Get outside and view sunlight within 30 minutes of waking for 2-10 minutes (2 min if very bright, 10 min if not so bright), without sunglasses and never looking directly at the sun. This stimulates appropriate early morning cortisol release, improving focus, energy, and learning throughout the day, and prevents late-shifted cortisol which is linked to depression and anxiety.
Maintain a consistent schedule for light exposure, feeding, exercise, and sleep. This consistency is the most powerful way to buffer against the negative mental and physical health effects of stress.
Deliberately engage in practices that increase epinephrine and cortisol (e.g., cold showers, cyclic breathing, high-intensity interval training, weight lifting) to boost energy and alertness. These activities act as ‘stressors’ that increase alertness and energy, and can help buffer against unhealthy levels of stress hormones when done deliberately and intermittently.
During deliberate physical stressors (e.g., cold exposure, intense exercise), consciously try to calm your mind while maintaining physical alertness. This practice helps separate the body’s adrenaline response from the brain’s, building resilience and the ability to stay calm under pressure.
Implement a learning protocol: 90-minute focus/learning session, immediately followed by a short, deliberate stressor (cold shower, breathing, intense exercise), then a non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) session, and finally, a good night’s sleep. This sequence optimizes brain states for attention, consolidates learning through post-stress hormone spikes, and facilitates neuroplasticity during rest and sleep.
Increase alertness and epinephrine/cortisol levels immediately after a learning session (e.g., through breathing exercises, cold showers, hard run, HIIT). This post-learning spike in stress hormones consolidates information and primes brain circuits for neuroplasticity, enhancing memory retention.
Engage in short bouts (e.g., <1 hour) of intense exercise, cold water exposure, or cyclic breathing 2-3 times a week. These activities increase epinephrine, which signals immune organs to combat infections, thereby bolstering the immune system in the short term (1-4 days).
Utilize fasting (e.g., skipping breakfast, delaying first meal) to increase neural energy, alertness, and prime the system for immune-boosting or learning-enhancing protocols. Fasting increases epinephrine and cortisol, providing neural energy and alertness, and can enhance the effects of subsequent immune-boosting or learning-consolidation activities.
If experiencing chronic stress, consider supplementing with Ashwagandha (14.5-27.9% cortisol reduction shown in studies), taking it later in the day or evening. Ashwagandha has a significant anxiolytic effect and can reduce cortisol levels, helping to mitigate the negative impacts of chronic stress.
Dissolve one packet of Element in 16-32 ounces of water and drink it first thing in the morning, and also drink it during any physical exercise. This ensures adequate hydration and electrolytes, which are critical for optimal brain and body function and vital for cell function, especially neurons.
Take Athletic Greens once or twice a day. This helps cover basic nutritional needs, makes up for deficiencies, and provides probiotics vital for microbiome health.
Delay caffeine intake until 2 hours after waking and consider consuming it later in learning/focus sessions, rather than before. This timing aims to enhance brain plasticity around learning sessions and avoids potential chronic anxiety effects associated with habitual early caffeine use.
Use the Waking Up app for meditation, mindfulness training, yoga nidra, or non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) sessions. This allows for meditation of different durations and types, helps explore consciousness, and can restore cognitive and physical energy with short sessions.
Regularly practice deliberately increasing physical adrenaline (e.g., cold exposure, intense exercise) while consciously maintaining a calm mental state. This trains the ability to dissociate the body’s stress response from the mind’s, improving mental regulation and preventing negative reactions to unwanted stressful events.
Actively work to prevent chronic stress (stress lasting more than 1-3 days) and learn to turn off the stress response. Chronic stress creates a positive feedback loop, amplifying stress and leading to numerous negative health effects, including metabolic dysfunction, sleep disturbances, and immune suppression.
If experiencing very high levels of life stress, avoid chronic fasting. Combining high life stress with chronic fasting can lead to chronic stress, causing negative effects on reproductive hormones, hair, sleep, and immune function.
Self-assess your current stress and energy levels to determine if you need to increase (e.g., cold baths, intense breathing) or decrease/buffer (e.g., warm baths, ashwagandha) your epinephrine and cortisol. This allows for personalized regulation of hormones based on individual needs, preventing under-activation or over-activation.
Perform cyclic breathing: 25-30 deep inhale-exhale cycles, followed by a 15-30 second exhale hold, repeated 2-3 times. Always do this on dry land and never near water, and consult your doctor. This releases adrenaline and norepinephrine, increasing energy and alertness.
Adjust morning light exposure duration based on conditions: 5-10 minutes on bright, clear days; 10-20 minutes on light cloud days; 30 minutes on dense overcast days. Avoid relying on indoor artificial light, which requires about six hours to achieve the same effect. This ensures sufficient lux exposure to properly time cortisol release, which is vital for energy and focus.
When experiencing brief stress (e.g., from traffic, frustrating emails), aim to keep the cortisol and epinephrine spikes brief. This prevents chronic elevation of stress hormones, which can have negative health impacts.
Be mindful of cravings for sugary and fatty ‘comfort foods’ during periods of chronic stress and try to avoid them. Chronic stress can trigger a biological drive to consume these foods, which can lead to metabolic issues and further amplify the stress response.
To offset stress-induced hair graying, consistently practice stress regulation (e.g., NSDR, meditation, massages, vacations) and ensure ample sunlight exposure. Chronic stress depletes melanocyte stem cells in hair follicles, leading to graying; stress regulation and sunlight can counteract this.
Consider taking 50mg of Apigenin (found in chamomile) before bedtime. It has an anxiolytic effect, calming the nervous system, and a mild effect in reducing cortisol, which can help with evening stress.
Avoid consuming licorice, especially during periods of chronic stress or if trying to optimize testosterone and estrogen levels. Licorice contains glycyrrhizin, which increases cortisol, blood pressure, and can decrease testosterone and estrogen.
Practice intermittent fasting. This increases growth hormone levels by allowing ghrelin (hunger hormone) to bind to growth hormone-releasing hormone receptors, doubling growth hormone in the waking state, which can burn body fat and improve tissue health.
Consider consuming caffeinated tea or coffee (while staying hydrated) for an acute immune system boost. Caffeine can increase epinephrine, which bolsters the immune system, similar to other short-term stressors.
Take hot baths if tolerable and safe. This can lead to some growth hormone release, though less than sauna exposure, but caution is advised due to the risk of burns from high temperatures needed.
Consult a doctor before engaging in hyperthermia or hypothermia practices (e.g., cold/ice baths, hot showers/baths beyond comfortable norms). This ensures safety when experimenting with extreme temperature exposures.
Chew your food better. This prevents stomach growling, which occurs when stomach muscles churn without food present.