According to the numbers, the world we live in has never been more stressed out and unhappy. A 2021 Global Emotions Report by Gallup found that worry and sadness were the first emotions that people experienced and other studies have proven the global rates of anxiety and depression skyrocketed by 25% at the beginning of the pandemic.
We are in the midst of a global crisis — a battle when it comes to rewiring and managing stress. The wellness movement is trying to address the crisis with mindfulness apps like Calm and Headspace, but people are still more stressed than ever.
There is one deep truth that we must address: we have low resilience levels. As a result, when stressful events (such as COVID-19) happen, we are vulnerable to intense stress that can become chronic and lead to depression, anxiety, and other long-term health issues.
There is a bit of good news: now that we are aware of our low resilience, we can improve it. Boosting our resilience is the greatest factor that affects our capacity to handle stress. But first, we must understand the causes that have impacted the world’s stress resilience crisis.
Managing Stress During Increased Pressure and Uncertainty
While we all have experienced normal life pressures, COVID-19 turned up the heat. 3.6 billion people worldwide were subjected to government stay-at-home orders. Home might be a place of solace for some, but for many, isolating around the clock created a highly pressurized environment. Constantly juggling responsibilities like work, family, and other priorities in the same environment for days on end caused overwhelm and burnout — two things that erode stress resilience over time.
Uncertainty has persisted since then – layoffs, wars, and an unstable economy – and is taking its toll on the world, particularly on younger generations starting careers on uneven footing. Of over 10 thousand workers surveyed in the United States and the United Kingdom, more than 40% admitted to being burned out — mostly ages 30 and under. These constant pressures, especially in an age with unlimited access to information, are wreaking havoc on individuals’ nervous and neurological systems.
Lack of Community Impacts Stress Resilience
A lack of community contributes to lowered resilience. Many peer-reviewed research studies have found that individuals with low levels of social support exhibit signs of heightened stress reactivity. However, when individuals engage and interact with each other, the body releases oxytocin, a hormone that promotes social bonding and reduces cortisol levels, the primary stress hormone in the body.
When stay-at-home orders began, social interactions took a nosedive. Restaurants closed, parks emptied, and people tucked themselves into their homes for months to wait out the pandemic.
In an interesting turn of events, that lack of social interaction continued even after the orders were lifted. Pew Research Center found that 35% of their respondents stated that in-person socialization became less important to them after the pandemic. But what we don’t realize is that our bodies and brains need a strong, healthy community in order to stay regulated and joyful. Because many of us choose to forgo that, we experience higher stress and anxiety levels.
Rise of Social Media and Technology
Our tactics for managing stress matter. Many people relieve social and emotional stress by scrolling through social media or playing video games for hours. But studies have shown that excessive Internet and technology use exacerbates stress in interpersonal relationships, poor sleep quality, and depression and anxiety symptoms. One study even attributed a portion of that to FOMO – or the Fear of Missing Out – that happens when looking through a heavily-filtered, manipulated reality of others’ lives on social media.
It is now an accepted societal norm to use our phones and social media as relievers. Consequently, we absorb more information than we can handle, increase our social disconnection, and plunge ourselves into a chronic state of anxiety.
Improving our Stress Resilience by Fostering Brain-Body Well-being
If resilience was not built in childhood, we must do the work today to rewire our stress response and bring safety back to our nervous systems for sustainable results.
The first step to improving our resilience is rewiring our stress response to increase our capacity to bounce back. That means doing the work to change our lifestyle and incorporate the most recent, science-backed practices into our daily activities.
When we commit to an integrative mind-body approach, we are able to not only overcome stress but change the way we respond to it and function at our highest capacity. And when healthy, proactive individuals show up to their homes, jobs, and lives — we can start to tackle issues we never dreamed of.