Friends,
How are you doing? What I mean is, how are you really doing?
Our world keeps getting upended and it looks like it will continue to do so. Our sensations of fear and stress are experienced through and rooted in the chemistry of our bodies.
When the body is stressed, the body prepares for action: adrenalin and cortisol increase heart and respiration rate, blood vessels dilate, our senses become sharper. Following a stressful event, the parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest”) is supposed kick in to decrease stress hormones, lower blood pressure and bring us back to a state of relaxation and feeling of safety. Too many episodes of stress can cause the body to remain in a state of low grade or chronic stress which can cause inflammation in arteries, sleep problems, irritability, fatigue, inability to concentrate, and other health problems.
After the events of January 6, I observed people I know use a wide range of different coping methods: posting memes and jokes (using laughter), arguing on social media (using anger), and other methods including anxious behavior, bullying, retreating, and alcohol. I heard from friends that they had trouble sleeping, that they felt tight and tense, couldn’t relax, and felt angry and depressed.
I taught classes all week without mentioning anything about the event on Jan 6 because I didn’t want to give that negative behavior any small ounce of my energy. Instead I focused on calming breathing in all of my classes.
Check out some of the infographics (quick read) from this study from the American Psychological Association’s October 2020 report: Stress in America 2020: A National Mental Health Crisis. It is eye-opening.
Now its time for me to share something personal with you:
In 2018 I found out during a routine doctors visit that I had Stage 2 Hypertension (high blood pressure). I kept thinking, “What? How?” — I ate healthy, got sleep, exercised, meditated, did yoga, did everything right. How could this be happening? I didn’t experience any symptoms. I kept monitoring it weekly, kept doing things right, it seemed to be getting better, very very slowly. I renewed my meditation practice, went to bed earlier, practiced calming breathing more regularly, I kept up (and ramped up) my physical activity level. It has been only during 2020 that my blood pressure has returned to normal. Looking back I can see that the huge amount of stress that I was handling during 2018 and 2019 (when my nervous system was ratcheted to its limit multiple times a day) was causing inflammation and hypertension in my body to the point that it took nearly two years for my system to return to a relaxed state…… while doing all the right things!
So what does relaxing really mean? Some like to relax by watching movies, others like to sleep, read, post funny memes on Facebook, eat ice cream, get a massage, take a bath. There is nothing wrong with any of those things, and they may be effective; but “relaxing” to our physical body doesn’t mean simply doing something that “feels” relaxing necessarily. It’s close enough, but not precise. To relax the physical systems in our body, we need to deliberately trigger the relaxation response by kicking in the parasympathetic nervous system. Don’t like meditating or yoga? Exercising and socializing work. There are many other ways including breathing, media fasting, gum chewing, and yawning. Want to learn all about breathing and health and how to regulate your nervous system using breath? I highly recommend the book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
I didn’t realize how much stress my own physical body was experiencing because it didn’t “feel” like stress. The nervous system is very subtle; we often aren’t aware of what is actually going on in our own bodies. We often don’t try new things that could be helpful to us because we are lazy, unmotivated, and we have no way of knowing if they really work.
In the face of the events in the world, every one of us is likely experiencing chronic stress to some degree. Find ANY practice you enjoy that deliberately triggers your relaxation response and keep doing it. Try new things, keep connected to your sensations, reactions, keep evaluating, and readjust daily and move forward.
Let’s keep connected to our bodies and to each other and keep learning, moving, and doing the right things.
Don’t give up! We’ve got this.
Holly
Everything I’m up to: https://linktr.ee/hollyhalvorson