What do you think are the most effective ways to prevent the negative mental health effects of high-stress jobs?
The most effective way to prevent negative mental health effects from high stress jobs is by reconnecting with the body through breathing exercises, grounding techniques, meditation, mindful movement, and proper nutrition. This will help regulate the mind/body connection and allow for true connection rather than over-regulation.
Transcript: "What do you think are the most effective ways to prevent the negative mental health effects of high stress jobs? I love this question and I'm going to stick with first responders since that's my specialty. In my opinion, the most effective ways to manage this is making sure that we are not neglecting the body. I'm not just talking about diet and exercise here. When we experience high stress situations, it actually encodes in our body the same way that trauma does. It sets off the same series of events within our body as going through something traumatic. The alarm bell goes off, we get into survival mode, cortisol starts pumping, and all kinds of things are going on. As first responders, we've learned to mask all of that that's going on and still do our jobs. Cool as a cucumber. So the most effective ways are going to be reconnecting with our body, making sure that our mind and body are speaking the same language so that we can mitigate those effects. We can do this through breathing exercises, grounding techniques. Meditation has a ton of scientifically proven benefits. Mobility, being really mindful about how we're moving our body, nice and slow, really intentional. And then also nourishing our body in a proper way. Blood sugar regulation, caffeine and nicotine moderation, hydrating, a proper diet. None of those things alone are going to change everything, but incorporating several of those things, you will really start to see a big change. Because only 20% of the mind-body communication is from your brain to your body. 80% of it is from your body to your brain. Regulating is really important, but I always say true connection, mind and body connection over regulation. We're not always going to be regulated. We're human. We don't want to flatline, right? But making sure that we're staying connected, listening to those signals and honoring that."
