings us comfort.
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  So back to,
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  I think we've used the analogy to pass podcast when a,
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  when a baby's upset,
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  you know,
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  we pick that child up and when they're crying,
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  we comfort them.
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  We give them hugs,
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  we speak calming words to us.
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  And as adults,
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  we don't always have those relationships immediately available.
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  So we're trying to find a go to comfort measure.
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  And,
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  and that's why it's really important when we recognize that we're stressed,
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  We're having those feelings of fear,
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  sadness,
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  apathy,
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  feeling fatigued,
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  feeling really tired,
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  anxious.
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  It's because of the stress and those feelings are okay.
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  It's when we try to stuff that stuff away and and say,
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  you know,
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  I'm okay,
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  that's not okay.
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  And it's gonna make things worse in our body.
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  And so recognizing,
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  hey,
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  I'm,
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  I'm looking for something for comfort that's when we've got to reach out to a friend or family member.
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  We should uh look at those activities that are normally pleasurable and a lot of times what we find is when we just make those little course corrections of engaging in some self care coping skills,
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  it actually triggers our nervous system to begin to calm down.
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  So back to that same principle as calming a child,
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  it's that same concept.
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  We're just engaging in a self calming,
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  right?
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  Okay,
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  okay,
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  makes makes perfect sense.
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  So sometimes we put together coping mechanisms that are successful and sometimes we put together coping mechanisms that are not successful or might be detrimental to our health.
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  And so we have to um at that point find the resources that we need to cope in a more healthy manner.
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  Yeah,
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  so again we're trying to cope and there is absolutely nothing wrong with preparing our favorite meal to try to help us feel better.
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  There's nothing wrong with that.
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  But we can get into what we call maladaptive coping mechanisms for me,
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  I'll speak for me if I'm eating a can of Pringles,
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  that's not healthy for me,
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  like I know that's not gonna do well for my personal health.
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  And so we all have to evaluate that separately if we are procrastinating and avoiding uh some of our daily responsibilities and sitting down and binging tv series on netflix,
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  that's not necessarily healthy,
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  right?
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  But taking time out to watch a television show with Kent Pringles,
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  that's that,
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  it's gonna be okay for me,
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  right?
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  And I'm moderating that.
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  And yes,
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  we all have coping skills and self care techniques that we use,
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  that maybe going for a walk,
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  hiking,
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  reaching out and texting someone saying,
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  hey,
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  I'm having a really difficult time right now and that just creates that emotional and nervous system connection that can begin calming us down and knowing us,
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  I've got someone to call to get support from.
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  Right.
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  And so that's very important.
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  Other things that we often suggest in in nursing and counseling is making a gratitude list.
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  Hey,
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  I've had a horrible day.
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  But what are the good things from my day?
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  What am I thankful for?
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  Right.
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  And even just a short 2-3 words,
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  you know,
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  maybe five words of things that I'm grateful for actually can begin to counteract those effects of stress in both thought and emotion told my kids it's OK to go outside and screen that lets off some steam.
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  Right?
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  So there's all different types of coping skills that people can use.
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  It's finding what works for you and doesn't work for you.
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  And then it's important to remember that these emotions well up and we may not be able to get rid of the stressor.
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  There are certain certain stressors that occur in life that I cannot make go away.
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  I cannot change the stressor.
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  So,
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  you know,
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  if I have a flat tire,
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  I can change my tire and that's eliminated that stressor.
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  But if there's a,
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  you know,
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  with the tornadoes that came through Western Kentucky and the ice storms that's completely out of our control and we cannot limit that,
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  that stressor.
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  But what is within our control is to say,
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  who am I gonna do?
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  Contact?
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  What am I gonna do to help help myself feel better to calm myself down,
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  right?
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  Those are things that are within our control that are very important to remember.
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  And writing down that gratitude list or thankful list is a great way to counteract those emotional effects of stress.
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  And for some people just putting together the list of what I'm going to do to deal with this situation.
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  But I have no control over,
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  helps manage the stress of the situation.
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  Absolutely.
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  So it takes those events or concepts that may seem very far away or foreign and then grounds them into reality and and and and helps us.
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  It takes away that need to think through things.
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  So,
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  I know that we have talked about lots of different types of coping skills.
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  And before we started recording,
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  you mentioned that there are breathing techniques that people might engage in that are helpful to dealing with stress.
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  Yeah,
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  absolutely.
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  So a lot of people,
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  they think of breathing techniques are like,
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  oh,
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  that's that apply to me.
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  So I always tell tell individuals that the breathing technique,
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  it's called boxed breathing is actually used by navy seals.
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  And we actually teach it in uh emergency response personnel.
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  It's grounded in,
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  you know,
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  evidence based practices and it is proven to calm your nervous system down and help you regain some emotional regulation as we say.
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  And I figure,
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  you know,
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  if navy seals are trained to use this and can use this and and they're in highly stressful situations.
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  And if it works for them,
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  it's gonna work for me personally,
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  from having worked the E.
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  M.
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  S.
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  For several years.
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  I found it very helpful for me.
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  And it's just something you can do.
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  It does not cost you money,
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  does not cost you a lot of time and you just can do it on the move,
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  can do the box breathing on the move and it will calm you down.
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  What I'll do mindy is I'll send you the link and we can post this in our media and for people.
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  And it's just a short video that shows you how to use this box breathing technique.
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  It's very simple.
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  And again,
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  it will help you recreate some of that emotional regulation and calm you down to where you can face the stressors in your life.
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  So we can put that video in the show notes.
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  So that if people want to learn more about that technique,
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  then they can learn that in the show notes.
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  When they are listening to the show paul.
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  I appreciate you taking the time to share with us today and in the last session about how stress affects our bodies and our emotions and of course our brains as we are dealing with this very real situation that might be something that we can control or something that we cannot control.
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  Yeah,
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  thank you so much for having me.
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  And uh you know,
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  if listeners have questions,
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  they're welcome to reach out to me and happy happy to to have more dialogue about these uh issues that affect us uh from day to day,
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  you can always reach out to our local extension offices for contact information for dr Nora and how to access our health and safety information.
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