Stress is often treated like a mindset problem. We’re told to reduce stress by managing our time better or by finding ways to calm our thoughts. But for many people, stress isn’t just a mental experience. It feels physical.
Stress can feel like a sudden tightness in the chest during an ordinary conversation with a coworker. Or a racing heart, even when you’re sitting still. It can manifest as an upset stomach as you anticipate an email. And sometimes it simply feels like exhaustion that no amount of sleep can fix.
All of these symptoms are easily attributed to other causes, so it’s easy to brush them off as a normal part of a busy life. The problem is that many of us have become so used to living in a stressed state that we no longer recognize these responses as stress.
Most people think of stress as worry or anxiety, and it definitely can feel that way. But the body’s stress response is fundamentally physical. It’s the way your nervous system was designed to prepare your body to respond to a perceived threat or challenging situation.1
In short bursts, the stress response is protective, allowing you to react quickly and cope with difficult situations. The problem is that modern stress rarely comes in short bursts.
Instead, chronic stress can build through everyday life habits like multitasking, checking your phone the moment you wake up, skipping meals, and carrying muscle tension you barely notice anymore.
As a result, the physical effects of stress response may start showing up in ways you don’t immediately connect to stress, including:2
None of this means your body is broken. It means survival systems don’t always align with modern life, so the body remains stuck even after the supposed threat has passed.
One of the most frustrating parts of stress is that you may logically know you’re safe, but your body still feels activated.
Your stress response is designed to prioritize survival. If your body perceives danger, it can shift into a more protective state before your thinking brain fully catches up. This is why stress can sometimes feel irrational. When the body is in survival mode, it prioritizes the functions most important for immediate protection and response.
Digestion, reproduction, emotional flexibility, and long-term thinking can temporarily become less important while the brain and body focus on staying prepared. That’s also why telling yourself to “just relax” doesn’t work, much like telling someone with insomnia to just go to sleep.
Some people become so used to working through exhaustion that they don’t notice stress until they completely crash. But the nervous system can send signals much earlier, such as:2
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Since you can’t always think your way out of these physical manifestations, nervous system recovery often starts with working with your physiology to help the body recognize safety again. Life can’t always slow down, but these simple actions act like a foundation for the body to experience more moments of regulation and recovery:
If you’ve spent years pushing through, we can’t expect the nervous system to suddenly feel safe overnight. That’s why awareness itself can be such a meaningful place to start.
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Guided light, sound, and touch that balance your nervous system through slow, rhythmic breathing. Feel restored calm in just 3 minutes a day.
Preorder yours →The stress response is a coordinated physiological process involving multiple systems in your body. These systems are designed to help the body respond quickly.
The stress response primarily involves communication between the brain and the body via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the body’s stress-regulation system.
The response begins in the hypothalamus, a region in the brain that helps regulate many automatic functions. When the hypothalamus perceives a stressor, it signals the pituitary gland, which then signals the adrenal glands located on top of the kidneys. In response, the adrenal glands release cortisol, one of the body’s primary stress hormones.4
This signaling system helps coordinate the body’s response to stress and prepare it for action.
Cortisol and adrenaline are two of the body’s primary stress hormones, but they work in slightly different ways.5
The stress response functions as a negative feedback loop, meaning that once the stressor passes, stress hormone levels drop, allowing the body to return to baseline. Chronic stress disrupts the process. In some cases, long-term chronic stress can lead to dysregulated cortisol rhythms, where someone may have blunted cortisol responses or no longer follow typical patterns.
The sympathetic nervous system helps you respond quickly without thinking, often known as your “fight or flight” response, where the heart rate increases, digestion slows, and muscles get ready to respond.
On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system supports “rest and digest,” helping the body repair and return to baseline once the stressful event has passed.5 A healthy nervous system is flexible and able to move between activation and recovery as needed.1
Chronic stress can show up physically in a wide range of ways:
Chronic stress can cause cardiovascular symptoms like elevated heart rate, increased blood pressure, and chest tightness. Some may have heightened sensitivity to internal sensations, such as a racing heart or changes in breathing, which may further amplify physiological arousal and stress sensitivity.6
The communication system between the gut and the brain is called the gut-brain axis. It’s a bidirectional relationship in which the nervous and digestive systems constantly send signals back and forth.7
It’s no surprise, then, that stress can impact your digestion, appetite, and even gut sensitivity.
As the stress response shifts resources and energy from higher-order thinking, chronic stress can adversely impact concentration and focus. Brain fog, emotional reactivity, and irritability are all common manifestations of chronic stress.8 Over time, chronic stress can raise the risk of mental health conditions like anxiety or depression.2
Stress can interfere with healthy sleep patterns, including the ability to fall asleep and achieve a deep, restorative sleep. This cycle of fatigue and arousal can create a vicious cycle in which people feel exhausted yet still can’t get the sleep they need.1 Both sleep and stress are also closely linked to a healthy immune system. Chronic stress is associated with increased inflammatory activity in the body.9
If recovering from stress were simply a matter of telling yourself to calm down and work on stress management, it wouldn’t be a problem. But the stress response begins in the body, so stress can feel physical even when you intellectually know everything is “fine.”
The amygdala is part of the brain’s built-in threat detection system and helps initiate protective responses. In dangerous situations, it helps people react quickly without stopping to think.10
Unfortunately, the modern nervous system often responds to psychological stressors the same way it responds to physical danger. Research suggests that chronic stress may increase amygdala reactivity and strengthen HPA axis activation, making the nervous system more vigilant and reactive.10
The brain’s survival systems prioritize speed and protection over rational analysis, so logical thought often takes a back seat during stress.
The prefrontal cortex is the brain region involved in high-level thinking. It helps you plan and think through a decision.
During acute stress, increases in stress hormones and other chemicals in the brain can temporarily inhibit activity in the prefrontal cortex, while brain regions that prioritize a quick response become stronger.
Chronic stress without recovery can cause these patterns to repeat and reinforce. Some research suggests that chronic stress may weaken connections in the prefrontal cortex while increasing reactivity in regions such as the amygdala.11,12
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Instead of trying to think your way into calmness and well-being (a “top-down” approach), bottom-up regulation works with the same physical systems where stress shows up in the first place: in your body.
Resonance breathing is a slow, rhythmic breathing pattern that works with the body’s natural physiology to help support nervous system regulation. When breathing slows to around 4.5 to 6.5 breaths per minute, the heart, lungs, and blood pressure rhythms begin to synchronize.13
Part of this effect involves the baroreflex, a built-in feedback system that helps regulate heart rate and blood pressure from moment to moment.14 Slow, steady breathing may help strengthen this system's ability to respond to stress and recovery signals.15 Unlike practices or meditation techniques that focus primarily on mental stillness, resonance breathing is rooted in the body’s physiological rhythms.
Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the small variations in time between heartbeats. It is commonly used as a marker of the nervous system's flexibility and ability to adapt between stress and recovery. It’s normal for the heart rate to shift between slightly faster and slower beats from moment to moment. It’s the pattern of those changes that provides insight into how your nervous system is functioning.
Rather than thinking of HRV as a specific “perfect” number or range to maximize, it’s more useful to look at it relative to your own baseline and patterns. You can use these patterns to help guide recovery and build greater awareness of how your nervous system responds to daily life.13
With repeated practice, resonance breathing and HRV feedback may help support greater autonomic flexibility, meaning your nervous system becomes better able to adapt to stress and return toward recovery afterward.
The goal is not perfect calmness or an ideal HRV number. It’s helping the body recover more effectively from stress.
Somatic regulation approaches focus on the connection between the body and the nervous system. These approaches use physical sensations, movement, breathing, and body awareness to help the nervous system recognize cues of safety.16
Rather than analyzing stress only cognitively, somatic practices work directly with the body to help create awareness of physical signals that may keep the nervous system in a protective state.
Some approaches work by slowing physiological arousal, while others help increase awareness of physical patterns, allowing the nervous system to gradually recover. Learning to recognize and work with these physiological patterns can help create more opportunities for regulation.
If your body sends you signals, it’s time to listen. Learning to notice and work with those patterns can be the first step toward building nervous system resilience. Explore guided resonance breathing and physiological feedback with Ohm.
Caitlin Beale is a registered dietitian and nutrition writer with a master’s degree in nutrition. She has a background in acute care, integrative wellness, and clinical nutrition.
Dr. Wiles is a health and performance psychologist specializing in psychophysiology, regulation, and human performance. He serves as Chief Health & Performance Officer at Ohm.
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