Blood moves to our skeletal muscles away from all non vital organs such as our digestive system, hormones fly out of balance to fire up our senses, hide any pain we may have that could slow us down and get us aggravated and ready to
react.
This isn't the state we would learn, digest, recover and create in is it?
If the tiger above was running at you, I doubt you would stop to admire its beauty, draw a picture, contemplate its lineage or write a poem would you?
We
have two parts to our autonomic nervous systems (automatic bodily processes):
- Parasympathetic (PNS): The parasympathetic system is responsible for stimulation of "rest-and-digest" or "feed and breed" activities that occur when the body is at rest, especially after eating
- Sympathetic(SNS): primary process is to stimulate the body's fight or
flight. It is, however, constantly active at a basic level to maintain homeostasis
When our sympathetic nervous system is working hard the parasympathetic nervous system lowers activity
This is another amazing symmetry our body produces to keep us alive, however this adapted when situations that fired up our
sympathetic nervous system were of less duration and less often:
- fight off an attacker then recover and rest, or be dead
- run after prey or away from becoming prey
- run away from natural disasters
Our ancestors would only have to endure this stress for a while then get some recovery
time.
Now think of our lives now: on the go, faster is better, deadline after deadline, emails, texts, traffic, crowds, financial worries and responsibilities everywhere! (exhausting isn't it!?)
THIS...HAPPENS...ALL..YEAR...LONG!
Apply the last point to what our
body must be going through:
The sympathetic nervous system is on overdrive. Our adrenals are always excreting adrenaline, cortisol always raised and our body is on edge.
Where in this hormone stress soup is the chance for our bodies to rest, digest, repair and improve?
- Ever tried to be creative in a
set time during a stressful day?
- Notice how decisions and aspirations come to us on holiday or whilst doing something physical that relaxes us?
A rushed lunch = bloated tummy later, correct?
So...what can we do?
- pause, breathe and
take time to just focus on your heartbeat at least once a day. Deep breathing stimulates the Valgus nerve which triggers the PNS
- limit foods that stressful to you. Of course you need to work at this, however an inflammatory food to you adds stress in its own way
- reduce the need to self medicate...you can give up that thing you want to and it will make life easier, I promise!
- give yourself an hour a day to do something that relaxes you
- look into meditation, the gold standard of de-stressing
- find an outlet for your fight response: lifting some weights, boxing, running etc tells our lizard brain that you have done something with the response
- find more time: the busiest people I've worked with have always
found some time in the day when they have really needed to do so! Audit your time across your last 24 hours and be creative
- slow down: this is my big one...a PT is ruled by the diary so I've started blocking in rest periods just as I would sessions/ meetings
- read a real book before bed...something light
- go for a walk, ideally in a forest. I get funny looks
walking about in my suit when I've broken up a journey with a walk. People look for my dog etc. I find it a bit sad that we don't see more people doing this!
- be present with the people you are with. They are the most important person at this precise moment. You are NOT missing anything elsewhere
- cull social media: I write these emails instead of facebook scrolling these days. I'm creating in my life
instead of reading about others lives!
Take some time out over Christmas and New Year to do some work ON your life rather than being IN your life.
Where could you free up space to de-stress, relax OFTEN?
Breathe, rest, digest and relax at regular intervals during the day.
Do you really need to be on the go so much? I know I don't!
J
