Unpacking: Stress and Chronic Pain

What if stress isn’t something to eliminate, but a signal your body can learn to navigate? Stress scientist and leadership advisor Dr. Alexandra Crosswell joins Holly Osborne and Dr. Megan Steele to explore the connection between chronic stress and chronic pain. They discuss why a healthy nervous system is flexible rather than calm all the time, how reframing manageable challenges can change our response, and why positive thinking has limits during illness, loss, and uncertainty. Learn how sleep, movement, nutrition, progressive muscle relaxation, and recovery time can support the body during prolonged stress. You’ll also hear practical ways to work with uncertainty, focus on what you need today, and build resilience without dismissing difficult emotions. A helpful conversation for anyone living with pain, stress, or uncertainty who wants realistic ways to care for their well-being. Guest: Dr. Alexandra Crosswell, Stress Scientist Dr. Alexandra Crosswell is a psychologist and stress scientist, as well as a sought-after keynote speaker and corporate advisor. She has spent her career studying how stress shapes human behavior. Her training began at Duke University, and she went on to earn her Ph.D. from UCLA. After spending 15 years in a rigorous academic career studying stress and resilience funded by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Crosswell began working with corporations and organizations to change the narrative around stress. Translating cutting-edge research into actionable insights, she enables leaders to operate more consistently and effectively while facing the demanding economic, societal, and technological pressures of today. Alexandra Crosswell, website Alexandra Crosswell, Substack Links to interesting things from this episode: Wendy Berry Mendes’ Emotion Health Psychophysiology Lab “Rethinking Butterflies: The Affective, Physiological, and Performance Effects of Reappraising Arousal During Social Evaluation” “Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America” by Barbara Ehrenreich “Explain Pain” by Dr. David Butler and G. Lorimer Moseley Elissa Epel, Ph.D., an international expert on stress Dr. Martin Picard “The body does not keep the score: trauma, predictive coding, and the restoration of metastability”