Cortisol, Cyclones, & Chaos: Navigating Stress in a Turbulent World

When macro stressors shake your world, how can your micro environment help you regain balance?

I like to tell people that preparing for a cyclone is like preparing to give birth for the very first time - you know it’s an event that’s gonna’ rock your world and you’ll be forever changed, but you don’t know exactly what will happen until you live through it. The anticipation if off the charts.

2011’s Cat 4 Cyclone Yasi was a wild ride!

My actual Yasi photos are trapped in an ancient desktop computer and are not so accessible, hence these two which can give you a bit of the relentless, rainy vibe. Photos by Christopher & Daoudi Aissa on Unsplash - at present I cannot get the links to work without reams of code showing up, soz.

I lived in Townsville for 12 years and besides surviving Yasi was also there during the “2019 weather event”. A monsoonal trough decided to park itself over the city for several weeks and piss water from the sky.

It Rained

And

Rained

And

Rained

And

Rained!

It was the biggest rain event to have happened in 120 years and was called a “once-in-a-century” storm.

*Ahem* that is until the most recent “weather event” in NQ. Six years later those intrepid North Queenslanders have just come through another “once-in-a century” storm.

I’m really feeling for all the people up there dealing with not only the stress of the storm but the aftermath. And when I say feeling for them I’m not speaking figuratively, but literally - the anticipatory stress from those previous years came flooding back into my body and I was anxious.

Living in that heightened state of awareness and anxiety? Obviously not good for us. We want our nervous system to be able to regulate the highs (fight, flight, etc.) and also the lows, coming back into homeostasis.

Are We Innately Programmed to NOT LOOK AWAY?

On my recent trip to the UK, where my poor sister did all the driving, we were on the Motorway when all of a sudden the traffic got heavier and we slowed way, way down. Turns out there was a breakdown on the opposite side of the highway and the traffic on our side had slowed to a crawl so everyone could have a looksie.

For some reason it seems like it’s human desire to want to witness a disaster and even though I appreciate that people are just curious, it’s curious to me why. Why do we get pulled into it?

Is it a sign of our humanness that we get drawn into situations that we have zero control over?? Does it flip some prehistoric reaction switch inside of us? Is it a way to keep us safe? (*note to self* research this when you’re not distracted by what’s going on in the wider world)

And speaking of what’s going on in the wider world:

I cannot ignore what’s happening in the US of A. It’s a coup and feels like a slow motion car crash.

Why do/should I care when it’s happening on the other side of the world?

Besides the fact that what happens in the US affects the whole bloody planet, it was my home for close to 40 years and my family and friends are over there living inside of this warped reality which gets crazier on the daily. Three of my husband’s four grandparents were immigrants and So Was I - people are being demonised because they are ‘other’. Every year I file and pay taxes there, and since my hubby is retired, his social security benefit (a system that he paid into over his whole working life) is a large part of our income. Who knows what will happen there while the elephants in the room rampage around destroying things as they push the wealth of the nation ever upward to the tech bros and their ilk.

Yeah, it’s a bit personal.

All this is to say that my micro nervous system is being affected by what’s happening in the macro world.

My cortisol levels are rising and I feel slightly amped at all times.

So how to best ameliorate this stress?

OMG, Finally The Point of This Post

It’s time to talk about our (my) health

If we know that the science linking stress¹ to negative health outcomes is well researched and supported by evidence, what steps can we take to preserve our physical and mental health?

I have a couple of thoughts:

#1 Our Environment is one of our Pillars Of Health

I previously wrote about it here where I expand on the idea of our Micro & Macro environments👇👇

#2 Our Micro environment is Where we Can Exert Some Control

What I’ve decided to do for my sanity (to the best of my capabilities)

• News Blackout Days which I have to admit I have not been successful in doing.

• Keep Up my Meditation Practice, even though I feel unsettled and scattered during those 20 minutes, I’m going to keep going.

• Get Outside and Into Nature. Last weekend we got in some paddle boarding - it was bliss and since I was focusing on not falling into the lake my mind was very much in the present moment! And I love this:

“overall, Forest Bathing² can significantly influence cortisol levels on a short term in such a way as to reduce stress, and anticipated placebo effects can play an important role in it”

• Exercise/Movement. I’ll keep yammering on until my last breaths but You Need To Move³ Find something that you like to do and do it.

• Continue with Other Nervous System Regulating Activities. Right now these include a bit of breathwork, five minutes of humming on the daily, not too much caffeine or sugar, and not watching any TV shows that are dark and twisty. (Even though I want to, I just can’t do season two of Tokyo Vice - instead I’m getting the episode highlights from the hubby)

How Do You Choose to Take Care of Yourself?

Your macro environments stressors are most likely different to mine.

• Can you start by identifying them? It helped me to just acknowledge that I was being affected by things outside of my control.

• Choose a teensy thing to focus on and give yourself 5-10 minutes to implement it. (for me it’s turning off notifications for things that stress me out, shifting them into the background).

• If that feels doable then do something a little bit more ambitious. (this was paddle boarding for me since it takes some planning).

If any of this resonates with you I’d love to hear what your Macro Environment is throwing at you and how you’re dealing with it in the Micro. Go ahead and…

Catch you next time, xBec

1. O'Connor DB, Thayer JF, Vedhara K. Stress and Health: A Review of Psychobiological Processes. Annu Rev Psychol. 2021 Jan 4;72:663-688. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-062520-122331. Epub 2020 Sep 4. PMID: 32886587.

2. Antonelli M, Barbieri G, Donelli D. Effects of forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) on levels of cortisol as a stress biomarker: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Biometeorol. 2019 Aug;63(8):1117-1134. doi: 10.1007/s00484-019-01717-x. Epub 2019 Apr 18. PMID: 31001682.

3. De Nys L, Ofosu EF, Ryde GC, Connelly J, Whittaker AC. Physical Activity Influences Cortisol and Dehydroepiandrosterone (Sulfate) Levels in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Aging Phys Act. 2022 Aug 17;31(2):330-351. doi: 10.1123/japa.2021-0501. PMID: 35981715.