Physician, author and presenter Dr Rangan Chatterjee is the latest guest to feature in the Working In with Heights podcast.
Dr Rangan is author of The 4 Pillar Plan and also hosts his own podcast Feel Better, Live More which aims to help 100 million people feel fantastic by restoring them to optimal health.
In the latest two-part episode of Working In (part 1 releasing on Friday 6 November and part 2 on Sunday 8t November), host Dan Murray-Serter and Dr Rangan discuss stress, how it manifests in our body and brain, as well as sharing valuable tools to best manage it.
Rangan begins by sharing a useful way to think about stress: “It’s a series of biological mechanisms in your body that kick into action when your body feels as though you might be in danger,” he says.
He goes on to explain that stress is really the desire of the body and the brain in particular to keep you safe. Stress is a perception, for example an event that might stress one person out, may not stress another out at all.
Rangan also points out that stress levels in our society have reached a high and explains why this is a problem: “Our lives are currently so busy, we’re rushing around, and we’ve got too many things to do.
“Unlike centuries ago, it’s not predators that are activating our stress responses, it’s our lives. It’s our email inboxes and it’s our over-scheduling.
“It’s the fact that, for example, two parents might be working, and one’s trying to rush home to pick the kids up, and take them to their after school club, and then they might have elderly parents to look after.
“The point is, many of us will respond as if we’re being attacked, and those responses may help us in the short term, but they can be very harmful in the long term,” he says.
Rangan then gives his three top tips to manage stress, and why it’s so important for us to implement the practises in our everyday lives. Dr Rangan says: “I’d say have at least 10 minutes of solitude each day, 10 minutes where you are not consuming something, you’re not reading an email or on social media, you’re just in silence with your thoughts.
“Number two, move your body in some way each day – it’s advice you’ve heard a million times over, but it’s probably one of the best ways to de-stress. Even if on one given day you feel super stressed, do one minute of star jumps and I promise you you’ll start to burn off that stress, and energy instantaneously. It’s proven that if you exercise regularly, you actually become more resilient to stress.
“Finally, the third tip is to connect with another human being each day, in some way. Whether it’s a phone call to a friend, a bit of banter on a WhatsApp group with your buddie. Just stop for a minute, and just actually really focus on that human connection.”
Working In with Heights podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
