don’t make us feel good. These are continual
challenges. “What happens when we are in
distress?” she asked. “No breaks, no relief.”
The human brain uses hormones to help the
body respond to all stress. These include the
happy hormones – oxytocin, dopamine and
serotonin. Then there are the stress hormones
– adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine.
“When you are in a fight, flight or fear situation,
suddenly your brain is triggered into what to do
before you even think about it,” she said. “I’ts
called fight, flight or freeze.”
There are two almond-shaped collections of
nuclei within each cerebral hemisphere known
as the “amygdala.” (Cheldelin Fell called it “Amy”
for short.) “Amy is triggered by anxiety, fear,
anger and stress,” she explained.
When faced with a stressful situation, such as
an encounter with a wild animal, before you
even have a thought about what you’re going
to do, your brain (Amy) is already on it. “When
she senses danger, she secretes those stress
hormones,” said Cheldelin Fell. “It’s about saving
your life.”
What happens with stress, she explained, is that
when Amy is triggered, the brain’s chemicals
anesthetize the frontal lobe – the part that
handles critical thinking and problem solving.
In a sense, Amy and her band of hormones
have hijacked your brain. Critical thinking and
problem-solving skills have been disabled.
When you are under continual stress, Cheldelin
Fell explained there is something in your brain
called “neuroplasticity,” and those tracks build
upon themselves. “The more stress that you
are under without mitigating it, the more the
neuroplasticity is going to form those tracks.”
The good news is that the brain can create
the same neuroplasticity tracks from positive
reactions. “If your brain is triggered by the stress
hormones and if it is triggered for a long time
and you start developing these new tracks in
the brain, you can do the same. With the happy
hormones,” she said.
The good news, though, is that by using any
of the following modalities, you can create
neuroplasticity tracks to undo that stress.
Resilience Strategies
While almost everyone knows the importance of
staying hydrated, eating a nutritionally balanced
diet and getting regular exercise, Cheldelin Fell
explained that there are other evidence-based
modalities we might not know are good for us.
The first involves creating a self-care plan to
help you stay healthy and grounded and ready
to perform necessary tasks to the best of your
ability as you serve families.
To illustrate her point, she asked attendees to
think about the three people they love more than
anything. She then asked if anyone had included
themselves in that group. “Make yourself
number one,” Cheldelin Fell encouraged. “Start
THANOS MAGAZINE | No. 107 – AUTUMN 2024
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