Understanding Stress with Heidi Hanna

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Ray Ban stores and other authorized retailers. Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin lifestyle show where I give you the latest cutting edge intel to help you look, feel and think better. Now, today's conversation is all about stress, but in a totally different way. Because I know, I know you're probably going, ah, like I'm already stressed out. I don't need to hear about this. But actually we are going to talk about some, first of all, some like really cool stress hacks. But also you're going to hear how you can be doing everything right. You could be doing the Virgin diet, you can be doing the sugar impact diet, your burst training. And if you're stressed out, you are going to not be able to lose that belly fat. So we've got some simple shifts that you can put into fast action that will turn that around quickly. And I have the perfect person to help me today. So let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Heidi Hanna, who is a neighbor. I was so lucky to get introduced to her by the super awesome Sean Croxton. She's a buddy of his. She is a New York Times bestselling author and, and she is also the CEO and founder of Synergy, which is a consulting company that provides brain based health and performance programs to organizations. She's also the executive director for the American Institute of Stress. So you can tell she knows a little bit about stress. Her books include relax your fat off. Hopefully you get that. That's part of what we'll be talking about today. Today should really be laugh your fat off and the sharp solution stressaholic and recharge. And her next book coming out is the curios. I did a really cool interview with her when I was doing my live training for the Miracle mindset and she's part of that and part of our faculty there and she just is incredible. I'm super excited to share her with you today. So again, Today's guest is Dr. Heidi Hanna. All right, let's do it. Heidi Hanna, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.

Thank you so much I love talking with you, so I'm looking forward to this.

You just killed it for everyone listening. Heidi is part of my miracle Mindset Academy and did a really interesting interview during our live cast. So I wanted to bring you onto the podcast to share you with everybody. And we're going to dive into the topic of stress. And I want to start with you know, because I think if you asked 10 people what stress is, they probably would give you 10 different answers. So what's like, what's the real definition or yours?

Yeah, that's such a good point. And that's kind of what started me off actually on this, this journey trying to better is because I started asking my colleagues who are stress experts to define stress, and they would totally get stressed out and ramble on for 10 minutes. And I'm like, okay, so we have a stress epidemic. We know that, you know, 75 to 90% of medical visits are stress related. Everybody's talking about stress, and yet nobody knows what it is. So if we don't know what it is, we cannot manage it. We can't make it better for people. So I actually went back all the way back to Hans Selye, who originally coined the word stress. And essentially, when he used it for the first time, he was talking about a stimulus for change, that it's something that happens that requires some sort of adaptation, some sort of response, and that response isn't necessarily good or bad. It all determines on a variety of factors. And fortunately, you know, with integrative neuroscience now we're looking at what are those factors that determine whether our response to change is positive or negative. And it turns out it's pretty simple. I think that we have a tendency to overcomplicate it. But ultimately, when we need to change something, we experience a negative stress response when we feel like either we're out of control, we don't have the capacity, or we don't have a connection to a purpose. You know, change is pretty easy when we feel like it's something that matters. But even the smallest thing can be really stressful when we don't really understand it, or when we don't have a passion or a purpose behind why we're making the change. Which is why I love the miracle mindset so much, because, as you know, when you're open to change, when you think see change as positive, when you see the opportunity in it, then you can actually grow and become stronger as a result.

And what was amazing to me, kind of as I've been going through this whole process, Is realizing that people can get enormously stressed out over the smallest things. That it wasn't the nature of like the size of the issue. Right. You know, totally. I was like going, you're stressed out. I still remember as a personal trainer, I had this client and she was a stay at home mom. She had one child who was a really good child. Her husband was super successful. She lived in this beautiful house and she was putting on a bat mitzvah and she was losing her. And with a party planner and all this stuff, losing her mind, stressed. And I'm like, wow. You know, and that's when I kind of started to look at, wow, you know, stress is really relative. And you can't discount how she was feeling. That was her thing.

So it's true. And I think it kind of comes down to this formula of demand versus capacity. Right. Because sometimes really big stressful things don't have a negative response to them because we have tremendous capacity. So all the things you talk about with fitness and nutrition and all these other things we could do to build capacity allow us to be more resilient. And then at the same time, really small things can set someone off when they don't have the capacity. And in a situation like that, what's really interesting, I just spent the last few days working with the NFL and with their owners and wives and families. And, you know, these people have tremendous stress. And a lot of people look at them from the outside and say, what do you have to be stressed about? You have all this great opportunity and you have money, but, you know, sometimes it's. It's the isolation that comes with that. It turns out isolation is one of the worst things for the brain and body. And so a lot of times when people have what we think would make them happy, they become more isolated or disconnected from a sense of community. So no matter who we are, we desperately need that community to feel like what we're doing matters. And we have people that have our back if something goes wrong.

Yeah, I'm really fascinated by isolation and its effects. I think you were the one that told me that social isolation is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

That's right. It causes me. I know. And I always tell people, don't go smoke with your friends to make up for it. Like, we're not saying that, but it's the brain's perception of our circumstances that really changes our response. And so when the brain perceives that we do not have social support, it is one of the most dangerous things. And if you Think about this is really interesting. One of the highest spikes in human mortality happens within six months of retirement. So people tend to think that once they slow down, they're going to be able to really and recharge. And that just goes to prove that when we're disconnected, whether it's from other people or from purpose or passion, or something that drives us to get up in the morning, when we lose that stimulation, it's actually really toxic and the brain will atrophy just like the body does when we're not exercising.

So let's talk about what happens to the body from stress. That was a nice little segue. I love it when those things just work just organically. What does it do? I've talked some about what it does in terms of weight, but I'd love to hear from your scientific background all the things that stress does to our body and our brain.

So I would say that we now know there's essentially three different categories of stress. There's what I would consider tame, tolerable or toxic. Tame stress is the kind of stress or stimulation you hardly even notice it. So maybe you get a little bit of an adrenaline rush in your system, you feel a little bit of energy. Maybe you consider that to be excitement or passion or enthusiasm. And your body, body just adapts. So I think of the example of public speaking, which was absolutely terrifying for me for so long, still makes me really nervous. But I push through it because I know I have the resources needed to adapt. So I feel the energy. I identify it as that excitement and it doesn't break me down. Tolerable stress is where it takes a little bit more recovery. You know, I'm traveling and you know as well as I do, busy schedules, traveling, time zones, all that kind of stuff, you need to build in a little bit more recovery, recovery from that. So you're still going to be kind of on a rush. You're getting some stimulation. Now cortisol is starting to kick in a little bit, which is more of a long term survival hormone that actually has gotten a bad rap. We don't want to eliminate cortisol, we actually really need it. And in fact, when we have the right resources, cortisol can actually be very helpful to us. It turns out that when we're producing cortisol in the brain and body, which tend to break us down, and we have oxytocin, which is the bonding chemical, it actually triggers the greatest spike in neurogenesis, which is the generation of new brain cells. So it's not that stress is Bad it's just again, stress in isolation, bad stress with other people actually can really help us. And then there's the toxic stress. And that's what most people think about when they think about the stress response. And that's what will actually increase inflammation, increase heart rate, increases initially blood sugar that's floating through our system. And that's why it's so related to weight loss. Because when we have that cortisol production nonstop, it's constantly kicking out blood sugar and then storing it really rapidly, especially in our abdominal area. So it makes it really difficult for people who are even doing everything right to keep their weight under control. Other things I would say that I think are kind of newer findings that are really fascinating is that that chronic unmanaged toxic stress will start to atrophy brain cel, particularly in the prefrontal cortex as well as in the memory center. And it will actually increase the cortical real estate in the area of the amygdala or the fight or flight response, that threat response. And why this is so important is this is what leads people to have ADD symptoms. A lot of times this is what leads people to have brain fog irritability, is that they're actually starting to decrease the, the brain cell production and the neurochemistry in that part of the brain that helps us to think logically and creatively and to like be nice to people. And it's building the muscle, so to speak, of the brain that's really reactive and irrational and overly emotional, or what we call the monkey mind. So I think that, you know, understanding what's happening in the body and the brain at the same time, it makes sense that when we're feeling stressed out as opposed to stressed, you know, we're really feeling like our capacity is starting to decrease and we're not bouncing back the way we used to, that we really take it seriously and make it a priority to build in some recharge time and to really, you know, shift our mind into a more optimal state.

So I definitely want to get some hacks from you because I know you have some great hacks because we talked about them. But before we go there, it would just seem like to me, like I still think back to when we first got answering machines, remember totally dating myself, like when we first. Remember when I've now become, I've turned into that person. But remember when we had to do an emergency breakthrough, like there was busy signals on the phone and all of a sudden you got call waiting and then we had answering machines and Then we had pagers, and we kept thinking these things were so awesome, you know? Then we got computers, and now all of a sudden, you're never shut down. And I'm sure that's one reason that we're stressed out, but that couldn't be the only reason. So, like, why? Why are we so stressed out?

Yeah.

Or are we more stressed out? I don't know. Maybe we're.

Yes, we are. Yes, absolutely.

It seems like to me.

But, you know, we are frazzled, and I feel like we are just in a state of constant frazzled. And as I go out and I speak with people, I'm amazed. It shows up in a lot of different ways. I mean, even the session I did yesterday with the NFL, I believe about at least half of the audience had kids who are struggling with either sensory processing disorder or autism spectrum or something going on. And I believe that a lot of these different conditions are a result of a hypersensitive stress system. It doesn't mean that that's what caused it. But when you have a vulnerable nervous system, then any little nud can really send us kind of spiraling. And what you just said about answering machines, as you're talking, I find myself so longing for those days because I think technology is really amazing in that it gives us access to so much information and connection and validation and stimulation and all this great stuff, but it's too much. Our brain is not wired to take in that much at one time. And so even right now, at this moment, I'm sitting here thinking, okay, I am stretched too thin. And it's not that I'm actually doing too many projects. It's trying to keep up with the pace of information that's coming at us from every angle with technology. So I think we need to be much more disciplined with it. And I tell parents all the time, one of the best things you can do is to help your kids set boundaries over technology use and do the same for yourself, because stimulation is triggering your nervous system. And if you're not in control of what your brain is paying attention to, the world around you, through media, through tv, through email, through all of that stuff, is going to hijack your brain and keep it in that stress state so that when you're trying to really focus and be productive, it's gonna be really hard to do that.

Yeah. Now, the thing is kind of the setting the boundaries, that's what I see as a big one for all of us, like, setting the boundaries, putting the phone down, walking away from the phone, you know, all of those things. So let's talk about. Okay, we've now acknowledged that we're stressed. It is creating. And you said an interesting thing. And I just want to point out, because I have so many people who listen who are, you know, struggling with their weight. And you can be eating right, you can be exercising right, like you're doing burst training, resistance training. You've figured out your food intolerances, you lowered your sugar impact, and you are still going to have problems with your weight, especially belly fat, if you're stressed. So if nothing else has gotten you not shrinking, your brain, aging faster, all those others being mean, you know, if none of those things gotcha, then hopefully the belly fat will. So let's say we're here now. We were like, okay, Heidi, so what are a couple simple things that you can give people to do that will make a big difference? I love the little hinges swinging the big doors.

That's right. Well, I would say as a framework to just consider those places in your life where you can decrease stimulation and increase nourishment. So pay attention. You know, when you think about day, where can you turn off the noise, turn off the screens, find some quiet spaces? Our world is just so stimulating right now, and it's great. It's exciting. But even passion and enthusiasm are a high energy output that needs to be recharged. So you have got to figure out when to unplug yourself and recharge your own battery. So I always encourage people to just look at your environment on a regular basis, be more mindful of that, turn down the noise and set those boundaries. And for those who are parents, and maybe you even do this with yourself, I want you to consider that technology, in some ways, if it's not managed, is like putting an IV drip into your bloodstream with sugar. And I know how you feel about sugar, jj. So I'm saying that if you don't control it, moderate it, give yourself some time out, you're constantly stimulating and activating your system. So that's the first thing is just try to quiet down the noise. And then from a nourishment perspective, you know, I'm sure you've talked a lot already about things with regards to nutrition and fitness and sleep, and we need all of those elements. But I also look at some mindset shifts that we can make, and three of the most nourishing things we can do to our perspective is to pay more attention to. My favorite three are gratitude, curiosity, and humor. So gratitude is literally feeding your brain with the elements of Life that you feel grateful for. And of course, there are moments where it can be hard to find those things. And in those moments, it could be air, it could be health, it could be safety. I mean, just really fundamental moments that just. If you take three minutes and just be grateful for three minutes to just breathe and be quiet, listen to music, and kind of nudge yourself in a positive way. But we know gratitude just does this beautiful chemical dance in your brain to really nourish and soothe those pathways and calm the nervous system. Jj, I know I've talked to you before about curiosity because it's like my new favorite. Being curious not only increases those positive endorphins, but it also opens the neural pathways in the brain to explore. So our brain cells are essentially either on or off. And sometimes we just want to turn them off and calm down, but other times, we want to nudge them in kind of an approach mode where we're seeking, we're looking for things that are interesting. We're asking the right questions, like who do I want to be today? How do I want to show up? What really matters to me? And when we do that, not only does it quiet the threat response or the stress response, but it also engages us in things that fuel us, that drive us. And it's really fun to play around with that curiosity piece. And then the last one, which is super fun and really easy, is humor. And I actually belong to a group where we study applied and therapeutic humor and have done a lot of research and looking at what humor does to the brain and body. And it actually decreases cortisol, decreases C reactive protein, which is an inflammatory marker in the body. It improves memory, it improves attention, improves creativity. It's like awesome sauce for your brain. So you just have to find what you find funny. Because not everybody has the same humor style, but most people resonate with things like even watching a baby laughing or watching silly things, or like the bad lip reading videos. Create what I call a beyond funny folder where you drop things that you find funny and find a beyond funny friends. Like someone that you can send funny images to or tell jokes with. And I'm fortunate. My best friend sends me a funny picture every morning to start the day, which is just such a gift.

I can't believe she can even find one every morning.

She's a master. She's a neuro humorist, she calls herself. So it actually doesn't take too long. And I think the key is take some time. Just like anything else, like preparing your food, go find some funny things. Put them in a folder, and then create a ritual where every day you add that to your morning routine. So my morning routine is movement, making sure I'm getting exercise meditation to quiet my brain and mirth, which is the emotional experience of humor.

So. So I'm gonna throw one at you with this one. And you may have already answered it, but maybe there's something different. One thing you do every day, Heidi, that you feel makes the biggest difference in your life.

For me, it's quiet exercise. And what I mean by that is I, for the sake of time, really like to meditate and run at the same time. So for me, I would even say in some ways, it's more of a meditation than a workout because it's not like my high intensity workouts. I do it at other times, but it's just going for a run and being quiet and spending time in nature just really seems to pull my brain into balance. And that's what I call my prime. Time in the morning is priming my brain so that it's in the state where it can do its best work.

All right, awesome. Now, I know that you have something super cool for everybody listening. So tell us what you've got for them, and I'll tell you what you're going to hear you can get@jjvirgin.com stress. So what did you put together as a gift for everyone listening?

So since you said it's not always easy to think about finding a funny picture, funny video every single day, I actually put together a 21 day beyond funny challenge. And so every day you get a funny image, but you also get two videos and you can choose one or you can find one of your own. But the whole goal in this humor course is to learn a little bit about the benefits of healthy humor. So there's a few videos there that you'll get a chance to watch and actually understand what's happening in the brain and body. But then you'll also get an email every day for 21 days prompting you to remember to find the funny in your day. So you can either use those tools that we're sharing or you can be nudged to go find something of your own.

Love it. And again, jjvirgin.com stress and you can get that. And thank you so much, Heidi, for joining me and all your awesome information. Appreciate it.

Thank you, jj. Always fun to chat with you.

Now, after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question, so stay with me.

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All right, welcome back. One of my favorite times of the show because I get to dive in and answer your questions. Now here's how I do this. I answer your questions that I find up on my Facebook page. So if you pop on over to JJ Virgin official, it's got the little blue check mark. I'm always watching in there and I watch when I do my Facebook lives for awesome questions that I know will fit perfectly with whatever show I'm doing and support a lot of people. And this one from Katie and Provo. Gosh, I hear this a lot and it is jj. I just can't get rid of my sugar cravings.

Help.

All right, so I wanted to answer this today because one of the big reasons that you can get sugar cravings and I actually did a Facebook live all on sugar cravings. So you can go back into Facebook and find that because there's a lot of different reasons we have sugar cravings. And actually the sugar impact diet is set up to help you get rid of your sugar cravings in two weeks. And it works. So give that one a try. But the first thing we're going to talk about because it relates so well today is one of the big reasons that you can get sugar cravings and that is stress. And here's why stress lowers serotonin. Serotonin is this feel good neurochemical produced by the brain chemical produced by the stomach, stomach or produced by the small intestine. So a lot of this is produced in your gut and it is that chemical that makes you feel happy. It reduces sugar cravings. And one of the reasons we'll get sugar cravings is if serotonin is low, you want a little bit of a hit of sugar because it actually helps boost your levels of serotonin in your brain. So quite often we can get rid of sugar cravings just by handling stress. So here's what I'm going to do as a little challenge is Heidi gave you her humor challenge. So I'm going to say, go, go over to jjvirgin.com stress and pick that up and give that a go. We also, in the miracle Mindset academy, use tapping. Tapping can lower stress hormones by as much as 25%. So that's another great one. And one other one that I use, I take sleep candy every night to help me sleep. And that is my really yummy chewable sleep formula with L theanine, B6 and nocetal melatonin and 5 HTP. And so that is one too that can help bring back up your serotonin levels because 5 HTP crosses the blood brain barrier and converts to serotonin. So it can help bring back up your serotonin levels if you're under stress, because one thing that happens when you're under stress is serotonin goes low. You can't make your melatonin and you don't sleep well either. And then that just compounds the whole problem of sugar cravings and food cravings in general. General. So that can be another thing that can help you get over this. Alrighty, again, if you'd like to submit a question, pop on over to my Facebook page. We monitor them, we answer them as we go, but then I like to pull the best ones up on to the podcast. And another thing that I'm starting on this podcast, but I need your help for this, is gratitude. So the thing that I do every day that I feel makes the biggest difference in my life is every morning I pull out my journal and I write down at least three things or three people I'm grateful for. I do it every day. No matter what's going on or if how crappy things might seem like they are, I can always find three things. Three people I'm grateful for. So I want to start a gratitude portion of the show where I highlight a review of the week. And so what what I need to do that, I actually need reviews so that I can highlight the review and be grateful to the person, express my appreciation. So we're getting a lot of 5 stars reviews for the show. Wow. I'm so appreciative of that and hugely grateful and I'd love to read some reviews. So I read all of them. But again, need to have some to do this. So I've read the ones that are up there. So I'd hugely appreciate if you pop on over to itunes and write a review and then I'll spotlight you on my podcast. Alrighty. Thanks for joining me today. And I want to remind you you heard something that you can take courageous, inspired action on and have fun while you do it. And remember every time you do this that you build resilience. And when you build resilience, it lets you show up bigger in your life. Which means things that would normally stress you out, they won't even make you blink. All right, and I'm going to leave you with this one question to help you open up to more possibility. What do you want to show up for in your life? All right, see you next time.

Hello listeners. This is Ann Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.