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The Stress Prescription
Chronic stress quietly ages your cells and keeps your nervous system locked in overdrive. Drawing on two decades of research on telomeres and stress biology, this microbook offers a seven-day recalibration — with daily practices to lower your baseline tension, shift how you perceive hard moments, and restore your body from the inside out.
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Who it is for
For anyone who feels perpetually wired but exhausted, struggles to fully unwind even during downtime, or senses that daily tension is quietly taking a toll on their health and focus.
About the Author
Elissa Epel, PhD, is a professor and vice-chair in the Department of Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center. Her research has been featured in many science documentaries. Cowritten with Elizabeth Blackburn and published in 2017, “The Telomere Effect” was Epel’s debut book.
View author profileLessons
- Recognize the difference between stress you can influence and stress you must simply release.
- Reframe physical stress responses as fuel for performance rather than signs of threat.
- Anchor your day with intentional morning and evening rituals that protect your cells from chronic inflammation.
Key Takeaways
- The suffering from unexpected events usually comes less from the event itself and more from our mental resistance to it — the second arrow we shoot at ourselves.
- Brief, voluntary exposure to physical stressors like cold water or intense exercise trains the nervous system to recover faster, building real resilience.
- A long, slow exhale directly stimulates the vagus nerve and is one of the fastest ways to shift the body out of a stress response.
More knowledge in less time
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