In this episode Dr Skelton discusses Stress and the Holidays.  While stress is increased in the Holiday season it is present with us all year long and the techniques he recommends can help at any time and in any situation to help give you the runway to deal with your Cousin Eddie.

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Episode Transcript:

Stress and the Holidays

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.

Welcome to the living life. Well show. I am so glad you're here. And today we're going to talk about stress and the holiday, something nobody ever experiences, right. Well, I know for me personally, , stress is a big deal. , working as an ER doctor every day, my day is different. Probably like a lot [00:01:00] of years. And my world, I go into my work day knowing. I don't know what I'm going to see or how much of it I'm going to see. Everything is unscheduled.

Right? And so whether it is somebody coming in with a stubbed toe or heart attack, a stroke. , or anything in between. I don't know what's coming in that day. I don't know whether I'm going to need band-aids or whether I'm going to need chest tubes. What I do know is I can anticipate. That I'm going to be stressed at some point during the day. And that stress is inevitable, right?

It happens every single day. And so stress in the holidays, unfortunately go hand in hand quite often. And whether it's the stress of travel, the stress of. [00:02:00] Family the stress of staying up late, not sleeping in your own bed or having company in a, whatever that is, or even just the preparations of getting ready to have the holiday. , there's always going to be stressed.

so what I want to do is I want to talk about how we can handle stress and the holiday. So. The number one thing is, Recognize it, recognize that it's inevitable. Even if you don't have a cousin, Eddie in your life, something is going to go, not exactly the way you want it to.

So stress is inevitable. So, so number one, you want to recognize that it's going to happen? Anticipate it. I know when I'm working in the ER, there's something that is going to happen. That's unexpected. That's. What stress is right. So number two. I want you to be grateful. Not thankful. [00:03:00] Okay, so there's a subtle difference.

So Merriam Webster's online dictionary describes thankful as the consciousness. Of benefit received expressive of thanks. Well, pleased. Grateful sound somewhat similar, but it's a little bit different. Appreciative. Of benefits received. You see, it's not just conscious of the benefit received. It is appreciative of the benefits received.

This is kind of the difference between, , somebody, , passing you the salt and you saying thanks. And somebody complimenting you and really. , complimenting you very specifically and not out of a, , rote kind of, , Societal norm. And so you realize that, and you're appreciative of that. It goes on to say that it's expressing [00:04:00] gratitude or fording pleasure or contentment. Pleasing.  Pleasing by reason of comfort supplied, or discomfort alleviated. So gratefulness is when we're seeing that someone has reached down to where we are and they have given a hand up, or they have supplied something that has helped us.  And really, , appreciating that and expressing that is the difference between gratitude and thankfulness.

Thankfulness is you see that something was done, but it isn't affecting you internally. why do we want to be grateful? Why am I even talking about this on a, , Um, how to live life? Well podcast. Well, , the, the reason is multifactorial, but, but quite honestly, the truth tells us to write, , [00:05:00] the Greek word. , and I don't speak Greek, so you'll have to forgive me.

Eucharisteo (You Harris' stay. Oh). Is used and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: rejoice always, pray continually. Give thanks. (Eucharisteo) in all things for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus Strong's exhaustive concordance definition of Eucharisteo. Is to be grateful. To actively express gratitude towards.

so one reason, , to, , express gratitude is because we're told to write. Secondly. So how does being grateful really relate to your health? Well, it can manifest itself physically, mentally, and emotionally. And of course spiritually, because we're, we're told to from the Bible, so physical. Gratitude causes increased levels of dopamine and serotonin. Proven to [00:06:00] activate the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex in imaging studies.

Expressing gratitude. Gives us the feel-good hormones that we so desired. You see dopamine and serotonin are specifically used in cases of anxiety and depression to treat disease. We have medications called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, meaning we are trying to increase the level of serotonin available at the synaptic level, in our brain to help alleviate symptoms of depression. Well, when we're grateful, we are increasing the secretion of serotonin.

When we are grateful, we are increasing the pleasurable effects that we get from dopamine. You know, dopamine is what really kind of drives behavior. Our addiction cycle is driven by dopamine [00:07:00] response. Whether it be food, whether it be, nicotine, whether it be, , alcohol, drugs, sex, whatever it is. , that you're addicted to dopamine drives that behavior even likes on Facebook.

Dopamine and serotonin go hand in hand. And when you create an association with gratefulness. That is a healthy association. Why, why am I saying that it's a healthy association? Well, Not only does it help to increase mood and, , symptoms associated. , with depression or anxiety helps alleviate that it also actually decreases your heart rate.

It can decrease markers of inflammation and blood pressure. It also helps increase the quality of your sleep. Your sleep is so important for recovery and balance on a daily basis.  when you are [00:08:00] sleeping well, you're less likely to be reactionary. You are going to have a more runway, so to speak, , for those cousin Eddie's. , in our life. you want to. , increase your ability to deal with stress and being grateful gives you that runway or margin, if you will, to be able to do that. So. How do we practically. Really show gratefulness, how do we practice that on a daily basis?

And so a few quick ways that, , you can, , be grateful. One is telling. One of the first things I always like my clients to do is to tell God each night their thankfulness tell God in the morning their thankfulness. Is it that you're thankful that you have a soft bed to lie in it. Are you thankful for [00:09:00] the room that you can control the temperature in. So, whatever the case is creating an attitude of true appreciation and gratefulness is going to allow that sleep to get better. It's going to allow those serotonin and dopamine levels to increase, which is going to increase your tolerance for your cousin, Eddie. So start practicing that now, and then, you want to show gratefulness to others..

So when cousin Eddie does come and, , you know, blows up the sewer, You can show gratefulness to cousin Eddie, just for the effort that he made to bring Snots and everybody else with him. So make sure that you are showing gratefulness to others. And the second way that you can do this, as you can write it. You know, journaling about your day or situation, um, that can help. [00:10:00] That is shown to help bring about those physiologic effects, decrease heart rate, blood pressure, and inflammation. To a certain degree. Now, what they see is really affecting it is when you write a letter to somebody, when you are. Expressing that appreciation to someone else and are sending a letter, be it an email, be it a text, be it a, whatever it is, but there is some connection with physically writing it out , as opposed to typing it or sending it in a text message.

So. I would encourage you to write it. And then, , three is make sure they know it. So when you are in person or, , you know, in a situation where you're in front of, , someone make eye contact. , give a physical response that shows gratitude, whether it's an embrace and shaking of the hand. , if you're in prayer a [00:11:00] bow in reverence or your posture in prayer. , these are things that really expresses gratitude and the more gratitude that you are able to express the longer runway you're going to have for those times, when stress does come up, when things don't go your way, when things are a bit difficult.

So I hope this encourages you and I hope and pray that you have a wonderful. , holiday season. And your Thanksgiving is stress-free. Thanks. And God bless

that's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic. com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live [00:12:00] life well.

Redwine, L. S., Henry, B. L., Pung, M. A., Wilson, K., Chinh, K., Knight, B., et al. (2016). Pilot randomized study of a gratitude journaling intervention on heart rate variability and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with stage B heart failure. Psychosom. Med. 78, 667–676. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000316

Jackowska, M., Brown, J., Ronaldson, A., and Steptoe, A. (2015). The impact of a brief gratitude intervention on subjective well-being, biology and sleep. J. Health Psychol. 21, 2207–2217. doi: 10.1177/1359105315572455

The Neuroscience of Gratitude and Effects on the Brain

9 Apr 2019 by Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury, BA 

Scientifically reviewed by William Smith, Ph.D.

Ng, M.-Y., and Wong, W.-S. (2013). The differential effects of gratitude and sleep on psychological distress in patients with chronic pain. J. Health Psychol. 18, 263–271. doi: 10.1177/1359105312439733