There is a type of tiredness that cannot be cured with a long weekend. It is not noticeable at once, it does not hurt, and yet it takes away attention, patience, creativity, and even the way we decide. When we finally register it, many times we are already functioning “on automatic”: more or less present at work, far from being available internally.

Canadian neuroscientist Terrie Hope refers to this overly normalized picture in modern life bluntly: chronic stress.

With an initial training in the pharmaceutical industry and a later turn towards applied neuroscience, since 2010 Hope has been dedicated to investigating how changes in neural coherence and regulation of the nervous system influence cognitive function and psychological and emotional resilience. His resume includes having been a member of Joe Dispenza’s neuroscientific team and leading the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of aaccess barsa manual technique invented by Gary Douglas in 1995, today associated with improvements in brain coherence and decreases in indicators of anxiety, depression and stress.

He currently travels the world as a speaker and works with corporate leaders and elite athletes to optimize performance and modify productive schemes. Your proposal aims to rethink the “resist and push” paradigm for a healthier and more sustainable one, where Well-being and high performance are two sides of the same coin. “We are not facing a motivation problem. We are seeing the limit of a model that demands without recovering,” Hope warns. “There is an established idea that the brain controls everything, but it is exactly the other way around: “When we talk about the mind and how we exist in the world, the brain comes last.”

—And what comes first?

—The person. The “being”. It is what drives us and what makes decisions.

—Would it be the equivalent of what many of us call soul?

—You could say so. What makes you want to stay in one place doing something is not your brain: it is something else. Which tells you that something works and something else doesn’t. What drives you to do things a certain way. The experiential experience does not pass through the brain, it passes through the person as a whole.. The brain suffers the consequences of our way of life and, naturally, it is what stops us when we “push” too much.

—“Push too much.” “Continue producing despite.” These are some of the premises of modern life…from which many believe it is impossible to escape.

-Yeah. And therein lies the problem: the model that was the norm for a long time is clearly demonstrating that it is no longer efficient, sustainable, or humane.

—If the “being” drives and the brain regulates, how does stress enter into that relationship?

—To begin with, stress is an individual perception: what is stressful for you may not be stressful for me and vice versa. Second, stress is not a disease: it cannot be pinpointed or quantified. You can’t take a pill to solve it. It arises from our way of understanding the world. We are the ones who manage it. The brain adapts – deregulates – to be able to sustain it, until the famous burnout, like a kind of emergency brake, like a switch that goes off.

For example, if when we get up and go to work we perceive that what we are going to do is a fun, enjoyable activity, in line with our personality, then its “stressor” effect will be less and there will be less probability of triggering deregulation in the brain. On the other hand, if we do something that is not fun for us, that goes against our nature, forcing us to try too much (the popular try hard), then it probably creates stress for us.

—You say that either you have stress or you don’t. There are no grades or levels.

-Exact. It is up to you how to react to an objectively stressful situation.. You could decide, for example, not to stress, because there is no point. And that decision is going to change the trajectory of who you are. It will define whether stress becomes a chronic component in your life.

—How do you detect stress in yourself?

—For some it translates into more energy… until they fall exhausted. Stress is insidious: it creeps in, and the brain doesn’t stop you right away, it adapts so that you can live and function with that stress, until it stops being able to. Until you reach a point where the only thing you can think about is that you need a vacation. The problem is that vacations are usually not enough for brain regulation.

—And how is it observed at a neurological level?

—In early studies the first thing you see is that the nervous system begins to be constantly turned on. The amygdala is always working and stops being able to discern whether there is real danger or not. Essentially, Stress makes us more reactive: The more stressed we are, the more sensitive to stress we become. It’s a cascade effect.

This, in turn, generates chronic inflammation in certain parts of the brain, but also in the circulatory system. Studies found that more stressed people have more vascular inflammation in their arteries: oh coincidence, one of the main causes of coronary heart disease.

The paradox is that we tend to think that we need a drug to reduce inflammation, to control cholesterol – also a sub-consequence of stress – but we do not go to the root of the problem. How to live, with what approaches you go through life and the consequent stress that derives from it: that is the main cause of health problems.

—What do you think is most dangerous, or alarming, about the physiological impact of stress?

—That its effect is cumulative, both in the brain and in the body. And a way to reverse it has not yet been found. When faced with symptoms, the tendency is to say: “It’s just stress.” There I say: “No. It’s not just stress, it’s quality of life”.

—In your conferences you talk about the economic cost of stress at the corporate level. How does individual employee stress affect a company’s productivity?

—Stress “hijacks” executive function. This slows down in the prefrontal cortex, making thinking difficult. There is research that shows that Brains shrink when stressed. In practice, the employee lowers his performance or disconnects from his work, going into an automatic mode.

According to studies, In many countries only 30% of people are actually present at work, and presence progressively decreases as the work week progresses. Not of their own free will, but because they can’t: their brains can’t. Not only is Argentina not the exception, but it is at the top of the ranking of countries with the most stress, according to recent studies. This means that, generally speaking, people have to work very hard to keep doing what they do and that the reward is not good.

My question is: if instead of having such disconnected people working we had people present, focused, productive and happy: would companies be more profitable? It is a somewhat rhetorical question, because I am sure that the answer is affirmative.

—That’s where the access bars…could you talk a little about that?

-Yeah. It is a non-invasive energy therapy that, through gentle touches on 32 specific points on the head, seeks to release mental blocks, stress and limiting beliefs.

I started studying it out of pure curiosity. I had no expectations or pretensions; As a scientist, I wanted to understand the real effect of the method. The results surprised me.

—What did you discover?

—The first research – carried out with people with anxiety and depression – recorded an 84.2% change in anxiety after a 90-minute session (I emphasize, anxiety is a difficult trait to change). In 80% of the cases we found that the brain pattern – the communication between regions – became more coherent after one session. In another large study of people with stress, 76% reported significant changes. And, in another fact about people with post-traumatic stress disorder, the differences were also relevant. People say they think better, that they are more present. Aspects that have been around for a long time, such as insecurity, for example, disappear.

—After a single session?

—In many cases yes, in others it may take a few more. But there are always immediate partial positive effects. It’s hard to believe, I know.

—How do you explain it? What happens in the brain?

—My interpretation of what happens is that by activating these points in the head it is possible to make a kind of neurological resetfacilitating greater awareness, relaxation and mental clarity. The central nervous system calms down.

It is not “the solution”, but it is an innovative way for people to function better, using a non-pharmaceutical method. It’s not about putting a machine in your head without knowing what happens. It is simple and natural.

—What would you suggest to someone who begins to feel stressed?

—Become more aware of the things that work for you and those that don’t. If every time you have dinner with someone you leave feeling bad or every time you talk to your dad you get into a fight… notice it. Don’t continue on autopilot. Think about how you can change that pattern that is making you bad.. Conflict does not have to exist, but we become accustomed to its presence and predisposed to it. I would tell you to navigate to what works and change what doesn’t.

—To close: if you had to summarize your learnings in a message to send to the masses, what would it be?

—That we could prosper – instead of survive – if instead of doing things that cost us and drain us, we did things that honor us.