Stress is actually good for your body as long as you have it in small amounts. Our body does need cortisol (popularly known as “stress hormone” , produced by the adrenal cortex, that is part of the adrenal gland) in order to help increase our level of intelligence and improve our memory retention. It also makes us stronger character-wise. However, chronic stress is a different story. It debilitates our immune system in the long run making us more prone to physical illnesses and even mental fatigue and emotional breakdown.
Cortisol is usually released when you are undergoing life threatening situations like dangerous situations and near death experiences. However, with the way we are living our lives today, constantly being bombarded by different stimuli and stressors, physiologically speaking, we more often than not react as if we are in grave danger. This triggers the release of cortisol by our adrenal gland. This stress hormone hinders the growth of new neurons in our hippocampus therefore preventing the proper storage of new memories into our long term memory chamber.
There have been recent studies that present evidence that letting yourself be subjected to chronic stress can indirectly lead to the death of our cells as well. What really happens is, we just tend to react so severely to our own thoughts, fears, worries and considerations. What we don’t know that this is imprinted with us for hours at a time and gets worse as we attract more of these negative stuff in our head. When everything seems very chaotic, we should learn to stop, let go, think positive and move on.
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How to Beat Stress While Boosting Intelligence
