In this episode of Simple Healthy Life, Ryan and MJ revisit a topic that hits close to home: stress. They explore why even people who know the science still get caught in stress cycles, and how our perception of stress shapes everything—from our health to our behavior.

They unpack the difference between acute and chronic stress, why avoidance can make stress worse, and how tools like breathwork, reflection, and reframing can help us shift out of survival mode. If you've ever said “I’m fine” while feeling the opposite, this one’s for you.

Episode Outline: Understanding and Reframing Stress

1. The Personal Experience of Stress
   – MJ opens with how even those who understand stress can still struggle to recognize and regulate it in real-time.

2. What Is Stress?
   – Stress defined as the body’s response to mental, emotional, or physical challenges.

3. The Role of Adrenaline and Cortisol
   – Discussion on the physiological stress response, including how adrenaline fuels alertness and how cortisol impacts the body long-term.

4. Adrenaline’s Link to Dopamine and Brain Function
   – How dopamine is a precursor to adrenaline and how these neurochemicals influence focus, energy, and performance.

5. Acute vs. Chronic Stress
   – The difference between short-term (hormetic) stress that builds resilience and long-term stress that causes damage.

6. Stress, Inflammation, and Oxidative Damage
   – How chronic stress leads to the buildup of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and contributes to illness and disease.

7. Perception as a Driver of Stress
   – Why how we perceive stress (or a situation) can amplify or reduce its physiological effects.

8. The Power of Reframing and Reflection
   – Emphasis on how changing the story we tell ourselves post-stress can influence future stress responses.

9. Tools for Acute Stress Regulation
   – Practical strategies like extended exhales to quickly downregulate the nervous system.

10. The Consequences of Avoidance
    – Introduction of “confront, avoid, or freeze” as a modern evolution of the fight/flight model.

11. How Avoidance Creates Chronic Stress
    – Avoiding discomfort may feel easier, but it reinforces long-term stress loops and emotional dysregulation.

12. Mindset and the Stress Narrative
    – How beliefs (e.g., “stress is killing me”) can actually increase risk of mortality and worsen outcomes.

13. The Role of Journaling in Stress Awareness
    – Ryan’s personal decision to journal in order to catch avoidance behaviors and reframe emotional experiences.

14. New Perspectives on Health and Disease
    – Exploration of how stress, perception, and mitochondrial dysfunction may be more foundational to chronic illness than previously understood.

15. Redefining Resilience Through Confrontation
    – Emphasis on skill-building through repeated acts of confronting stress, rather than defaulting to escape.