What's The Difference Between Stress and Anxiety?

If you’ve ever wondered, “what's the difference between stress and anxiety?”, or you've wondered if you might have anxiety, this blog will help you to understand the differences between the two.

What is Stress, Really?

Stress is a natural, healthy response from your nervous system. It kicks in when you’re under pressure and or in a situation of perceived danger—think of a big deadline, a difficult conversation, or a first date.

Stress shows up when your body perceives something as a challenge or a threat to your safety.

Stress - which is simply fear - is a temporary feeling that happens when your nervous system is assessing and or trying to figure out how to overcome a possibly dangerous and or challenging situation.

The more we practice facing our fears and the more we overcome them with success, the more resilient to stressful situations we become.

What About Anxiety?

Anxiety is the fear of something bad happening, based on something that did happen in the past.

Even if there’s no real danger in front of you, your body is reacting like there is based on the stimulus that reminds it of a past experience that caused you harm.

It sounds like:

• “Last time this happened, it ended badly.”

• “What if I mess it up?”

• "What if they don't like it/me?"

• and more

It Looks Like:

• Overthinking

• Avoidance

• People-pleasing

• Withdrawing

• Freezing up or shutting down

You don't do these things because you’re weak or a pushover—you do them because your nervous system is trying to protect you in the only way it knows how.

Why Does Anxiety Happen?

When you experience stress, your body releases cortisol and adrenaline to help you take action. Your heart races, your breath speeds up, your muscles contract—you're ready to fight.

If you move through the challenge and overcome it, your nervous system resets/regulates. 

Challenge → Response → Resolution → Regulation

But if you aren't able to move through it and properly discharge the energy—maybe you were told to be quiet when you tried to stand up for yourself, or you were told to stay put when you're body was wanting to run away—your body doesn't complete the stress response. That’s where anxiety begins to form.

The more time this happens, the more your system will experience a compounded effect. Even relatively neutral and or safe situations begin to feel dangerous.

It isn’t just psychological—it’s deeply physiological. Meaning that no, it isn't all in your head, it's in your body.

The Truth: You Can’t Eliminate Stress Completely, But You Can Change How Intensely You Feel It

I need you to know something:

There’s nothing wrong with you. Your body is simply trying to keep you safe. And the good news? You can learn how to actually feel safe again—so stress goes back to being a temporary state and or emotion instead of being your constant state of existence.

Here’s how to do it:

• Release accumulated stress from your body through nervous system regulation tools (somatic work, breath, movement).

• Build a felt sense of safety—especially in connection with others who can co-regulate with you.

• Nourish your brain and body with nervous system supportive foods that literally help to repair the damage your body has experienced from chronic stress while reducing the stress load that you're still carrying in your everyday life.

Let’s Support Your Nervous System from the Inside Out

I need you to know something really important:

You’re not broken. You’re not weak. You’re having very real, very valid nervous system responses to what you’ve lived through.

The next step isn’t to push harder or to simply “calm down.” The next step is to support your body and brain in feeling safe enough to come out of survival mode.

You can start supporting your nervous system now by downloading a copy of my Stress Less Grocery List — a simple guide to help you feed your nervous system what it truly needs to start healing.

If you'd like to know more about how to complete the unprocessed stress and trauma loops that have been running in the background, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly- I'd be so happy to help in any way that I can.

I know that you've got this and I'm so excited to see you transform your stress responses one small step at a time!

Sending you the biggest hugs - Lau <3