Breaking Point: The Science of Stress Explained - September 17, 2025

Hello everyone. Welcome to today's

master class in health sciences. The

breaking point, the science of stress

explained. The goal of ASU master

classes to connect students from our

alliance partner universities around the

world to researchers and professors from

Arizona State University so you can

learn from them no matter where you are.

A sincere thank you to Santana Education

for their sponsorship of these lectures

and to university at Adatana de

Guadalajara for providing Spanish

translation. In today's master class, we

will introduce information on the mental

and physical aspects of stress along

with the long-term effects that

prolonged stress can have on our body.

Our presenter Kristen Hoffner will speak

for about 30 minutes and then we'll have

time for questions. Please use the Q&A

box to submit your questions. This

lecture is being recorded and will be

available to your professors later.

Remember, if you want to hear this

webinar in Spanish, just click the globe

icon below. Now, let's welcome Professor

Hoffner, who is the director of faculty

success and teaching professor of the

College of Health Solutions. Thanks

again for joining us today, Professor.

The rest of the time is yours.

>> Great. Thank you so much.

All right, thank you everybody for being

here. I'm so excited to present to you

today on the science of stress.

So nice to meet you all. Um, as was

stated, my name is Kristen Hoffner. I'm

a teaching professor in the chinesiology

program. I've been at ASU for 22 years

now, and most recently, I have had a

title change. I am the assistant dean of

career track faculty success leading

some of my faculty members. My

background is in sport exercise and

health psychology. And then just a few

things about me. You all can read them

here but I'm a big sports fan. Um we

talk about sports all the time, sports

and exercise. So, I'm really excited to

share a little bit about stress,

physical and mental aspects, and also

the kind of toll it takes on our health

over time with you today.

So, here's our agenda. We will define

stress. Many of you have probably heard

about stress, but maybe you didn't know

that there are forms of both positive or

beneficial stress and negative stress.

We will talk about the general

adaptation syndrome which you may not

have heard of but it is a theory on how

our body responds to and resists stress

over time.

Of course with a lot of stress

resistance comes some health impacts. So

we will look at some of the impacts that

stress has on our overall physical and

mental health. And then we'll move into

some techniques for stress relief,

changed perspectives,

appraisal styles, challenge and threat,

reframing stress from being a bad thing

to maybe a more beneficial thing in our

lives, and then some additional

strategies such as exercise and social

support to end the conversation.

Please put questions in the um Q&A box

so we can address some of your questions

at the end.

So what is stress? You can see here that

it ultimately is a response that occurs

in the body when our demands outweigh

our resources. So this can be very

literal. Exercise is a form of stress.

So if we are in homeostasis or all of

our systems, physiological systems are

at rest and we start to run outside or

on a treadmill that is putting a demand

on our body. So because of this, our

resources must be there to meet those

demands. So our stress response, which

we will look at in a little bit more

depth on the next slide, is activated.

A more perceived form of stress might be

hearing a crash in the next room in your

house or your apartment and you get

nervous. You don't know what it is. That

is perceived threat and our body still

activates ready to what we would call

fight or flee. Maybe you've heard of the

fightor-flight response. So, even though

we're just thinking about a stressor,

our body is still active and prepared

to um take it on or to tackle that

stress. Perceived stress could also be

watching a scary movie. Maybe you've

watched a scary movie and even though

the threat is not real, it's perceived

in your mind and therefore your body is

activated. So all of these perceived and

real stressors

result in that stress response.

So what does the physiological stress

response look like? And there's that

term again, fight or flight. Our body is

physiologically activated to either

fight the beast in front of us or flee

from it. Sometimes you may have heard

fawn or freeze as a part of the stress

response as well. We won't talk about

that much today, but sometimes when

people feel stressed, they freeze and

can't do anything or they become a

people pleaser and they want to do

anything that the other person says. So,

what's going on during this

physiological stress response? Maybe

you've exercised before. Maybe you felt

stressed from watching a movie. Maybe

you felt stressed from a physical

performance or a sport performance.

Maybe you felt stress um when you think

that your opponent is better than you.

This is what's going on. We have an

increased heart rate and breathing rate.

Your body must speed up its

physiological

um resources to meet those demands.

Redirected blood flow. Maybe you felt

that your toes or your fingers get numb

when you're experiencing a stress or

anxious response. That's because the

fingers don't need blood any longer. I

have watched some athletes perform. You

know, I'm a big basketball fan and

before they go to shoot free throws,

they might be doing this with their

hands to try to loosen them up. That's

because if they're having any sort of

stress response or even the stress from

running and sprinting throughout a game

can redirect the blood flow to the major

muscle groups that need it. We have

muscle tension. We have slowed

digestion.

This might be why when you experience a

stress response, you feel kind of sick

or you don't want to eat or you have to

use the bathroom all the time. This is

an adaptation to prepare the body to be

ready to fight or flee. These things all

occur. Again, whether the stress is real

or perceived and over time they can take

a physical toll on the body. Increased

blood pressure is another one of these.

you know, we've got to pump that blood

to the major organs and the major muscle

groups that need it to get us ready to

go.

So, this is another look graphically at

the stress response and what goes on in

our body when we experience that

physiological stress response over time.

So, if we look at the alarm stage, this

is what happens when we experience that

initial response to a stressor. So fight

or flight is active. I think about this.

If you

are driving a car and an animal darts

out in front of it and you have to slam

on the brakes and you're able to stop

and you don't hit the animal, but oh my

gosh, your heart's pounding, right? And

you kind of have to take some breaths to

slow everything down. Fight or flight is

active. Your physiological system spike.

Your body is not worried about resisting

the stress. It's taking that stress on

and then our systems relax. We calm

ourselves down. So if we look at this

blue line, right, where it dips a little

bit, this has to do with our stress

resistance. Our body can handle that

stress. We don't resist it, right? We're

not resisting the stress. We spike and

we lower our response.

if we are in a state of prolonged

stress. So now we're talking some of

that distress that just takes over.

Maybe we're a full-time student and

we're working a job and we've got a

family and we have other

responsibilities at home and we're

constantly feeling stress and pressure.

Well, now our body is wired to resist

that stress. So during the resistance

phase, our body is working on overdrive.

It is actually telling itself that that

new level of hormonal and

neurotransmitter response, that fight or

flight that's happening inside of the

body, that's our normal. So everything

is heightened. Everything is on

overdrive just to respond and keep

ourselves feeling normal. Even though

our body physiologically is on

overdrive,

we can only handle that physically for a

matter of time. Now for some this might

be weeks. For some this might be months

but eventually our body can no longer

resist the stress

right over time and we hit what's called

the exhaustion phase. We see this happen

not only to people that are chronically

stressed out because of things happening

in their lives but also overtrained

athletes. Remember, exercise and

physical activity is a stressor on the

body. And if we don't allow ourselves

time to recover appropriately, rest and

relax, we will hit a stage of

exhaustion. Sometimes this means

burnout.

Often times this means getting sick.

Right? So if you're a student and you've

had to study, study, study, and you have

your final exams and then maybe you have

a break, whether it's summer break or

winter break. Sometimes because you've

pushed through for an entire semester

and not really allowed yourself to rest

and recover, you spend that break time

sick and in bed cuz your body says, "No,

enough is enough, right? You need to lay

down. You need to rest and relax." And

so it puts you into this exhaustion

phase to protect itself.

Just so that we're all aware, we often

approach stress and this has been

mentioned from a biocschosocial

perspective.

So biologically is the physiological

response that we've talked about that

fight or flight. Some people are much

more physically apt to handle stress

than others. Psychological biocsycho

approach is how your mind responds to

stress and some of the thoughts that go

on. And we're going to talk about how to

help this with our appraisal changing

and reframing section. And then of

course social, we can't ignore social is

how our environment, the things

happening around us impact our stress.

And it is very important kind of

skipping ahead to some stress relieving

strategies to set boundaries

and to kind of make decisions for

yourself how much you're going to let

those environmental stimuli in. things

like social media,

things like watching television and

watching the news. You know, sometimes

they're pumping a lot of stressful

things

into you, right? They're telling you to

be scared and to live in fear for all

the things that are going on in the

world. And so those social

relationships, those environmental

stimuli, those can really impact our

stress levels. And it is important to

kind of say no to some of those

environmental stressors when we can.

All right, the fun stuff, but also kind

of sad stuff. You know, if we're not

allowing ourselves to come down from

times of stress, times to recover, you

know, we can uh really experience some

negative health outcomes. So, how does

stress impact health? You see these

boxes here? You know, we'll go through

them pretty quickly. The first one is

poor mental health. Chronic stress is

linked to depression, anxiety, and

burnout. Like mentioned, we can only

resist stress for so long. Eventually,

we hit that exhaustion phase which which

is related to lowered immune system

function, an increase in illness along

with poor mental health and burnout. You

can see cardiovascular disease here.

stress, just constant stress, that body

on overdrive, that physiological

consistent fight or flight is linked to

things like hypertension, heart disease,

and stroke.

Exercise and being a fit individual can

help to offset some of these things.

However, being in a state of constant

stress can um really increase your risk

of different forms of cardiovascular

disease. You see, immune system

dysfunction. And I did just uh refer to

this. Stress impairs immune responses,

increasing susceptibility to infections

and slowing recovery time from acute

illnesses.

Other physiological effects might

include things like GI or

gastrointestinal stomach problems,

things like ulcers, um indigestion. We

talked about how in a consistent state

of fight or flight, your digestion can

slow. So that might be another

physiological effect that is felt if you

are consistently stressed. Pain,

headaches, sleep disturbances,

all of these have a greater toll on the

body and are also aligned with poor

mental health as well.

Unhealthy behaviors. So people who live

in states of chronic stress or who

experiences experience a lot of stress,

they may engage in other behaviors that

are not healthy to the body. They might

increase their use of substances, things

like alcohol and cigarettes and other

drugs. They might um eat more poorly,

right? They might not sleep. We already

talked about how stress can impact sleep

disturbances. So, sleep behaviors might

be changed. Maybe they socially withdraw

and maybe they limit their exercise. So

people that are very stressed may

actually indirectly affect their health

through other health behaviors. And then

we have this box of social withdrawal

here. Um we can't ignore that people who

are consistently stressed sometimes, not

everybody, but sometimes they withdraw

from their social networks, their

family, their friends, they just want to

be alone. They say no to a lot of

things. This can be incredibly

problematic because one of the um

biggest resources for handling stress is

actually reaching out to friends and

family. So, it's kind of this issue

where you need them, but because you're

stressed, you withdraw. And it is

something to recognize if you're

experiencing those sorts of feelings.

So, what do we do? I'm telling you all

of these things that really indicate

that stress is bad, but everyone's going

to experience stress. So, what if we

shifted our viewpoint? We can understand

and be aware of the negatives that

stress um can present to us and the

negative health effects it can have, but

we're all going to experience it. So,

how can we shift our mindset to actually

protect the body?

Well, first we should understand that

not all stress is bad. Distress is the

term for the stress that usually is

related to kind of those negative

feelings. The stress that we think about

when we think of the word

ustress on the other hand is actually

bene beneficial stress and activation.

So if you look at this inverted U

graphic below the stress continuum, you

see in the green the stress that's kind

of activating us,

right? Good stress. Maybe you're

somebody who actually gets more done the

more they have to do. I'm one of those

people. Maybe you're an athlete and you

really need a lot of intensity and

activation to get to your optimal level

of performance. All of these things are

indicators of ustress.

Maybe excitement and good things

activate your fight or flight. That's

ust stress, right? So you see here that

good forms of stress can actually

increase our healthy levels of tension.

It can make us motivated and more

focused. However, that only goes for so

for so long, right? Too much can then

bring us over into the distress area

where our performance starts to suffer.

If we can start to view a lot of our

stress as being activating

instead of scary, it can really do a lot

for our physiological stress response.

That brings us to this idea of appraisal

styles and reframing. If we can shift

our way of thinking about stress, it can

really do a lot for us. So, the first

thing I'm going to address is appraisal

style. You can see up here in the first

green box that there are two main styles

that we talk about today. The first one

is challenge appraisal and the second

one is threat appraisal. So because I'm

a sports psychologist I talk about this

a lot when it comes to competing.

Two athletes going out I'm was a

basketball player so going out to the

basketball court that always comes

easily to me in terms of stories and

explanations.

One athlete looks at the other team and

says, "Oh my gosh, I'm not ready for

this. Look at how big they are. Look at

how strong they are. We aren't prepared.

I feel threatened."

Think about what that does to your

physiological stress response and what

that might do to performance, which

usually means it's going to go down,

right? That is a threat appraisal. The

other athlete looks at the same team,

the same opponent, and says,"Oh my gosh,

sure, they're big and strong, but I

can't wait to take on this challenge.

I'm so excited to test my skills against

this other team. I'm ready for this."

Two athletes, two different appraisal

styles. Think about what athlete number

two with the challenge appraisal style,

seeing that same situation as a

challenge rather than a threat. what

that does for their level of

physiological stress response, their

fight orflight. They're actually getting

activated in a way that's bringing them

up to their peak performance level. It's

you stress. It's let's go. This is

exciting.

Let's talk about reframing feelings. We

all feel the same way when we're in

fight or flight. Maybe you've been asked

to public speak. Not everybody likes

public speaking. And you stand up in

front of a group and your heart starts

to pound.

And then your mind starts to spiral

because oh my gosh, you have a pounding

heart. That means you're not ready for

this. Well, that's one way to appraise

that or to think about that same

physiological sensation. Or we could

say, "My beating heart means I'm

energized. This is good. This means I'm

alive. I'm prepared to meet the

challenge in front of me."

I talk about this with athletes all the

time. your muscle tension, your

breathing rate, your heart. That is your

body getting ready to challenge, to

battle, to compete. These are good

symptoms.

I ask you to think about yourself and

think about if you like to perform

with butterflies in your stomach. If you

know that feeling, right, that's fight

or flight. I love that feeling. Some

people get nervous from that feeling or

it's because of nerves. I'm telling

myself, "Wow, when I feel that feeling,

that means I'm ready. My body's active."

This is just a perspective shift. It

takes practice. You have to repeat these

things to yourself all the time in order

to truly believe it. But starting to

view those symptoms as being activating

and good. And starting to view stressful

situations as being just bring it on,

it's just another challenge. lets go can

really do a lot for your physiological

stress response. So, a few slides back

when we looked at the general adaptation

syndrome, it actually allows you to stay

down at that more baseline level. Your

body does not activate as much. You

don't have to resist as much because

you're not perceiving it as highly

stressful.

Okay. our thought processes, our

reframing, our appraisal changing.

That's really tool number one. But what

else can we do to help manage our

stress? Two big categories.

Unfortunately, today I'm not necessarily

going to talk about things like deep

breathing and meditation. Although these

are all great techniques, we are going

to talk about exercise and social

support. And then we're also going to

take a little bit of time to talk about

how useful exercise is in buffering

other instances of stress. It's called

cross stressor tolerance. It's tough to

say. Crossstressor tolerance.

I have a whole course on this that I

teach to my undergraduate students. The

use of exercise for stress and mental

health. So this is just a few slides,

right? I talk about this stuff for a

full semester. But exercise has a very

strong evidence base to support its use

as a stress reliever. And not only a

stress reliever, but fit people, people

with high levels of fitness can actually

handle stress better in the world.

That's our crossstressor tolerance. So

the question becomes why? And on this

slide, I'm showing you a couple

categories of the why. The first

category is physiological mechanisms.

And I've got to say, we research this a

lot because if we want to recommend or

prescribe exercise for mental health

conditions such as depression and

anxiety

alongside medication and alongside

psychotherapy, we've got to show that it

physiologically works like a medication

for some of these mental illnesses. So,

what does exercise do? It helps with

hormonal regulation. So, it actually

regulates the stress hormone cortisol.

which relates to that HPA axis

regulation bullet point number two and

it increases our endorphins which really

ultimately are feel-good chemicals.

So hormonal regulation when we exercise

these things are stimulated and

regulated to help our physiological

stress response regulate HPA axis

regulation or modulation. The HPA

accesses the physiological sympto sorry

system that's involved in our physical

stress response.

Regular and acute exercise can improve

regulation which helps to lower our

physical stress re reactivity.

Neurotransmitter release. When we

exercise things like serotonin and

dopamine are elicited into the brain and

bloodstream. These are stress relieving

hormones. They also help with mood

change. We see reduced inflammation

which can help with our immune system

function. Remember stress suppresses our

immune system function. Exercise can

help improve it and also brain

adaptation which is great for all sorts

of mood um aspects and cognitive

function. So when we exercise we

increase our neuroplasticity.

We increase our uh creation neurogenesis

of new brain cells.

um and it may restore healthy brain

function in regions involved in stress

and emotion regulation.

So physiologically exercise is doing

great things for us and internally it is

really helping combat some of the

negatives of the stress response.

Psychological mechanism. So a little bit

different. This is where a reframing and

appraisal changing comes in. Exercise

can serve as a distraction. It can help

us feel more confident. It can help us

feel more resilient because we've been

able to push through in an exercise

setting. We can push through in other

settings. It may increase or improve our

social support. We talked about mood

changes. It improves our view of

perceived behavioral control, which can

help us feel more control of our lives

and schedules. And for some, simply

exercising can help us. Um,

well, simply exercising, if we believe

it's going to help our stress, it can.

That's an expectancy effect.

It's like a placebo effect.

So, what types of things should I do?

What types of things will help me when

I'm exercising?

Um the biggest things that we see that

are the most beneficial is aerobic

exercise which are things like running,

swimming, biking, walking, yoga and

combined aerobic and resistance training

which are things like weights. It should

be moderate to vigorous activity. And

then the most important thing and we see

this for any aspect of exercise and mood

regulation, depression, anxiety, stress

is that you need to be consistent. So,

you've got to find something that you

like to do. We got to do it regularly

and it can really help with that stress

response.

Here's that cross stressor tolerance

that I've been talking about. Chronic

exercise training has been shown to not

only improve the body's response to

physical stress such as exercise, but it

also enhances your ability to respond to

other stressors, stressors outside of an

exercise setting. Although this isn't an

unequivocal finding, right, we do see

that this is mixed. There's a lot of

reasons for that that I won't get into

today.

Physiological adaptations, becoming more

fit. I think we could tune into some of

the psychological adaptations like

having a better sense of control, better

self-efficacy, better self-confidence,

and also increasing resilience.

challenge appraisals, those sorts of

things that are developed and fostered

in an exercise setting can transfer to a

stress response outside of that same

setting,

to a beneficial improved stress response

outside of that same setting.

The last thing we're going to talk about

is social support. So research does show

that social support can help to what we

would say buffer the negative impacts of

stress. It doesn't take them away

entirely, but it can help lower the

physiological and mental impacts of

stress. And we'll see a graphic

depiction of this in just a moment.

When we feel support and like we have a

lot of people on our side, it actually

does shift our threat appraisal.

Research shows that we view more

opportunities that could be potentially

stressful as challenges. And I'll say

that word again, opportunities instead

of threats to our self-image or our

self-worth.

We're going to talk about the direct

effects and buffering hypothesis when we

look at this graphic representation, but

just so that we're prepared for the

slide that's coming next. The direct

effects hypothesis of social support and

stress proposes that social support

helps to lower stress. Whether that

stress is low, just a few annoyances or

high. You're dealing with a lot of

things on a lot of different levels. The

buffering hypothesis, however, says that

social support can help lower any

stress, but it's even more beneficial in

times of high stress. There isn't

necessarily one that's right or wrong,

but I urge you to think about how social

support works in your life when you

experience stress.

So this is the article from 1985 where

this was um you know looked at and they

did a review and this is what they came

up with in terms of a graphic

representation of the direct effects and

buffering hypothesis.

So the first graphic you can see graphic

A.

This is the direct effects hypothesis.

With low social support, our stress goes

from low to high. And with high social

support, it just lowers it a little bit.

Times of low stress, it's equidistant

from how much it helps in times of high

stress. It does lower our stress,

but equally regardless of how much

stress you're experiencing.

This is one graphic representation in

graph B of the buffering hypothesis. So

in low stress it doesn't really make an

impact, but in high stress, high social

support makes an impact. And oh my gosh,

in version C,

high social support helps demonstrabably

more in times of high stress versus low

stress. It actually makes you feel like

you're experiencing low stress, even if

it's a time of extremely high stress.

So the big takeaway from this is that

social support can be very important and

helpful. You know, reach out, don't

withdraw, reach out in times of stress.

So to summarize, this is kind of our

summary slide tying this all together.

Just little reminders of what we've

covered today. Stress can come from

physical, mental, and environmental

sources. So be aware of some of your

stressors, some of your triggers so that

we can mentally prepare if and when we

encounter those. The physiological

stress response can negatively impact

our health if it is prolonged.

Everyone's going to experience stress.

How can we take breaks from it? How can

we allow ourselves times to relax and

recover?

One way that we can impact these effects

is through shifting our appraisal style

and reframing our stress and what it

means. not only viewing ourselves as

powerful and being able to take on a lot

of stress, but also reframing what those

physiological symptoms mean. A beating

heart means that we're activated and

ready.

And exercise and connecting with friends

and family can really be important in

not only buffering stress, but also

helping us handle stress in the future.

Exercise and social support can not only

buffer our stress but shift our

appraisal style, help us be more

prepared to reframe when we encounter

stress in the future.

I really appreciate you all listening to

this talk. So I want to thank everybody

for being in attendance and I know that

we now have some time for questions. So

thank you so much.

Thank you, Professor Hoffner, for your

thought-provoking lecture. I want to

remind the audience to continue to

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through the Q&A function. We will answer

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All right, now some time for some

questions. We got a few questions. Um

first,

so we're looking at the connection

between tendency to be stressed and

psychology. Are there some people who

are more prone to being stressed

naturally?

>> More prone to being stressed naturally.

That's an interesting question. Um I do

think that there are a variety of things

that impact our stress response. So

dependent upon your experiences you know

in any time of your life but

particularly your youth uh maybe some of

us have gone through traumatic

experiences some of those past

experiences are now wired in our body.

So even if you approach a situation and

mentally you don't think it's going to

be stressful our subconscious connects

it to a past experience and activates

fight or flight to protect you. So when

you say predisposed based on your past

experiences, yes, some people are more

um active and activated.

Personalitywise, I don't know if you've

heard of type A or type B personality,

but type A personality by nature is just

higher, anxious, and anxiety and stress

are a little bit different, but they

have the same physiological response. So

why I always explain it as a type A

person is kind of living life at a seven

out of 10 and a type B person is kind of

living life at a three out of 10. So

yes, predisposition to kind of

experience stress and and have less

stress send them over the edge or over

that you into distress.

Yes, if you're high type A, all of this

to say, you know, you can understand

these tendencies. Awareness is key and

you can work on some of these

tendencies. Some traumatic um brain

responses really do need to be handled

with a professional, with a clinician,

uh with a psychotherapist, potentially

with medication. Um even type A high

anxious personality can be handled with

a with a clinician, right? Whether

that's medical or psychotherapy,

but you can definitely reframe and

retrain your thoughts to help manage

high type A personality and high

anxiety.

Did that cover some of it?

>> Excellent. No, that was great. Uh, this

actually leads into another question.

Um, can too much stress turn into

distress? Uh, and where is the line

between those two?

>> Yeah, that's a great question between

distress and you stress. I mean, a lot

of it is perspective.

Um,

a lot of it is perspective. So, there

isn't a black and white line because it

depends on how the individual handled

it. So, I can just give examples in my

own life. Granted, I talk about these

things every day and I've been

practicing self-t talk and appraisal

changing and reframing for 25 years of

my life. But we over this past year in

my family have gone through

quite a few very large stressful life

experiences. And when I talk to people

about them and can still do my job and

you know I I would say handle them

fairly well even though I do experience

stress that is because I practice all of

these skills all the time. And I've had

friends tell me, "Oh my gosh, I couldn't

imagine or I can't believe what you go

through or or how you've handled this."

And you know, ultimately it's my

perspective. I really do see it as a

bring it on, you know, like let's handle

more. We can do it. So, um, I don't know

the line. It does depend on you as an

individual, but I want to make sure that

you as an individual start to kind of

figure out what your breaking point is

and take a break. So, I get told quite

often from my bosses, I'm going to have

a great support system at work. They're

telling me, you know, let us know if you

need a day off or let us know how we can

help you. And I tell them, I will,

right? I I will. I'll listen to myself,

but, you know, not yet. So, that's

that's kind of the nice thing about

social support, but also really knowing

your own tendencies. And if I was

overdoing it or feeling like I was going

to burn out, I would take their advice

and take some time for myself. And I did

see a few things in the Q&A um of people

mentioning their high levels of stress.

And you know, all I can say is you have

to know yourself and what you can handle

and when you do need to set a boundary

or take a break. I've known students

that have taken a break from school

because they've hit that breaking point.

I've known students that have just

reorganized or rep prioritized things,

shifted their mindset about things,

taken things in smaller chunks, set

different goals. So there isn't a

one-sizefits-all. It does depend on the

individual.

>> Excellent. Thank you for that. U maybe

looking at a more specific example of

stress or an outcome of stress um

looking at hyperventilation. Is there a

best way that you've read about or know

about um to calm and solve

hyperventilation?

>> Yes. Um, as I said during the talk, I

didn't really get into other sorts of

relaxation techniques, but breathing

for my athletes, for people that are

physically performing, for people who

are experiencing physiological aspects

of the stress response is number one

because not only is it going to help

calm the mind, you can focus on your

breathing, you can count with your

breathing, it starts to calm the body as

well. So hyperventilation,

you know, usually that's too much

breathing, right? You're overdoing it.

Um, when it comes to hyperventilation

specifically, I often work with people

on some grounding techniques. So, we'll

maybe look each other in the eyes. So,

I'll have them focus on me. We'll talk

about things in the room. We'll say, "Do

you see the floor?" You know, "Look at

the the brown floor. Do you see the

walls? Do you see that picture on the

wall?" And we really try to center them

in some of those situations. You know,

I've had athletes hyperventilate when

they're performing and in an athletic

performance. So, we try to get them

focused, breathe in through the nose,

out through the mouth, do some counting,

do some mental distraction techniques to

start to calm the body.

I don't know that that's going to work

every time, but those are probably my

go-tos in those situations.

>> Excellent. Thank you for that. Mhm.

>> Another question. Um,

so looking at external factors related

to bringing on stress. Uh, we have a

question about relating it to parents.

Maybe parents are stressful or family

members make things stressful. Um, h how

do you kind of negate that stress um

when it's such a personal relationship?

>> Absolutely. And that's really

challenging. Um, my biggest

recommendation there,

it's cliche, is control the

controllables.

So, unfortunately, so much of our stress

comes from outside sources, um, coaches,

parents, teachers, and ultimately the

only thing we can control is ourselves.

So, maybe it's your routines on okay,

you know, I I know that my parents are

asking for this or I know that my

coaches are asking for this. How am I

going to make this manageable for me?

Right? I know that my boss is asking for

this. So, routines are one of our most

controllable things, you know,

controlling our schedule, managing our

time, controlling our self-t talk,

things that we say to ourselves, you

know, and I'm going to kind of take this

aside, but one of the things that I

think connects these pieces is emotional

management.

So, I tell my students and and

colleagues and people I work with all

the time that we need to be really

selfish when it comes to our emotional

energy. And we have to be really selfish

about who we give it to. You know, I

mentioned earlier about social media and

the news. You know, no, they don't get

my energy today. I don't have enough for

them, right? I'm not going to sit and

look at social media or give maybe my

parents, even though it's a close

personal relationship, that energy

today. They can say what they need to

say to me and then I'm going to protect

my energy and go and channel it in ways

that are more productive. This is a

practice

wrapped up in it. When you did this,

right, you made me feel, you made me

feel this way, you said this, you made

me feel this way, you made me get angry,

you made me get stressed. Just a little

shift.

You said that not you about that today.

I'm not saying that affect you but

manage it right protect your energy

hopefully. Um thank you is another

question we have um difference in

traditional stress and post-traumatic

stress um and how can different

strategies be applied for both of those.

>> I mean yes yes is a short answer. So if

you're going to say traditional stress

right life annoyances things that fill

up

um you know sudden changes some people

you know don't do well with change. So

all of a sudden you have a change in

schedule or something gets dropped on

your plate that you weren't expecting.

You know those I would say would fit

under that guise of traditional stress

or category of traditional stress. you

know then there's major life stressors

um diagnosis you know medical stress or

you know tragedy or loss I mean these

are major life stressors that still

might fit under the umbrella of

traditional I guess if we're from

but it's going to be a little bit

different and there are some different

strategies to be on how it's impacting

you and then we have post-traumatic

stress which PTSD is a disorder So,

post-traumatic stress disorder and

[snorts] something I mentioned earlier

in terms of people that are predisposed

to have more reactivity or more of a

stress response, a lot of that is rooted

in PTSD.

So, if maybe you've noticed that in

yourself, all someone has to say is this

one little thing and and it just

skyrockets your physiological symptoms,

it's because somewhere that's that's

rooted in in bad. Your body says, "Nope,

that's a threat. This was bad before.

it's going to be bad again and that PTSD

is hardwired. So for PTSD, in order to

truly solve it, usually you need some

sort of clinical intervention, right? So

finding someone that you trust, working

through some of those past things that

have happened to really start to rewire.

You have to rewire your brain and your

and your stress response system. Um, so

I'd say that would be the biggest

difference. You know, with traditional

stressors generally, you can kind of

handle those with some of the strategies

that we talked about. But with PTSD,

it's working through kind of some

hardwired stress response that's related

to trauma.

>> We have a lot of questions um about,

you know, there's super stressed out

uh and they see these strategies such as

exercise

um but they feel like they don't have

the time for it. Do you have uh any

suggestions for them?

You know, that's a great one. Um, one

thing I tell both myself and others is

that, well, one, exercise is just

healthy for you in general. And when I

say exercise, I mean movement. So, this

could be just taking a quick walk. This

could be listening to things that you're

studying, maybe in headphones while

you're just walking. This does not have

to be like an hour of intense training

in a gym. So, so movement versus

exercise, right? So, just moving is good

for our bodies. We should be doing that

regardless time or not.

When I talk to people about fitting

exercise into their schedule, because I

talk a lot about motivation for

exercise.

Sometimes exercise is adding to the

stress. It's doing a disservice. And for

myself, if I'm experiencing some of

those times, I cut the exercise out. I

still try to move. Maybe I try to take

the stairs instead of the elevator on a

certain day or walk to class and do an

extra block. Right? We're not talking

major exercise programming, but if

fitting in exercise is actually making

me more stressed, I take breaks. So,

that's kind of suggestion number one.

Um,

number two is really looking at your

kind of your time management and what

you can cut and what you can change. And

there are kind of seasons where exercise

might not be fitting in, but how can we

reframe what it means to exercise? So,

just kind of going back to what I said,

this does not have to be intense

programming. This could just be a few

push-ups, you know, maybe just some

strength training that's easy that you

can do first thing in the morning or

maybe walking instead of driving

somewhere. Um, and maybe [clears throat]

that can help.

>> But I get it.

>> It's

another question. Um, how do you how do

you handle work pressure and stress past

workload?

>> Yeah, that's a great question. I've

become a very good delegator, but I

don't know if that fits everyone's

scenario. Um,

I've had to do a few things. One is make

sure I'm really managing my time

effectively, including rest time. So,

it's allowing myself to rest. It doesn't

mean that everything's going to get done

in exactly the same timeline that

everybody wants. Which segus me into

number two. Depending on what I have

going on, some things take precedence

and priority and some things get bumped.

So with a very large workload, I often

think of myself as just putting out

fires like what's due tonight, what's

due tomorrow. Those things take

priority. Other things get pushed off. I

have to talk to people. I'm an

overcommunicator. So hey, this is what's

happening in my life. This has to get

bumped. Is that okay? And you'll find

that nine times out of 10, people will

work with you. So, I used to get really

panicked about not getting things done

to someone else's schedule and timeline.

And then I just kind of let it go and

would just ask for extensions or ask for

help. Now, you have to use that wisely.

I'm not someone that's asking for an

extension once a week in every area of

my job demands. But, you know, when it

comes down to it, I'm I'm I'm an

overcommunicator and I do reach out for

help. I see if people can take things

off of my plate. I try to work with

groups whenever I can and maybe that can

help to um eliminate some of the

pressure on just me and then I just have

had to let it go and say, you know what,

everything's not always going to get

done by that deadline and it's okay if

it's a couple days late.

>> Thank you. How can we differentiate

between a healthy level of stress that

motivates us and stress that becomes

harmful?

Again, I think that that is up to the

individual.

And I also think it's up to kind of how

you're feeling.

Um,

you know, a healthy level of stress

that's going to be motivating is is very

individualized and it depends on how

your body and your mind is handling it.

And then one it gets once it gets into

the kind of that I I always think of my

life in use but kind of over that hump

and you're starting to spiral you have

to notice it and you have to change

something. So again there isn't an exact

answer

but maybe it's checking in with yourself

and hey can I think about this a little

bit differently rather than thinking

about this as oh my gosh this is the

worst. Can I just say this is this is a

part of it. You know I'm in the thick of

it. I'm in I'm a student right now. I

tell myself that all the time. This is

just the season, right? Like in my job,

March, March is a really rough month.

And I just go into it saying, you know

what? This is the season. It's going to

be stressful. I'm going to have to maybe

cut some other things. But it just is

what it is.

And then when I find myself maybe

experiencing it a little bit too much,

maybe I reschedule a meeting, maybe I

cancel something, maybe I don't do that

again social event. As long as you're

not fully withdrawing from all of your

social companions. Um, it's a it's a rep

prioritization based on how you are

feeling. But otherwise, I don't I don't

know. You gota you have to know that for

yourself. Tune in. Check in with

yourself. I make my students journal. I

make my students write it down. And you

know, even if you're not aware of what's

going on, if you start to write about

it, sometimes it's like, "Oh my gosh,

I've been really hard on myself lately."

Or, "Oh my gosh, my heart's just

pounding out of my chest all the time. I

didn't realize that was attached to just

doing too much at once." I mean, check

in with yourself. You got to know your

symptoms and your tendencies.

>> Excellent.

Another question we have from Garve is,

"Does psychology play an important role

in shaping our indiv individuality or

future?"

>> Yes, psychology plays an important role

in pretty much everything we do. Um, and

I say psychology in terms of mindset.

Yes, it's all individualized in case you

haven't gotten that from this talk yet.

Right. Every person's different. You

have to know yourself and your own

tendencies. How does it shape your

future? I mean, your outlook

shapes everything from your level of

motivation, your level of discipline,

um your stress response, right? How how

how reactive your body is. If you view

everything as a threat and as a negative

and as more of a pessimistic outlook,

your body's active, right? Your body

doesn't know the difference between a

real and perceived threat. So, if you've

decided that this new class that you're

taking is going to be the worst ever, or

you just got this new job and oh my

gosh, it's going to be awful. You just

know it. Your body responds to that. If

you take that same situation and say,

"Oh my gosh, I'm so thankful this for

this opportunity and I might not know

anything yet, but I will know

something." Your body starts to release

that stress. It's very individualized

and very much impacts your future and

also the things you take on and say yes

to, right? If we're too stressed and

maybe psychologically really hard on

ourselves, we may say no to more things.

We may be scared to take new

opportunities and take risks. And if you

can shift your psyche to say, you know

what, mistakes are okay. I don't need to

be a perfectionist. Everything's going

to work out. Can I add one thing? What

time is it? There's a part in the brain

called the reticular activating system.

reticular activating system

that when we set a goal, when we kind of

rest in a viewpoint or a value, that

part of the brain filters our world to

confirm that goal or that value. Let me

give you an example. If we decide that

we're going to have a good day, it's

going to be a good day today. We wake up

in the morning, it's going to be a good

day. that turns on the RA

and we will take in cues in our

environment that confirm that today is a

good day because guess what? You're

never wrong. Your brain does that for

you. So, I'm going to see that that

person on the street let me in rather

than the person that cut me off. I'm

going to see that the person at the

coffee shop smiled at me and said hello

rather than the person that slammed the

door in my face and then I had to go get

the door. If we decide it's a good day,

the brain shows us cues that make that

our reality. Think about that on the

other side. If we decide it's going to

be a bad day, if we decide this job is

going to be really too hard for us, if

we decide this class is going to be

awful and too hard, our brain says,

"Okay, you're going to be right." And

our brain will filter the world to show

us cues that support that we're not

ready for this, that we're not smart

enough, that we're not prepared, because

that's what we keep telling ourselves.

Oo, it's deep. It works. I'm telling

you, turn the turn the RA on in a

positive and beneficial way. We can't

take in everything around us all the

time. I'll give you one quick example.

Think about simple stuff like a car.

Long, long time ago, I bought a car. It

was used. It was a blue Honda Civic. I

thought it was so special. I didn't

think anyone else had it in the world.

And then I drove it off the lot and I

noticed that every single human being

where I live in Phoenix, Arizona, had

the car. I saw it everywhere. I saw it

there. I saw it there. I saw it there. I

had no idea. My mind was blown. I was

like, "Where did this car come from?"

It's because the day before I didn't

value it. My reticular activating system

was not turned on to that car. And then

the day after I thought it was great. It

was something I valued and all of a

sudden I saw it everywhere. My brain did

that for me automatically. That's how it

works in your life as well.

>> Excellent. Thank you for that example.

We appreciate it. Another question. Uh,

and we're getting close to time, so

we'll probably only be able to answer

one or two more. Um, this person

mentions they have lived in a fight

orflight survival mode for a long time.

Um, what is your advice for getting out

of it and not letting it run your life?

Yeah, you know, again, I'll just say

that there are seasons and we can't ever

talk about these perspectives and talk

about these topics without also really

recognizing that there are times of life

where people are in survival mode, and

I've had plenty of them. Um, I will just

go back to starting to shift

perspective.

Some of that fight or flight as a part

of survival mode is for survival. your

body's active because you have to get

through all of the things that you're

getting through. But I urge you, you

know, when can you rest or recover?

Maybe that's open to perspective as

well. I used to count my rest and

recovery time during a commute. And if

you don't know what a commute, that was

like driving. I was a basketball coach

and it would take me about an hour to

get to practice and back, meaning an

hour each way every day. I hated it. I

was in traffic. I was angry. I was mad.

I was annoyed. And then one day I said,

"You know what? This hour each way is

going to be my my me time. It's going to

be my relax time." And I would listen to

music. And I had to turn that time into

my time to relax. Whereas the week

before it was my time to be active and

be angry and have my heart pounding and

be in a state of fight or flight. It

wasn't fun in reality, but I had to tell

myself it was my time so that I could

kind of trick myself and my body into

thinking that that was my my me time, my

relaxation time. So, I urge you to find

those moments, whether they're 20

minutes when you can just sit and

decompress. Um, whether it's shifting

the different things that you have to do

into an I get to do. I do that a lot. I

get to do this stuff. I get to go to

work. I get to work with students. Still

a lot of work, but it's a it's a shift

in mindset. I I just I want to

appreciate that everyone's life is

different and survival mode is real, but

wow, if if we can find those little

moments to be able to tune out, relax,

and shift our thinking about all of

those have to, it may be helpful.

>> And then last question, uh so you

mentioned stress on sports. Are you

aware of any current method to track uh

stress for athletes whether that's

professional or more intramural?

>> Um I mean there are methods to track

stress. There's also methods a lot of

when we talk about ustress and distress

and that inverted you relationship. We

actually call it intensity management or

arousal management in the sport

literature. But what we're looking at is

an optimal zone physically like my heart

rate, my breathing rate, my muscle

tension to get me to my peak

performance. And every sport is

different too and every person is

different, right? But where should I be

to get to my peak performance and what

is too much? So, while we can track

stress through questionnaires and

through some of those physiological

symptom markers, what we're really

curious about with a sport setting is,

okay, how activated do we need to be for

that person to have their peak

performance? And I'll just add,

everyone's different. When I played

basketball, I wanted to be at like an

eight out of 10, meaning physiologically

amped up. I would get beat up before

every game. I would get in this little

huddle and all my teammates would pummel

me. It's a little bit weird. had to do

with personality and activation needs to

perform and play. Whereas my teammate,

my point guard, would sit with

headphones in rocking by herself,

bringing herself down in order to hit

her peak performance. So, we do monitor

some of that um depending on the level.

Triathletes do it a lot. Where does my

heart rate need to be at the end of the

bike versus the run versus the swim? And

they can manage that through what's

called BOF feedback. So, if you do want

to look into um the evidence, BOF

feedback is a good key term.

>> Well, excellent. Once again, thank you

so much, Professor Hoffner, for your

time and valuable insights. I'm going to

um switch this back to our

feedback form. Again, please um please

scan this, fill it out. We'd love to

hear from you guys learning about new

topics, how this one went. Um but that

is all for today. Thank you guys so much

for being here. We appreciate y'all and

thank you again, Professor Hoffner.