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What's Stressing You Out Right Now?

During this hour of Talk of Iowa, we ask: 'what's stressing you out right now?' We also talk about ways to better manage stress and stress' effects on the body and mind. 

"We don't want to paint stress all as a negative. Stress is really important for us to have in our lives," says Dr. Hanna Stevens, who studies stress and is a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa.  "If you have absolutely no stimulation in your life, you wouldn't learn things. Your brain wouldn't develop right, and your body wouldn't develop right." 

Stevens joins host Charity Nebbe along with mental health therapists Emily Smith, who teaches mindfulness meditation at Prairie Wellness in Des Moines, and Juan Arjona, who is a bilingual therapist based in Dubuque.  

Smith left a career in politics to become a therapist because working on campaigns was too stressful. She and Stevens agree that balance is key. 

"They identified pretty early on that stress doesn't really have a linear relationship to health," Stevens explains. "There's a sweet spot in the middle that we want to be in - not too much, not too little." 

Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa