We’re all familiar with the idea that stress is bad for our health. But what’s actually going on in our cells when we consistently have stress hormones sitting in our body?
Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol are released during the body’s stress response to help the body prepare to fight or flee. However, throughout our daily modern lives, this rarely happens at a time that we will actually physically fight or run. So what happens to those stress hormones that were pumped out that we won’t use? If we don’t work the hormones out of our system by doing what they came for, then they just sit in our bodies unused.
The effect of unused stress hormones in the bloodstream
Consider laying in bed thinking of the stressors of the day or the anxieties for tomorrow. You aren’t planning to physically use the stress hormones that are coming out in response to these anxieties. They will simply sit in your bloodstream as you try to fall asleep and toxify their environment. Consider the maladies that might develop after years of this behavior.
Let’s consider the effect on a cell in the bloodstream. The cell has mitochondria along the outer layer of its membrane which act as batteries. They will detect the status of the environment and report back to the cell. If the mitochondria are reporting back high levels of toxicity, the cell will respond accordingly.
Proteins in the cell dictate which genes in its DNA get expressed. It has been established that our DNA acts more as an inventory than a blueprint and genes will turn on or off depending on the health of the cell over time. The health of our cells dictates the overall current and future health of ourselves and even our gene expression that gets passed through the generations.
How to release stress hormones when you aren’t going to fight/flee
We can purposefully release stress hormones we don’t physically need by using them up! If you are experiencing a stress response but have no intention of using the physical tension you build up, SHAKE IT OUT! Shaking your whole body out or even dancing will use up these stress hormones so they think they’ve done their job. The physical tension will be released and toxicity levels in the blood will normalize. You can even start a daily shaking or dancing practice to keep your blood healthy and get old stress to move out and move on!
For more information on how to support our health on a microscopic level, join us for Danielle Rachlin’s Neurosculpting for Health and Immunity class Online or In-Person on July 7th.
Danielle Rachlin, CNSF
Danielle received her Neurosculpting® Facilitator Certification in the original round of NSI graduates in 2013. Since then, she has taken an academic approach to teaching and has brought Neurosculpting® into the world of college campuses with her recurring quarter-long series at Colorado Mesa University. Danielle has also produced an educational ghostwriting collection for the Neurosculpting® Institute during the completion of her Master’s degree in Public Service for Environmental Policy.
Danielle is passionate about introducing these concepts to people that do not necessarily already know they are interested in the subject and in making the information accessible to all kinds of people. She is motivated to spread the content of Neurosculpting® as widely as she can because she wants everyone to understand the natural processes of their brain so personal development is not an uphill battle. She has been meditating since childhood and was originally drawn deeply to Neurosculpting® due to its solid and digestible foundation in science.