Dear reader,
Today’s letter is for anyone who feels stuck in a stress response. With the Israel-Palestine conflict, not to mention ordinary life anxieties, know that you are not alone. Having a stress response to violence in another country is a manifestation of empathy and compassion, which is beautiful and necessary and powerful. Thank yourself for that. Love is moving and leading you.
If your ordinary life stressors are louder right now than your ability to hold or even read about the conflict, I hope you don’t plague yourself with guilt. Your body is working to protect you in your own life. Your brain is rapidly processing what it has the capacity to handle (or not). Your stress is valid, too.
I’m putting on my yoga teacher hat for this one - can you tell? ; )
Let’s start by just identifying physical symptoms of stress:
Heart rate is fast, even when resting
Heart rhythm abnormalities
Digestive issues like constipation, diarrhea, and indigestion
Fatigue
Sweating
Trouble sleeping
Mental symptoms of stress:
Struggling to make decisions
Eating too much or too little
Forgetting things
Feeling restless
Chronic worrying
Sense of dread
If you are experiencing any of these, you are likely inhabiting your sympathetic nervous system. It’s a super fun club. Welcome!
In yoga, we often treat this part of our autonomic system as a villain. But it’s actually a hero. It helps us to identify threats and respond quickly. When in our sympathetic nervous system, our eyes dilate. Our heart rate increases. Our hip flexors tighten, preparing to run. Our brain chooses: fight, flee, or freeze. We may feel urged to charge straight into action. We may want to run away from the problem. Or we might become paralyzed, unable to act. All these responses are normal. None are superior or inferior. Observe your response with curiosity, never judgment. Thank your sympathetic nervous system for keeping you safe.
Perhaps you’re not in imminent danger, but your body is reacting otherwise.
Also normal. We don’t have to be chased by a bear to have a stress response. It can come from an unread email. The ding of a notification. A news headline. An approaching deadline. The sound of a dog barking loudly or a car horn honking.
In cases of traumatic events or chronic stress, the nervous system can lose its ability to regulate itself.
One can become stuck in a stress response, constantly ready to react, constantly hyper aroused, until switching into fatigue, depression, and disconnection. Then back again to anxiety. It’s the least fun teeter totter.
You can’t necessarily prevent a stress response, but you can observe it when it happens.
Your body, ever wise, will tell you.
And then what?
Take stock of your surroundings. Where are you? Are you physically safe? Can you step away from whatever caused a stress response? When you get to as safe of a location as you can, you can take steps to move into your parasympathetic nervous system.
By activating our parasympathetic nervous system, we transition out of our stress response and into rest.
We feel relaxed and safe. Our heart rate slows to a steady beat. Our body’s systems - the digestive system, the urinary system, and the immune system - are able to restore, regulate, and care for us. Sometimes our bodies need extra help from us to move into this state - especially when we are stuck in chronic stress.
Simple ways to stimulate your rest and digest response:
Elevate the heart over the head. This can be done by placing a pillow, bolster, or yoga block under the sacrum. Or by settling into a child's pose.
Slow down the breath, making your exhales longer than your inhales. As you do this, breathe fully into your belly, then your ribs, then your chest. Think about softening through the lungs. My favorite pranayama is called ascending breath. Breathe in for a count of 1, out for 2, in for 3, and onward until 10.
Listen to music at a frequency of 432 hertz. Like this one!
In sum: you owe your body care. Rest is where it heals. Treat yourself gently, friends. I love you.
Until next time,
A
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