The Connection Magazine The Connection Magazine Spring 2017 | Page 14

STRESS WITH DR. HEIDI HANNA
Your Brain
On Stress
THE HUMAN EPIDEMIC
JUST AS your mind finally exhausts its
relentless efforts to mentally prepare you
for the day ahead, you are jolted awake by
an alarm clock with a groggy awareness:
there is not enough time in the day to get
it all done. This seemingly simple thought
shifts your brain-body chemistry into
a state of survival, energizing only the
most critical elements of your operating
system.
Yet, when moments become
available for us to rest and
recharge, we find ourselves
restlessly stirring, reaching
out for something to “kill
time” even though we
SPRING 2017
complain there is never enough of it to
begin with. Our deep-seated longing for
information, connection and validation
makes technology an open source for our
drug of choice: constant stimulation that
provides a temporary fix to override the
exhaustion we fear will take us down for
good.
“If I do stop, what if I can’t start back up
again?”
Welcome To The Human Energy
Crisis—The Epidemic Of Our Time
We’re running on empty, and the
problem is not that we don’t know what to
do. It’s that we don’t have the energy to put
any simple practices into place. We know
we should eat better. We know we should
move our bodies more regularly. We know
we should get more sleep, take more
breaks and spend more time investing in
meaningful relationships. But what I’ve
learned in over a decade of consulting
with organizations about health and
performance initiatives is that
common sense is certainly
not common practice.
The fact is there is not
enough time in the day to
complete every task that
14