3 Tips for Reducing Stress to Keep Your Brain Happy and Healthy!!

3 Tips for Reducing Stress to Keep Your Brain Happy and Healthy

You know stress is bad for you. It can lead to insomnia, poor sleep, digestive
issues, high blood pressure, and headaches. It can also have
a negative impact on your mental health, increasing your risk of depression
and anxiety. But did you know that stress also affects your cognitive functions?
Stress has been a constant of human existence for millennia. Humans have
evolved to have specific reactions to stress, that back in caveman days could
mean the difference between life and death. And these reactions are still
there, buried in your reptile brain, prompting your fight or flight response,
flooding your brain with cortisol and adrenaline. It doesn’t matter whether
you’re facing a saber-toothed tiger or an impossible deadline, your brain and
your body react in the same way.
Unfortunately, the demands of modern life mean that many people are dealing
with chronic stress, keeping those cortisol levels high, which leads to a greater
risk of reduced cognitive function, poor memory, and retention, or even
dementia.
Here are three ways you can reduce your stress levels and improve your brain
health.
1. Recognize Your Personal Response to Stress
Learn how stress affects you and what your own personal triggers are. Some
people deal better with stressors than others. Notice your physical, emotional,
and mental health symptoms when you are experiencing stress.
2. Identify Your Triggers
What stresses you out may be water off a duck’s back from your partner,
friend, or colleague. If you can identify what breaks you out in a cold sweat or

raises your anxiety levels, then you can anticipate stressful situations and head
them off at the pass. Or at the very least learn to manage them better.
3. Learn to Say No
Most people nowadays feel overstretched and overcommitted. Much of
modern stress comes from feeling disempowered and overwhelmed. As well as
stress management techniques like meditation and exercise, learning to say
‘no’ confidently and positively is one of the most potent weapons you can use
against stress. Once you know what triggers your stress response and how that
response affects you, it’s time to make self-care-based choices.
Work out what you want to say ‘yes’ to in your life and let that drive your
decision making about what you take on and what you don’t. If you want more
time to be with your family, take up a new hobby or exercise, then you can
choose whether you want to work late, or take on extra responsibilities.