Mind-Body Connectivity- Overcoming Stress
Happi Healthi Yogi here! Today we are focusing on the mind-body connection and what it means to be living in a state of calm. In today’s society, it’s the norm to be constantly stressed and busy. Go-go-go is the motto!! This is all fine and dandy, but making sure we are taking time to take care of our mind and body to bring us back to a restorative state is crucial. Our nervous system is the leader behind how we feel each day. It regulates our ability to control feelings of stress or peace is arguably the most important thing we can do for our health. Why? The nervous system dictates communication between the organs and the brain, interprets signals and sends reactions to external factors, and regulates mood and bodily functions.
Since stressed-out nervous systems are the norm, there are so many side effects to a burned-out lifestyle that we consider to be normal. Symptoms like IBS, nervous rashes, mood-regulating medication, brain fog, irritability, and low libido are all things we do not have to live with and often don’t require a doctor’s visit to treat. In this blog we will discuss how the nervous system works, recognizing divisions and common triggers of the nervous system, and how to regulate them.
Breaking Down the Nervous System
The nervous system is the lifeline of communication between external and internal functions and reactions in the body. It is made up of two main components: the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (nerve endings extending from central to organs in the body). Think of the peripheral system as millions of messengers sending signals from the organs to the brain. Our focus today is on the peripheral system.
One of the main sectors of the peripheral system is regulating internal messages through the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system involuntarily regulates bodily functions such as respiration, blood pressure, heart rate, libido, and digestion to name a few. For us, regulating this system is the most important part to focus on to support a healthy gut and happy mood.
Our autonomic system is very dependent on hormones for communication and contains distinct divisions: parasympathetic and sympathetic. This part might sound familiar.
To explain let’s use an analogy. If the autonomic system is a car, the sympathetic division is the gas and the parasympathetic division is the brakes. Sympathetic prepares the body for stressful or emergency situations, ‘fight or flight’, and leads to the slowing of body processes that are not important in emergencies, one of them being digestion.
Parasympathetic does the opposite, is where we want to be most of the time. This division ensures conservation and restoration. It signals to the body, you’re safe, now do what you need to do to relax, decompress, and eliminate from the body. So it is the gut’s best friend because it signals to the gut to process food and eliminate waste.
How Do I Know if I'm Living in Fight or Flight?
Side effects of being in one nervous system state for too long are very common, and often are considered ‘normal’. But I’m here to scream it from the mountaintop: anxiety, inflammation, brain fog, constant illness, and stress rashes are not normal!!!
Let’s go back to the car analogy. If you are all gas and no brakes all the time, eventually the car is going to break down. You are way more likely to overreact highly to small triggers that could be avoided if the system was controlled. Little tiny stresses can cause full-blown anxiety, a slight allergic reaction can become a full-blown rash or hives, and emotional control is at an all-time low. So if you have ever overreacted to a text, or your Uber Eats delivery man is a million years behind schedule and you’re going into hangry mode, just blame your sympathetic system. Additionally, in fight or flight, your nervous system constantly produces inflammatory signals to your body because it is trying to protect you from the ‘harm’ that your body thinks it’s in. So when you’re stressed, you’re also going to be puffy and inflamed which I find to be one of the biggest F U the body can do. Don’t think this is a normal state of living, it is fixable and I'm here to help you fix yours!!!
How Do We Leave a State of Fight or Flight?
The first step is recognizing the triggers and feelings that come along with being in this high-stress state. Some common signs include rapid heartbeat while sedentary, irritability or low ability to regulate emotions (crying or overreacting without being able to control), cold constantly, random rushes of cold adrenaline, sweating constantly, low libido, low appetite, low immunity, brain fog, inability to concentrate, and poor sleep. I know, some of these might hit a little too close to home, but facing the facts is the first step to changing your reality.
Once you recognize these triggers you can add in lifestyle changes to overcome these reactions. For me, journaling was a great way to track how I felt, along with what I did that day, and makes cross-referencing easier to gauge your typical mood. What I found was kind of frightening, I was often stressed, unable to concentrate, and irritable.
There are several remedies to nourish hormones that regulate our fight or flight, but the two things that had the biggest impact on my overall mood, reactivity, and ability to focus were meditation and yoga.
Meditation and yoga are the best options for finding inner calm and turning the off button on stress. Low-stress movement like yoga forces us to align our breathing with the motion of our body and turns attention toward the mind-body connection and away from outside triggers. It also creates unison between mind and body which strengthens the communication pathway between your vital organs and the brain. Even if it’s just for five minutes, you are shifting your bodies neuropathway’s and triggering the calm.
Meditation does the same. It allows our focus to go onto our breath to calm the mind and pull away attention from external stressors. It more importantly strengthens our ability to sense our ‘gut instincts’. Since so many of the important ‘happy’ signals are produced in the gut, they are more likely to travel to the brain and impact our overall mood when we are aligned with how we actually think and feel. This is more commonly known as our intuition. For a further deep dive into meditation, check out my ‘Meditation 101’ blog for more.
There are other ways of de-activating our sympathetic system/ nourishing stress hormones:
- Sea salt with warm water when first waking up
- Getting sun exposure within the first hour of waking up
- Pilates, walking, or any other low-impact form of working out (avoid HIIT, cross-fit, or other high-intensity workouts when trying to regulate cortisol)
- Eating whole foods and avoiding processed and fried foods
- Avoid coffee first thing after waking up, or consuming it before food
- Limit social media scrolling, especially first thing after waking up
Since implementing some of these practices into my life I have seen results in my mental, emotional, and physical being. I no longer rely on my ADHD medication to be productive at work. This for me was huge, and I react with less force to negative triggers. I have also noticed when breath and intention are coupled with movement it creates a stronger definition in the body. I’m not perfect, and no one should strive to be, but these signs are showing progress toward better, and that’s all I can ask for.
Regulating your nervous system improves your quality of life mentally, emotionally, and physically. Challenge yourself to some of the options above and commit every day for a week to see how you feel. Even if it’s 5 minutes, your body will thank you for it.
But remember, reward is a direct reflection of effort. You get out of this practice exactly the same level of effort you are willing to put in. Living in a higher state is achievable, and this I believe is an amazing first step. Give this your all and you will be equally rewarded.
Namaste Friends.