Stress can contribute to myriad physical and mental ailments, increasing risks of heart disease, anxiety, depression and even Alzheimer’s disease. But is it possible to live a life free from stress?

“It’s actually biologically impossible to do that. You need a little bit of healthy stress to get up and out of bed in the morning to plan your day,” Dr. Aditi Nerurkar said on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley. “The goal of life is not zero stress, but rather healthy, manageable stress that can serve you rather than harm you.”

Nerurkar is an internal medicine physician, public health expert and medical correspondent specializing in stress, resilience and mental health. Small, lasting changes in stress management are at the heart of her debut book, “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress And More Resilience,” the January selection for Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club.

Nerurkar said “rewiring” the brain can be done through daily activities that work on neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to adapt and change in response to internal and external stimuli. “The 5 Resets” lays out a plan backed by science and Nerurkar’s research to help. Those steps include incremental changes and creating goals that start at the end, rather than the beginning. She said these steps may seem a bit basic or simplified, but that is intentional.

“When you are feeling a state of stress, you are governed by a part of your brain called the amygdala,” she said. “Your amygdala is essentially fight or flight, and it’s this part of your brain that is focused on your immediate needs and survival. And so it’s hard for you to make a big, grand plan of complicated steps of how to improve your stress when, by design, your brain is thinking about your immediate survival and self-preservation. And it’s so easy to get in your own way.”

Ultimately, Nerurkar hopes readers take away not just strategies on stress management and how to have compassion and grace for themselves as they attempt to make these important lasting changes, but also to know that they’re not suffering on their own.

“It’s really important to normalize and validate your lived experience of stress,” Nerurkar said. “If you have been gaslit in any way and told, ‘You don’t have stress, you’re resilient.’ Understand that based on the data in a room of 30 people, 21 people are struggling with stress and burnout. So if this is you, you are not alone. It is not your fault. And there is a way and there is a better way forward.”

Guest

  • Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, internal medicine physician, public health expert, and medical correspondent with stress, resilience, and mental health expertise. “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress And More Resilience” is her first book.