Stress.
The word is bound to elicit a range of thoughts and feelings for each of us.
For one, it captures a broad set of general concepts – when life’s events add pressure to our already full load, when a new project is taken on, when a work deadline is approaching, or when the physical exertion of a tough workout.
For another, it captures a range of specific feelings – the pressure I feel when I’m working on a project, the sensations in my body when I engage in physical activity, or the emotions that arise when I think about future events.
This mix of thoughts and feelings surrounding the topic presents a problem for us, because if we want to be able to effectively address a certain issue, we need to be clear on exactly what it is we are talking about.
This is our task for today – to get clear on exactly what stress is and what it means for the human body so that as we make our way through the stress management series, we are crystal clear on exactly what it is we are trying to take charge of.
We began this task in the first installment of the stress management series when I introduced the idea that there are two groups of people – those who feel stress and run for cover, and those who see obstacles, take them on headfirst, and come out the other side as improved individuals. In that article, we found one significant factor that differentiates the two groups.
This factor is the ability to recognize the stressor (an obstacle), recognize the automatic response of the body to the stressor, and then to choose again to re-direct the self down a path of benefit and away from detriment.
What this means is that, although we may not always have control over the things in the environment that lead to stress, what we do have control over is the ability to recognize that there is opportunity to overcome an obstacle and to make a new decision based on what we believe will be a better outcome.
Now that we understand how much freedom we have when it comes to encountering stress, what would be useful for us continuing on would be to understand what we may want to do with this freedom – that is, to understand what the wise course of action would be if we could get ourselves to make it.
To continue our discussion, I’m going to ask that you join me as I walk through some of the more technical workings of stress. I know, that may sound like the last thing in the world you want to do, but trust me, if you stick with me for just a few minutes, you will likely find that it sheds light on the problem at hand and leaves you in a better position to interact with stress in your own life.
We are going to walk through three short sections on the technical aspects of stress and then jump back into thinking about how this plays out in our own lives. Beginning, now, with a quick lesson on a central theme of The Reprogrammed Systems Approach and its application to this specific stress management problem:
A Systems Model for Approaching Stress Management
The Reprogrammed Systems Models are based on a simple model in systems engineering called a black box. The idea is that any system can be understood to a significant extent by simply looking at what goes into the system and measuring what comes out of it.
Note that, when I talk about a system, all I mean is that there is a defined set of boundaries around any set of factors. For example, when discussing the human body, we can define a system as the entire body, a particular organ (the liver, the brain), a certain type of tissue (skeletal muscle), or individual cells. Moreover, when discussing any particular problem, it is useful to define exactly what factors we are talking about, along with whether we are focusing on these factors in isolation (a closed system) or as they interact with their environment (an open system).
Overall, this model is useful because it helps us get clear on how specific factors impact a particular system without completely understanding the mechanisms of the system itself. This means that we can make educated decisions about the system without knowing how the system works, mechanistically.
Then, to improve upon this process, if we begin to work on understanding the mechanisms and pathways underlying the system itself, we can gain better control over how we test inputs to optimize for ideal outputs.
Once again, understand that this black box approach could be applied to any system, whether it’s something living (an animal or ecosystem), non-living (a room, a building). Note that on the Reprogrammed platform, when I talk about the system, I am almost always talking about the human body and its interaction with the environment, and then break down this whole system into sub-systems such as a particular organ, tissue, or cell.
So, beginning with the basic model that looks at inputs from the environment in relation to effects on the human body:
Here, we see how inputs from the environment impact the human body, a system with unknown (to us at this time) inner workings. By testing specific inputs (a particular food, a particular exercise routine), we can measure the result and from it, gain insight into how the human body functions.
Now, we can take this idea and apply it to stress pathways given a stressor (the obstacle) in the environment, its impact on a system (the body) or sub-system (organ, tissue, cells, etc.), resulting in a long-term physiological change (growth, improved efficiencies).
I know that this level of detail may seem a bit overkill at this point, but as we’ll see, breaking down the stress pathway into discrete steps will help us to better understand what exactly is in our control (that which we have opportunity to change) and what exactly is out of our control (that which we have no choice to simply accept as is). Moreover, we will see why exactly we may want to step in with conscious decisions and what those decisions may look like based on our desired body.
Then, one more thing we can do with this model is to combine it back into the main Reprogrammed Systems Models so that we can see how decisions regarding stress play a part in our big picture model of good vs. poor health.
Now that we have a general understanding of the pathway of stress (the obstacle in the environment, its impact on the human body, and the lasting result), let’s dive into exactly what this stress concept is in relation to its impact on the human body.
What is stress?
As I stated in this article’s opener, stress is often a difficult concept to pinpoint and define. So, to gather a clear understanding of the concept, I will bring in two perspectives to discuss the same idea and then bring these perspectives together to create one clear picture.
First, let me get technical by explaining the definition of stress as I learned it as an engineer.
Stress is, in a general sense, anything that puts a particular system under pressure. Another way to put it is that stress is a force that causes a physical change in the object (strain).
This is a simple model that captures the basic idea of the relationship between a stress (a force) and the outcome (a change). However, this doesn’t do a good job of capturing what happens in our own lives.
To capture that piece of the stress concept, allow me to apply this concept to my own life, in which I use stress to talk about two different situations:
Stress could involve something physical, like a muscle that is stressed when it is put under a heavy load, or the heart as it speeds up to increase blood volume output to keep up with a higher demand for oxygen.
Stress could also involve something felt purely cognitively, like mental strain as we think through a difficult problem or emotional load when faced with a threat in the environment.
Now, combining all of this and applying it to The Reprogrammed Systems Model, what we get is the beginnings of a pathway that involves stress (a force) and an immediate strain (a change).
Here we see the relationship of a stressor (an obstacle) to the body based on any specific system:
- encountering a heavy object will cause an immediate change in muscle fiber length (muscles must contract to lift an object)
- encountering a challenging puzzle will cause an immediate activation of specific neural pathways
This piece of the pathway is useful because it helps us see the immediate and direct impact of stressor on a particular system. Remember, this is the first step in our stress management pathway:
- the ability to recognize the stressor (an obstacle)
- the ability to recognize the automatic response of the body to the stressor
- the ability to choose again to re-direct the self down a path of benefit and away from detriment.
What remains, then, is the rest of the pathway that leads to long-term change – that is, the change that is either beneficial or detrimental to our selves.
To understand the complete pathway, including the long-term change that we may be interested in, we need to add in one more piece.
A Critical Design Feature of the human body
To understand this last piece, we need to understand a basic design principle of the human body as a biological system: the system that is the human body exists as a complex network of factors maintaining a dynamic state of equilibrium.
That’s a mouthful, so let’s unpack this statement.
Dynamic: no one factor is usually kept at a constant level in a biological system. Each factor is generally fluctuating around an average value (the mean). This occurs because biological systems are networks of dynamic processes – something is always happening that causes any particular factor to elevate or decline.
Complex: multiple factors are always at play within any sub-system.
Dynamic and complex biological system: The system exists as multiple factors that are constantly interacting with themselves (internal) and with the environment (external) such that over time equilibrium of the system (and each individual factor) is achieved. This dynamic state of equilibrium is termed homeostasis.
Now that you understand the general idea of a complex, dynamic biological system, let’s look at some of the details that are relevant to today’s topic.
First, note that as long as each factor stays within a set of limits (what I will call sustainable limits), the system is able to continue operating indefinitely.
Often times, though, an external force comes into play to significantly impact this equilibrium. From our discussion above, we can label this significant force that causes this change as a stress.
Let’s now see what happens when this state is perturbed – that is, when external factors enter in and change up the system.
When external factors impact the system, any particular variable may be forced out of the sustainable operating window.
If the stress is moderate, then the particular factor may rise above or drop below the sustainable operating window. If this is the case, then the system isn’t in immediate danger; chances are it will return back down to “normal” once the stress is removed and the system will return to existing within a healthy window of operation.
However – and this is a key point so pay attention – if something doesn’t happen to change the workings of the system, then the system is at risk of the same type of stress coming back again, maybe even stronger. And, if it does, then there may be an immediate and catastrophic threat to the system.
What this means is, if any system wants to continue functioning, it needs to be able to change itself so that when it encounters a similar challenge in the future, it is better equipped to survive.
Fortunately, biological systems have this particular ability to change – to adapt – so that they are better able to face similar challenges in the future. That is, an inherent property of biological systems is that they can improve to be more capable of surviving among their environments.
This adaptation comes into play – and this is a second key point so pay attention – when a particular factor is outside of its normal operating window. That is, we as human beings have the ability to improve when we face stressful situations.
Which brings us back to our primary theme in this series: the ability to respond to stress in a positive manner – one that leads towards beneficial adaptations and away from detriment.
That was a lot of technical tidbits, so before moving on, let’s recap what we learned:
- A stress is simply a force that causes a change
- In a biological system, any particular factor is always changing and yet remains at a fairly constant level over time. A significant stress is one that will shift the factor away from this stable value.
- When this occurs, the system will respond – will adapt – such that it is better able to manage that stress in the future
- Or, if a stress is too strong, that factor will be changed beyond a certain threshold at which point, true damage will occur.
Responding to life’s stresses
As promised, all this talk about biological systems leads back to you because you happen to be one very special biological system.
As a biological system, the innumerable factors that make up you respond to stresses from the environment by temporarily rising above or dropping below a sustainable operating window, only to return to stable operation once the stress is removed.
That was another mouthful, so let’s break it down.
Any time a particular stress impacts your body, a number of factors are going to be temporarily impacted.
- if the stress is low, then any particular factor will increase or decrease slightly, only to return to normal once the stress is removed.
- the human body has been designed to operate at this level. It will ride out low stresses without issue, and any moderate stresses may actually lead to improvement.
- if the stress is too strong, then any particular factor is at risk for rising too high or dropping too low, resulting in serious damage to the system. Note two pieces to this “too strong” situation:
- An acute stress may immediately overburden the system and lead to damage
- A chronic stress may overburden the system over time, also leading to damage
If we want to be able to make healthy decisions that tend to lead towards improvement and away from damage, what we are most interested in is the balance of all of these stresses such that:
- At a minimum, our intention would be to remain at a healthy level. This means that, at a minimum, the systems supporting our bodies are not declining. To accomplish this, there is a need to constantly apply low-level stresses. The bottom line: use it or lose it
- To achieve a lifetime of good health, we would want to occasionally apply stronger stresses so that we are improving the health of our bodies
- All the while, we would want to ensure that our stress load is never too much for any one system because that would lead to the damage or burn out of that system
A goal of ours, then, could be to strategically interact with obstacles such that the stress we receive leads to improvement of the sub-systems that we care most about.
We can strategically apply physical stress on our bodies so that different bodily systems become better able to support us. We do this by exercising.
Moreover, we can strategically interact with any type of obstacle so that the mind receives the signal to improve, and we do it best if we do it in a conscious manner.
Make the decision to choose improvement
As we’ve now seen, when stressful situations arise in our lives, this doesn’t automatically mean that the stress we feel will be good or bad. Rather, it is our interaction with obstacles (stress) that will dictate whether the outcome is ultimately beneficial or detrimental.
Moreover, while we may not have complete control over the pathway that is the body’s response to a stressful situation, what we do have is an ability to step in and steer our way down the path once the immediate response has been made. At this point, we can acknowledge that which as already happened, think about what we want to happen, and choose a new response.
Where do we steer ourselves once we recognize that we have a choice?
For those of us who want to spend our lives continuously improving our own selves, it would be helpful to be able to make choices that allow us to interact with obstacles such that we come out on the other side having benefited from the interaction with any and all obstacles.
At least, that’s the idea – to approach obstacles as a means to improve our own selves and this world.
Now, this idea sounds great (of course I want to improve and not decline!) and it may seem simple, but the challenge becomes putting this into practice. And this is something we are all familiar with.
Handling the stresses of life is tough, especially when they accumulate. Add to this something that turns our lives upside down (a pandemic, for example), and what we have is a recipe for a significant load of stress that threats to take us down.
The good news – us humans are tougher than we often give ourselves credit for. The reality is, if we decide to make it so, the human body is capable of pushing through more than we can imagine – and, it can do so in a way that ultimately leads to an improved individual.
Doing so isn’t going to be easy. But it is possible if you are willing to take on the challenge.
So, to end things today, I ask that you take some time to consider what you are willing to take on to live the life that you want.
As for us on this platform, remember, our goal is to build healthy bodies so that we are supported as we take on the life of our own choosing.
I ask, now, that you take the time to think through what this means to you.
Then, join me in the next article where we get to work putting this into practice.