Stress and brain-fog are interlocked in what can become a debilitating cycle. Stress management is important not only for body, but also for your brain!
Don’t have time to read? Listen to this info in the podcast episode here.
Stress sucks. Brain fog is debilitating. Both stress and brain fog together are a recipe for a hot mess.
Not to mention that when we are suffering from both – it becomes a vicious cycle. Stress contributes to brain fog, brain fog makes it easier for us to get stressed & makes stress worse…around and around we go.
Trust me…I’ve been there. And being in that loop that seems like it can’t or won’t ever end, makes for some pretty difficult days.
WHICH CAME FIRST? STRESS OR BRAIN FOG?
Which came first – stress or brain fog? We’ll never know! But we do know they can make each other worse.
We also know that we can significantly reduce our stress levels and we can heal our brain fog. Likewise, we can heal our brains through stress management!
I was recently reading ‘Why isn’t my brain working?’ written by Dr. Kharrazian and this line jumped out at me…“Nothing is more damaging to the brain than stress.”
It’s so important that we make a very conscious effort to break our stress cycle. A lot of us wear stress like a badge of honor bragging about things like being so busy, working long hours, not getting enough sleep and more.
After learning how harmful stress is to our health, is it really something we should be bragging about? Or something we should be working to reduce?
RELATED POST: BREAKING BUSY ~ THE ART OF STRESS MANAGEMENT THROUGH SLOWING DOWN
THE FIRST STEP IS AWARENESS
First step to break the cycle is to be aware.
If you’re not sure what brain fog is or what the most common symptoms are, I’ve talked about signs of brain fog in past blog posts and podcast episodes. You can also take my quiz to see if you may be suffering from brain fog here.
Let’s go over some common signs that you’re stressed:
Insomnia
Shallow breathing
Fast heart beat
Abdominal fat
Not in the present moment
Not happy
Pain
Brain fog
Depression/anxiety
Gut/digestion issues
Frequent flu/colds
“I’m busy”
THE STRESS-BRAIN FOG CONNECTION
Now what does all of this have to do with brain fog?
As with every symptom, illness, disease out there, there’s most likely more than one cause.
It’s the same for brain fog. I have shared other contributors to brain fog before. As I mentioned, I wanted to go a bit deeper today into how stress definitely contributes to brain fog and what you can do about it.
There are a couple different ways that stress can contribute to brain fog.
I do want to let you know that the ‘stress’ I’m talking about today isn’t the rare times where we may experience true life or death situations.
That’s the type of stress that we’re supposed to experience. Experiencing the fight or flight response can keep us alive…but then we get out of that stressful situation and our body is able to resume its normal functions.
I’m talking about the way that most of us experience stress today which is like All. The. Time known as chronic stress.
Stress causes our brain to shrink, it causes inflammation and breaks down the blood-brain barrier.
The blood-brain barrier is so important as it keeps toxins and pathogens away from our brain.
Just like stress, inflammation can be good at times (like after an injury). Most of us are inflamed most of the time which leads to negative health symptoms and disease.
Inflammation in the brain can lead to systemic inflammation throughout the body and gut. I talk more about gut/brain connection in this episode of the podcast.
Stress contributes to poor gut health, knocks our hormones out of balance, and shuts down our basic bodily functions (ie digestion, detoxing).
Just like certain body functions shut down, certain parts of our brain shut down during stress. There’s one part of our brain that’s in charge of survival during fight, flight or freeze so lots of energy is going there. But that energy is being taken away from the parts of our brain that help us with memory and emotions and a lot of those bodily functions that I was talking about.
It’s usually our own fault…we worry, we’re addicted to our screens and social media, we’re in relationships that aren’t good for us, we eat the wrong foods, and use toxic products, we work at a job we hate, the list can be never ending.
THREE TYPES OF STRESS: PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL CHEMICAL
Physical stress is when our body is under stress from an injury or strenuous exercise. Emotional stress comes from things like drama at work or a fight with our significant other. And, chemical stress is from harmful chemicals that we’re being exposed to daily.
These are important to understand so that we know where our biggest stressors are. Remember, at this point we’re just becoming aware of our level of stress and where it may be coming from.
Are you doomed if you’ve already experienced a lot of stress?
Heck no!
For a long time, we’ve thought that our brain can really only get worse, not better. Meaning, our brain cells die or get damaged and there’s nothing we can do about it. Yet again, western medicine has us believing that we’re a victim to our genes or our luck.
What science now shows us is that our brains are able to heal and regenerate. We have the power and capability to change our brain structure and function.
That’s so amazing! And it starts with stress management!
RELATED POST: ARE STRESS AND ANXIETY KILLING YOU SOFTLY?
HOW CAN WE BEGIN TO REDUCE OUR STRESS?
Meditation has been shown to be one of the most effective forms of stress management because it can change the shape of our brain. This article shares that “The adult nervous system has the capacity for plasticity, and the structure of the brain can change in response to training…from repeated activation…and previous studies have shown activation from meditation”.
Once, you become aware of where your stress is coming from you can work to eliminate or reduce it.
Eat well. Our brain can’t function if it isn’t getting the basic nutrients it needs. Foods #1 purpose is to fuel our body. The best brain (and body) foods are clean meats, organic fruits and veggies and healthy fats.
Essential Oils. Geranium is great for those times when we’re feeling anger, Cedarwood has natural chemical constituents that are naturally sedative that help us balance our emotions.
RELATED POST: IMPROVE YOUR MIND-BODY CONNECTION WITH ESSENTIAL OILS
Live in the moment – We worry so much about the future or relive the past that we’re not fully present in this moment.
I’ve created a free guide with 5 steps to reduce your stress which you can get here.
Let me know which part of this post resonates the most with you in the comments.
As we know better, we do better –
Bri
Brianne Pruitt is a wife, mom, Registered Nurse and Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. After winning the battle with her own brain fog, Bri became passionate about guiding mom’s through the journey of busting their brain fog so that they can be the energetic, happy mama they crave to be. www.hippiedippiemom.com
You can also find Bri on the following social media platforms:
