Stress Is Not the Enemy. Living in It Is

Stress Is Not the Enemy. Living in It Is.

By Mohan Bhandari (Beijing, China)

I think often of a student who came to me some years ago, utterly worn out. She could barely sit still for a few minutes — her mind kept racing even as her body begged for rest. She was not looking for another exercise routine. She was looking for a way to stop running from her own thoughts. Over the weeks that followed, as her breath slowed and her shoulders unclenched, I watched something in her quietly settle — something no amount of willpower alone had reached. It is this, again and again in my classes, that has convinced me that stress is not simply something to endure. It is something the body knows how to release, if we give it the right conditions to do so.

How stress begins

Stress is not always harmful. When the brain senses a challenge, the hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland, which signals the adrenal glands — together the HPA axis, the body's emergency system. Within seconds, the adrenals release adrenaline and cortisol.
Short bursts of this help: focus sharpens, strength rises, we perform better under pressure. Normally, once cortisol rises high enough, it signals back to the brain to switch the system off, and the body returns to balance. The trouble starts when this feedback weakens and the alarm keeps ringing. Repeated activation builds allostatic load — cumulative wear on the body — linked over time to metabolic syndrome, weight gain, heart disease, weaker immunity and mental health problems.

External and internal stress

External stress comes from outside us: life changes, work pressure, relationship trouble, money worries, a packed schedule. Internal stress comes from within: chronic worry, perfectionism, negative self-talk, rigid thinking. In my experience, internal stress is the more damaging kind, because it never switches off. You cannot walk away from your own mind.
What adrenaline and cortisol do
Adrenaline prepares the body to fight or run: heart rate and blood pressure rise, breathing turns fast and shallow, muscles tense, digestion slows. In an emergency this saves lives; switched on all day, it brings cardiovascular strain, digestive trouble, stiff muscles and poor sleep.

Cortisol's effects last longer. It raises blood glucose, slows bone formation and suppresses immunity. Chronically high levels are linked to belly fat, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and frequent illness.

How it shows up

• Thinking: poor memory and concentration, poor judgment, racing thoughts, seeing only the negative
• Emotions: low mood, anxiety, irritability, feeling overwhelmed, loneliness
• Body: aches, digestive upset, chest pain, a racing heart, frequent colds
• Behaviour: over- or under-eating, disrupted sleep, withdrawing from people, procrastination, reliance on alcohol or cigarettes

Chronic stress also changes three brain regions: the hippocampus (memory), the amygdala (fear and emotional reactivity), and the prefrontal cortex (decisions and emotional control) — one reason stress feeds anxiety and depression, and why mind and body cannot be separated.

Why yoga works as prevention

Most approaches wait until the damage is done. Yoga works on the system that produces stress, and works best as a daily habit.

Asana and GABA.

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is the nervous system's main calming neurotransmitter — where adrenaline and cortisol excite the system, GABA slows it down, quieting anxiety and racing thoughts. A regular yoga practice has been shown to raise GABA levels and improve mood, while releasing the muscle tension stress creates.
Pranayama and the vagus nerve.
Stress activates the sympathetic "fight or flight" system. Slow, deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic "rest and digest" system — lowering heart rate and blood pressure, reducing inflammation, and improving emotional regulation.

A useful principle: make the exhalation longer than the inhalation, roughly 1:2. Nadi Shodhana, Ujjayi and Bhramari are good places to start.

Meditation and brainwaves.

Active, stressed thinking shows up as beta waves (13–60 Hz); calm alertness as alpha (7–13 Hz); deep relaxation as theta (4–7 Hz); deep sleep as delta (0.1–4 Hz). Regular meditation shifts the mind toward alpha and theta — and experienced meditators show these patterns even outside practice, one reason a steady practice also improves sleep.

Together, these practices can lower cortisol and inflammation, reduce anxiety, and support clearer thinking. Effects vary from person to person — yoga complements medical care, it does not replace it.

Begin tonight

Sit quietly for five minutes. Breathe in for a count of three, out for a count of six. Notice how you feel.

Stress is part of life, but it does not have to control us. Woven into daily life, yoga turns stress from a destructive force into an opportunity for growth — a holistic toolkit for calming the mind, strengthening the body, and nurturing the spirit.

I have taught yoga for over twenty years, in India and abroad, and if there is one lesson it has given me above all others, it is patience with the body's own intelligence. Stress will always find us — this much I have accepted. But yoga has shown me, class after class, that the body knows the way back to balance, if only we make room for it. That, to me, remains the quiet gift of this practice.

<div class="nostops-voices" data-slug="stress-is-not-the-enemy-living-in-it-is"></div>
<script src="https://www.nostops.org/voices/embed.js" async></script>