Stress is not the problem. It is part of being alive and in many ways, it helps us grow. What matters is how we relate to it. When stress is chronic, overwhelming, or unchecked, it can slowly erode health, energy, and clarity. But when we learn to respond with awareness and build internal resilience, stress becomes something we can navigate and not something that controls us.
That is why stress management is one of the six core pillars of Lifestyle Medicine. We do not need to eliminate stress altogether. We simply need to learn to regulate our nervous system, set boundaries that protect our energy, and create rhythms that support our inner capacity to recover.
What Is Stress Management?
In the context of Lifestyle Medicine, stress management refers to the evidence-based practices that reduce the physiological effects of chronic stress and help the body return to a balanced, regulated state.
This includes:
- Breathing techniques that calm the vagus nerve
- Mindfulness and grounding practices
- Reframing unhelpful thought patterns
- Setting boundaries and simplifying daily demands
- Restorative activities that bring genuine calm — such as time in nature, music, or creative expression
Building emotional resilience through daily stress regulation is a key factor in preventing and reversing chronic illness.
Why It Matters for Your Health
When the body stays in a prolonged stress response with elevated cortisol, tension in the muscles, shallow breathing, and poor sleep, then nearly every system is affected.
Chronic stress has been shown to:
- Disrupt sleep and weaken immune defenses
- Increase inflammation and raise blood sugar
- Impair digestion and nutrient absorption
- Drive insulin resistance and weight gain
- Affect memory, focus, and mood
- Contribute to cardiovascular disease, anxiety, and depression
The body is remarkably adaptive, but it needs space to recover. Without recovery, stress becomes a hidden driver of chronic illness.
Just as we go to the gym to build our physical muscles, we also need to intentionally train our minds. By consistently applying stress management practices, we are actively rewiring our brains and enhancing our neuroplasticity. This allows us to mitigate the adverse effects of stress, improve cognitive flexibility, and build a more adaptable and resilient mental state.
When Stress Management Becomes Just Another Source of Stress
Ironically, the very tools meant to help can sometimes feel like pressure. We live in a world where everyone is aware they “should” be doing more for their mental health - meditating, journaling, unplugging, setting boundaries, but many are still exhausted, wired, and overwhelmed.
That is because stress management, when treated like a checklist, can become another demand. We see this in
- Busy professionals or perfectionists, who try to “optimize” stress recovery but struggle to slow down
- Mothers and caregivers, who put everyone else’s needs first and feel guilty for needing space
- Women navigating perimenopause, dealing with hormonal shifts, cultural pressure to keep it all together, and a body that’s changing
- People with trauma backgrounds, who may not feel safe relaxing — even when they try
In these cases, even tools like meditation or breathwork can feel frustrating or ineffective. That is where personalized support matters most.
How Health and Wellness Coaches Help
Imagine this: You are a woman in your 40s. You are navigating perimenopause. You are rising in your career and managing a demanding job, taking care of your parents, and showing up for your kids. You have read the books, downloaded the apps, and tried to journal, but it all feels like too much.
Your labs show elevated cortisol. Your doctor says to “manage your stress.” You agree, in theory, but where do you even start?
This is where our Health and Wellness Coaches step in - not to hand you more tasks, but to help you figure out what actually works in your life, with you being the expert of yourself.
They help you:
- Identify your personal stress triggers and how they show up in the body
- Create realistic rhythms: a 10-minute morning reset, an evening wind-down that feels nourishing
- Release the guilt around rest and boundaries
- Shift from all-or-nothing thinking to small, steady shifts
- Choose tools that feel right for your nervous system - not just what is trending online
Through compassionate dialogue and small experiments, Health and Wellness Coaching helps you reconnect with your inner capacity to recover, without needing to be perfect.
Stress is inevitable, but staying stuck in survival mode does not have to be. With the right tools, support, and sustainable lifestyle modifications, you can move through pressure without burning out. You can respond instead of react. You can feel more grounded, more present, and more able to bounce back when life gets messy. That is what resilience is, and that is what Health and Wellness Coaching helps you build. One breath, one boundary at a time.
In our next article, we shall explore the sixth pillar of Lifestyle Medicine: Connection as Medicine - The Power of Positive Relationships, and how Health and Wellness Coaching helps strengthen the social ties that protect both our emotional and physical health.
About The Author
Tanya Stockdale is a Mayo Clinic and Institute for Integrative Nutrition-certified Health and Wellness Coach, and a certified Functional Medicine Practitioner with over 15 years of experience in the wellness space. Her approach combines evidence-based coaching with a deep understanding of nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and root-cause healing. She is also a trained meditation teacher, with a strong interest in the mind-body connection and brain-heart coherence. Outside of her clinical work, Tanya prioritizes movement, time in nature, and practices that support long-term resilience and vitality.
