Americans are constantly ranked among the most stressed out people in the world.
Chewing our nails because our bank account over drafted is a misuse of the stress function.
When you consider how many micro-triggers are part of the Western ecosystem, it’s absolutely no wonder that Americans are riddled with weakened immune system, increased diabetes, low productivity, fatigue, high blood pressure, insomnia, obesity, heart disease, and more.
Not only that, but chronic stress has also been linked to disintegration of the hippocampus and a malfunctioning prefrontal cortex, which messes with your depression susceptibility and your cognitive function.
One of the first things stress and anxiety affect is the breath — when you’re panicked, worried, or otherwise keyed up, the breath changes. It becomes shorter, shallower, clipped.
Not only that, but it activates the vagus nerve, the part of your body that not only connects your gut and your brain, but the parasympathetic nervous system, which is where that fight-or-flight response is coming from in the first place.
Am I Lazy, or Is Mental Illness Affecting My Productivity?
