Cortisol, chronic stress, and what happens when your body forgets how to switch off
Cortisol has developed a rather bad reputation. We hear about lowering cortisol, controlling cortisol and avoiding cortisol spikes, almost as if cortisol itself were the problem.
But cortisol is not the enemy. We need it.
Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands and it plays an important role in our stress response. It helps regulate blood sugar, blood pressure, metabolism, inflammation and our sleep-wake cycle. Under normal conditions, cortisol follows a daily rhythm. Levels are generally higher in the morning, helping us wake up and get moving, and gradually decrease during the day so that the body can prepare for sleep.
Cortisol also rises when we need to respond to a challenge. Imagine you suddenly have to deal with an emergency. Your body needs energy quickly. Cortisol helps make that energy available so you can act.
The problem begins when an emergency response becomes an everyday way of living.
Why does cortisol rise?
When we think about stress, we often think about something dramatic: losing a job, financial problems, illness, a difficult relationship or a major life change.
But our stress response is activated by much smaller things too.
A difficult meeting. An overflowing inbox. Traffic. A deadline. An argument. Constant notifications. Lack of sleep. Too much caffeine. Eating irregularly. Working without breaks. Worrying about something that hasn’t even happened yet.
Our bodies were designed to respond to stress and then recover from it. But modern life doesn’t always give us that recovery time.
You wake up already thinking about everything you need to do. You check your phone. You rush through breakfast or skip it. You spend hours at your computer. One email creates another problem to solve. You eat lunch while working. Your phone keeps demanding your attention. You finish work, but your mind doesn’t.
Nothing particularly terrible has happened, yet your nervous system has received dozens of small signals throughout the day telling it to stay alert.
And when this happens day after day, cortisol can remain elevated or its normal daily rhythm can become disrupted.
What happens when cortisol stays high?
Our bodies are very clever. If there is a threat, survival becomes the priority.
Energy is made available for what needs to happen immediately, while functions that are less urgent can take a back seat.
That’s useful for a short time. It becomes a problem when the body rarely gets the message that the danger has passed.
Long-term stress and disrupted cortisol regulation can affect sleep, blood pressure, blood sugar, digestion, immune function, mood and concentration. It can also contribute to changes in appetite and where the body stores fat.
For women, the picture can become even more complex because the stress system interacts with reproductive and thyroid hormones. During perimenopause and menopause, when hormones are already changing, ongoing stress may make problems such as poor sleep, fatigue, mood changes and difficulty concentrating feel even harder to manage.
And there is a frustrating cycle here.
You are stressed, so you don’t sleep well. Because you haven’t slept well, you are tired and less able to cope with stress the following day. You may reach for more coffee or sugar to keep going. By evening you are exhausted, but your mind is still active.
The body is tired, but it hasn’t completely switched off its alert system.
Where Qi Gong can help
This is one of the reasons Qi Gong has become such an important part of my work.
When we are stressed, telling ourselves to relax rarely works. If only it were that easy.
The body needs to be involved.
Qi Gong combines slow movement, breathing, focused attention and awareness of the body. Instead of trying to think your way out of stress, you give your nervous system a different experience.
Your movements become slower. Your breathing becomes calmer. Your attention moves away from the endless stream of thoughts and back into your body.
Research on Qi Gong and related mind-body practices suggests they can help reduce perceived stress and may have beneficial effects on cortisol, although studies vary considerably in their methods and we still need stronger research before claiming that Qi Gong will reliably “normalise” cortisol for everyone.
And I think that distinction matters.
I don’t practise or teach Qi Gong because I expect one session to magically fix a hormone level. I use it because regular practice can help create the conditions in which the body is no longer receiving constant messages of urgency.
You are teaching your system how to come down from alert.
Again and again.
What changes when your stress response becomes more balanced?
The goal isn’t to keep cortisol low all the time. Healthy cortisol rises and falls.
What we want is flexibility: cortisol rising when the body genuinely needs it and coming down again when the challenge has passed.
As the stress response becomes better regulated, you may find it easier to relax after a demanding day, sleep better and wake feeling more rested. Your energy may feel steadier. Concentration may improve. Digestion can benefit. You may also notice that everyday problems don’t trigger quite the same physical reaction they once did.
Perhaps most importantly, you begin to recognise stress earlier.
You notice the shoulders tightening. The breath becoming shallow. The mind speeding up. The familiar urge to keep pushing.
And instead of waiting until you are completely exhausted, you can respond.
Sometimes with ten minutes of Qi Gong. Sometimes with a walk, a few conscious breaths, an earlier night or simply by stopping for a moment.
For me, this is one of the most valuable lessons of Qi Gong.
We cannot remove stress from life, and I don’t think that should be the goal. Work, relationships, responsibilities, unexpected events and change will always be part of being human.
But we can help the body remember something that modern life makes surprisingly easy to forget:
Not every moment is an emergency.
Experience Qi Gong for Yourself
It’s one thing to read that Qi Gong can help regulate the stress response. It’s another to experience what happens in your own body when you practise it.
If you’re curious, I invite you to join one of my free live online Qi Gong classes.
You’ll have the opportunity to experience the slow movements, breathing and body awareness we’ve talked about in this article and, most importantly, notice how you feel after the practice.
No previous experience is needed, and you can join from the comfort of your own home.
Book your free Qi Gong class here.
Come and discover what happens when you slow down, reconnect with your body and give your nervous system the space it needs to finally shift out of high-alert mode.
If this article resonated with you and you’d like to keep exploring the gentle connection between body, mind, and energy, I’d love to stay in touch. Every week, I send out a newsletter with reflections and practical tools on health, self-care, Qi Gong, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the art of living in tune with your body. Think of it as your weekly pause — a moment to breathe, learn, and reconnect with yourself.
Subscribe to my newsletter and be the first to know when a new article is out.
Let’s keep walking this path of awareness and transformation, one mindful step (and one gentle breath) at a time.
DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend on my website. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. I only endorse products and services that pass my standards of excellence – and that I would recommend to friends, family, and my clients.
