Alexandra Crosswell on Sustaining Wellbeing in Times of Stress

Alexandra Crosswell, PhD

Explorer of the well-lived life. Psychological Scientist (@ucsf). Interfaith Spiritual Director. Feminine leadership advocate. Mothering 3 boys.

Podcast or streaming series you're currently binging?

Oprah's Super Soul Podcast—so many good interviews, insights, ideas! 

What makes you feel like a real grown-up?

The fact that I have a PhD! That still surprises and delights me. 

Best gift you gave or received?

My husband mentored a teenager many years ago in Los Angeles that we became very close with, when we were moving out of the city we gave him our car instead of selling it. When we told him we were leaving it for him, this strong, tough 17-year-old put his head in his hands and started sobbing. Having a reliable car was life changing for him and his family, and it was a luxury we had up until then taken for granted.

Science says: meaning matters (a lot).

The Verse: Your research—around the biology of stress and its connection to disease—seems highly relevant in this post(ish)-COVID world. How did you find your way to that space?

Dr. Crosswell: When I was in high school we were dealing with a family tragedy and I remember my mom saying, “I can feel it [the grief] in my body.” A few months later she was at a doctor's appointment and mentioned her hip had been bothering her, thinking it was a sports injury—it ended up being stage four cancer. She passed away a year later, and I thought, what could explain how someone so healthy—my mom never smoked, was the picture of health—could get this aggressive disease? To me it connected right back to that major stressor and how she had felt her body internalize it.

Later I studied health psychology as an undergrad, and the research we looked at was on the mind/body connection and how psychological factors impact disease. My path went forward from there.

What do we know about how living with constant stress—like, say, enduring a global pandemic, political unrest, climate change and a constant threat of gun violence—can impact our health?

There’s no question that stress impacts health—we established that 30 years ago. There’s lots of research, so now the question is: What do we do about it? How do we get it out there so it can benefit more people? 

The field has shifted from a mindset of how to manage the stress we live with—relationships, work, finances and beyond—toward an emphasis on sustaining wellbeing. I work with an incredible professional society called the Mind & Life Institute. They bring together practitioners in the wisdom traditions with scientists to explore how we can put contemplative wisdom into practice in a scientifically rigorous way. How can we learn to sustain happiness and compassion amid all the suffering we experience and see? 

That sounds great—where do we sign up?

Alas, it’s not a quick fix, like here’s a pill just take it and you’ll have these effects. We studied the Headspace app and found that it worked to decrease anxiety and feeling stressed—when it was actually used. But about two-thirds of users didn’t actually do the meditations. What kind of an intervention is that, if you can’t get people to do it? 

We need to instead focus on helping people find what they like to do in terms of mind-body practices so it can be sustainable for them. Identify what practices help you tap into a relaxed psychological state that helps your body heal—then focus on trying to get to that deeply relaxed state. Maybe it’s walking, gardening, cooking, going to church. We know that spiritual practice can help you reach that quiet bodily state where at a cellular level your mitochondrial energy is no longer feeding stress arousal, but supporting cellular restoration. 

One of the drums we beat at The Verse is the fact that we’re living longer—which comes with ample opportunity but also means we need to take care of ourselves with an eye toward longevity. How does this all fit together?

My mentor, Dr. Elissa Epel, wrote a book on this topic. Her research has shown that long periods of chronic stress can accelerate cell aging. In one study, she recruited 200 women, half of whom were mothers of children with autism and reported high levels of chronic stress ('caregiving moms'), and half of the same age mothers who had children that were neurotypically developing and reported low stress. The results showed that the rate of cell aging—as measured in telomere length and telomerase production—was significantly faster in the caregiving moms compared to the control group. So this study shows that chronic stress has a direct path to accelerating degradation of cells, and that parents in particular under chronic stress need supportive interventions. 

Okay so if there’s one thing we take from your research, it’s….?

I think a lot of people are pretty miserable right now—and I believe part of the reason is because we've lost our ability to get close to ourselves as well as something bigger or beyond ourselves. 

I think the research is showing that it's not just you—the stress of modern life, the disconnection from others, the fast-paced, technology-driven world, and big global issues are wearing on many of us. And the research also shows that there are now evidence-based practices to help you protect your own inner well-being. One great place to find these simple short mind-body practices is UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/).

Find a practice that takes you to a state of relaxation more pronounced than what you feel on the couch binging your favorite show. Getting to that place takes practice. It doesn’t matter what gets you there—find something that connects you to your inner self: spiritual practices, yoga, an immersive hobby. Find what works for you so it’s enjoyable and sustainable.