Stress is literally shrinking your brain.

We need bursts of stress to to do things well in our lives, we just don’t need it as a constant companion.

Having stress churning inside you from when you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed can be damaging to your brain. The release of cortisol can cause your brain to shrink in size – and make you less well equipped to cope with stress in the future.

This short TedEd video explains exactly what stress does to your brain – and how you can break the stress cycle.