Reset Your Brain: The Science-Backed Way To Beat Stress

If you have a million things you want to do and the drive to do them,

But you're feeling exhausted,

Foggy,

Or stuck,

That's not a motivational problem.

That's a physiology issue.

Hi,

I'm Dr.

Juna Bobby.

I'm a mom,

MD,

And Harvard-trained educator specializing in lifestyle medicine.

Whether I'm working with emergency room doctors,

Lawyers,

Juilliard musicians,

Or families navigating high-performance environments,

The brain follows the same rules under stress.

So try this.

Pause and take one slow breath in and out.

Ready?

That breath signals safety to your nervous system,

Helping your brain shift out of stress mode.

A scientific paper reviewing over 200 studies showed that voluntary slowing of breath increases vagal tone and heart rate variability,

Which is your heart's ability to adapt to whatever you're doing in that moment.

And the better your heart's able to adapt,

The healthier it is.

So practice one slow breath before every transition in your day,

Before a meeting,

Before picking up your kids or your phone,

Before responding to any stress.

Pause reflex.

Take 60 seconds to slow down your breath to about five breaths per minute.

So that's one inhale exhale about every 12 seconds.

Just put a timer on and try that.

Slowing your breath even for one minute will help you bring that prefrontal cortex back online,

The thinking part of your brain,

So that you can clearly think,

Plan,

And regulate your emotions.

So chronic stress impairs our prefrontal cortex structure and function while increasing amygdala reactivity,

Which is where our fight,

Flight,

Or flee stress response comes from.

The cycle of chronic stress responses then over time impairs your brain's ability to handle stress.

So when you feel the urge to push harder,

Just pause.

Take those 60 seconds and slow that breath down.

Then see how you feel.

Check in with yourself.

I'm pretty certain that you will have a clearer vision of what you need to do next.

Do this on a daily basis to rewire your brain's reaction to stress.

Amygdala driven reactions when given this time to engage.

Even that one slow breath allows that top-down cognitive control to modulate or manage our emotional responses.

So before you respond to the email or the text or react to a frustration,

Just pause for a breath.

Track how many times you catch yourself from reacting.

The awareness is part of the change.