Alyssa, would you describe that model and the way it influences the kind of change that you're hoping to see in the field?

Yes, absolutely.

We thought of these climate health behaviors starting at the individual level, which is what health psychologists were already focused on.

So of course, active transportation, green energy use, and a sustainable diet.

And at the individual level or small group level, we know how to apply the science of behavior change.

But really, to create change that matters at scale, massive change, we needed to think of behavior change of policymakers, of institutions, of governments.

And how do we scale up? It's easy to look at the level of, let's say, carbon burning in a large area and want to have that be the target, one of our most important targets, reduce the amount of carbon that we're using.

Alyssa?

If you would be willing to just kind of describe the top contour of that study and some of the, the points that it, that you find most interesting.

Yeah.

We've, we've done these in-depth studies where we are looking at people under a lot of daily demand, caregivers, and then we look un- look at, you know, normal people, parents of neurotypical children who still have a lot of stress.

But we then ask, you know, do people under chronic stress have accelerated aging? So we look at telomeres, epigenetics, mitochondrial health, and then what explains those who look really good, who look resilient and don't look vulnerable.

And so then we can find out, like, what's the magic sauce in the day that protects them from chronic stress.

So Martin Picard, my colleague who has been obsessed with mitochondrial health as a pathway to understanding both stress and really health and disease, he has developed a way to measure mitochondrial in health in humans.

So we can measure a bunch of enzymes, and then we can adjust it for how many mitochondria we have.

What do we know about best practices for mitigating these essentially non-negotiable stressors?

So to start off, what's happening in our minds and in our bodies when we're stressed?

Well, first of all, thank you, Heather and Christof.

So fun to be with you in person here, and so glad you brought up the Serenity Prayer, which really just holds so much wisdom within a few sentences, so a lot of what we'll talk about will go back to that.

So when we're stressed, when we have an acute stressor happen, we are shifting everything.

So the first thing that happens, we're always asking, um, "Is this safe or not? Are you a safe person? Are you an other? Are you someone I need to be on guard and vigilant for?" And that acute stress response is really beautiful because we constantly need to adapt to different environments and perform, get the motivational energy from the stress response.

It, it oxygenates our brain.

We get so much blood going to our brain when we're having a nice acute stress response.

So wh- when you say it's good for aging, how does that show up at the level of the brain or the body?

And as you say, do many of us even know what it's like to really feel deep relaxation anymore? I think many people just don't, right? So perhaps we can just start with, you know, what is stress, and then move on to these different mind states.

Yes.

That sounds great.

I really like the mind states because it opens the door to us having a labeling system, pretty simple label system of four mind states, and checking in with our body and seeing where we're at.

And that's step one.

If we can turn on the light of awareness, we can then measure, manage, monitor, and reduce stress.

And that sounds like a lot of work, but we can do that within minutes.

Find out how much at airbnb.co.uk/host.

Uh, how does stress age a person?

When we have a stress response that's prolonged and we don't get recovery, we know that the cellular aging processes are impaired and accelerated.

So for example, when we have chronic stress for years and years, we tend to develop inflammation.

We tend to develop shorter telomeres.

That means our cells can't go on and keep replicating and dividing and replenishing tissue.

We also are changing our epigenetic patterns, and so we now know that we can measure how old our cells are and that chronic stress accelerates our epigenetic age.

I think a lot of what is stressing many people out right now is this feeling of there's so much I can't control.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Uh, how does stress age a person?

When we have a stress response that's prolonged and we don't get recovery, we know that the cellular aging processes are impaired and accelerated.

So for example, when we have chronic stress for years and years, we tend to develop inflammation.

We tend to develop shorter telomeres.

That means our cells can't go on and keep replicating and dividing and replenishing tissue.

We also are changing our epigenetic patterns, and so we now know that we can measure how old our cells are and that chronic stress accelerates our epigenetic age.

I think a lot of what is stressing many people out right now is this feeling of there's so much I can't control.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Here's Elissa.

[gentle music] This practice is about learning how to sit with uncertainty and the anxiety that often comes with it by noticing and accepting how it shows up in your body.

So find a comfortable, quiet place to sit and allow yourself to be guided by my suggestions.

First, tune into your body.

Get into a comfortable position and close your eyes or soften your gaze.

Take a few deep breaths in through your nose with a long exhale through your mouth.

For about a minute, slowly scan your body with your attention, like you're using a flashlight of attention, starting at the top of your head and gradually moving it down all the way to the tips of your toes.