#1 Stress Doctor: 5 Tools to Protect Your Brain From Stress & Feel Calmer Now

After today, you will never think about stress the same way again.

You’ll learn exactly what to do to take control of your stress, stay calm under pressure, and find instant relief.

Harvard’s Dr. Aditi Nerurkar is here today to explain stress and how it relates to your body and brain. 

Dr. Aditi is a medical doctor, researcher, and world-renowned expert in stress and public health. 

She's a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and was the medical director of Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital's integrative medicine program, where she developed an enormous clinical practice in stress management using evidence-based integrative approaches to help her patients feel better. 

Today, she is going to give you a reimagined approach to overcoming your stress and burnout using five small but mighty mindset shifts.

These mindset shifts are free, backed by science, and can be applied to your life starting today.

By the time you finish listening, you will feel uplifted, empowered, and inspired to rest your stress, rewire your brain, move out of survival mode, and start thriving again.

If you liked this research-packed episode, your next listen should be Mel’s conversation with Dr. Tara Swart, MD, PhD: The #1 Neuroscientist: After Listening to This, Your Brain Will Not Be the Same

In this episode:

• 1:40: If you want to feel physically, emotionally, and mentally better?
• 3:54: If you feel like you are running on fumes, you need to hear this. 
• 6:06: Scientifically speaking, what is stress and how does it affect our bodies? 
• 8:26: Can stress ever be healthy for you?
• 10:22: 70% of people are feeling burnt out, here’s why. 
• 13:30: Do this one exercise if you want to understand stress better.
• 15:17: Your brain and your body need a reset, and it doesn’t happen automatically. 
• 19:58: What happens to your inner critic when you feel stressed. 
• 20:42: Why do we doom scroll when feeling stressed. 
• 23:08: The real reason you want to “emotionally eat.”
• 25:34: What revenge bedtime procrastination is, and how you can stop. 
• 28:06: How Dr. Aditi assesses stress with her patients. 
• 30:50: How to physically and mentally get out of survival mode. 
• 33:44: How to find a reason to feel less stressed. 
• 36:35: Do you feel angry when stressed out?
• 37:45: What popcorn brain is and how it keeps you hyper stimulated. 
• 39:42: It’s time to start creating boundaries with our phones. 
• 41:45: What is the best hack for getting off your phone? 
• 45:52: What to do starting tonight to get a better night of sleep. 
• 48:24: Dr. Aditi’s rule of 2 when trying to lower stress levels. 
• 50:02: One positive change will change your life, backed by science. 
• 52:32: The scientific reason you need to know about the mind-body connection. 
• 54:26: How breathing can transform your mental state immediately. 
• 57:02: Finally understanding the brain gut connection and how it impacts mood. 
• 59:07: What the #1 stress doctor does for daily movement. 
• 1:04:12: The alarming statistics around sitting for long periods of time. 
• 1:07:34: The BIGGEST myth about productivity. 
• 1:09:28: The only breathing technique you need in your life.  
• 1:14:02: Gratitude journaling actually works, but it doesn’t need to feel hard. 
• 1:18:34: What is the most important thing you need to take from this conversation?

Resources:

• Dr. Aditi’s book, The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience
• Dr. Aditi’s website.
• Dr. Aditi’s at Harvard.  
• Dr. Aditi’s Instagram.

• Psychology Today: Why trying to relax can make you more anxious.
• CNBC: 7 toxic signs of someone addicted to drama
• Psych Central: Are you addicted to stress?
• The New York Times: The ‘busy’ trap.
• Scientific American: Why your brain needs more downtime.
• Harvard Health: Exercising to relax.
• PBS News Hour: The human brain never stops growing neurons
• Current Obesity Reports: The effects of chronic social stress on obesity
• Nutrients: Magnesium status and stress
• American Psychological Association: Making mindset science work in the real world
• The New Yorker: The Surprising Psychology Of Names And Labels 
• The New York Times: Where We Are Shapes Who We Are 
• Psychology Today: Strange Truths About How We Perceive Time 
• The Atlantic: How Nature Resets Our Minds And Bodies 
• American Psychological Association: The Dark Side of Screen Time 
• Association For Psychological Science: Investigating The Irresistible 
• Harvard Medical School: Screen Time and the Brain 
• National Institute on Drug Abuse: Can Too Much Screen Time Harm You? 
• Forbes: 7 signs of perfectionistic overfunctioning 
• Harvard Business Review: A guide to setting better boundaries 
• American Psychological Association: How stress affects your health
• Forbes: 7 unhealthy coping mechanisms ‍
• The Wall Street Journal: Fix burnout - without blowing up your life