Metabolizing Adversity

In a recent conference call for faith-based leaders, I referenced a term I've used in many settings to describe the process of assimilating or moving through the affects of challenge we can experience in small or large ways throughout our daily living: metabolizing adversity. 

When I use this term, I am referring to the range of activities that have been proven to help a body process stress hormones. 

We experience stress hormones on a daily basis. They are not only related to crises or disasters. If we do not establish habits in our lives that help us regularly decrease those elevations by increasing our hormones related to self-agency and self-care, we are more likely to eventually develop diseases, including potentially heart disease, diabetes, auto-immune diseases, or cancer, as well as potential disorders, including high rates of anxiety, depression, or suicidal ideations. 

How best can you develop daily habits that help you metabolize adversity you experience?

• First, consider what actually nourishes you. What do you find most relieving, most relaxing, most refreshing, or most inspiring? Is it hard or easy to come up with answers to those questions? It's ok if you don't know right away. Take some time to consider it. Consider whether the activities that bring you relief or relax you are healthy, or have other byproducts that maybe harming you. Take some more time to consider what actually nourishes you.
  
• See if you can begin to incorporate some of those things, a little bit at a time, practicing each day so they can become habits.
  
• It can be relatively simple, like committing to having an extra glass or two of water each day. Or, committing to setting your alarm to take a brief stroll every hour, especially if you work many hours sitting down. Or, talking with someone you enjoy at the end of each day, between ending work and beginning your evening routine. Or, creating a new bedtime routine.
  
• See how you feel after trying some of these, daily, for at least a week. 

Sleep, regular movement, healthy meals and snacks, drinking water, interacting with people you care about and who care about you, and practicing your faith, are all ways proven to help you metabolizing stress or adversity you encounter.

You can practice these, and you can encourage the people in your households, work environments, and neighborhoods to practice them too. 

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​Rev. Dr. Kate Wiebe serves as the Executive Director of ICTG. She is an organizational health consultant and pastoral psychotherapist. She lives with her family in Santa Barbara, CA.