Show Notes

Resilience is the topic of this interview with Dr. Doni Wilson, who reveals the ways we can overcome stress, anxiety and burnout in modern life. Acclaimed public speaker, researcher and author of the best-selling book Master Your Stress, Reset Your Health: The Personalized Program to Calm Anxiety, Boost Energy, and Beat Burnout, Dr. Doni Wilson is a naturopathic doctor, and is certified in midwifery and nutrition. In this vital conversation, she discusses how we can calm our stress response, and outlines why stress is a root cause of biochemical imbalances (such as leaky gut, dysbiosis, hormone imbalance, inflammation, dysregulation of the nervous system) and poor mental health (anxiety, depression, poor memory, insomnia, burnout, etc).

She explains what healthy stress is, what happens physiologically when our stress levels remain chronically high, and how we can manage our stress so that it doesn’t leave us feeling overwhelmed, anxious, depressed and/or exhausted. Rather than striving to be stress free (which is impossible), she focuses on the ways we can build stress resilience. She discusses her unique CARE stress recovery protocol and explains that we all fit into one of the five stress ‘types’, and that each one requires a different treatment.

Learn about resilience from stress and burnout:

• Why stress is linked to at least 90% of health issues, including our mental health
• What adrenal distress is, and how stressors impact our bodies and mood (including biochemical stressors—toxins, mould, heavy metals, psychospiritual stressors—emotional stress, grief, lifestyle stressors—lack of sleep, lack of exercise, work)
• What happens when the production of stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) remain ‘switched on’
• Why too much stress is bad for our digestion, sleep, immune systems and nervous systems, and how it can lead to biochemical imbalances (such as leaky gut, gut dysbiosis, hormone imbalance, inflammation, dysregulation of the nervous system) and poor mental health (such as anxiety, depression, insomnia)
• The 5 stress types (including too much or not enough cortisol and adrenaline), and why each type requires a different treatment approach
• Why depression as well as anxiety can be linked to stress and high cortisol levels
• How our genetics (the COMT gene) impacts how we metabolise adrenaline as well as our stress resilience, the production of neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine), and in turn our mood (anxiety, depression)
• Which supplements can help soothe our stress response (including magnesium and B vitamins)
• When ‘positive’ stressors (fasting, exercise, healthy eating) can leave us feeling more stressed, and why balance is key (AKA eustress and hormesis)
• Why taking small moments for self-care everyday (for meditation, rest, recuperation) can encourage a positive feedback loop that is essential to resilience and stress recovery (and how 2 hours a day of silence has been shown to encourage neurogenesis)
• Ways we can shift our negative belief systems away from our addiction to busyness and feel deserving of self-care (which we all are), and how this can positively impact our health

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