TIPS FOR REDUCING STRESS

Transcription

1 TIPS FOR REDUCING STRESS It seems that many countries have traditional practices dating back for millennia: t ai chi, meditation, prayer, chanting, yoga, etc These practices have been studied recently for their effects on our brain and body. In the early studies done on this issue, practitioners of yoga reported a feeling of general well being that was hard to explain with the science at the time. Experienced meditators elicited interest for their reported ability to slow down their heart rate and reduce their blood pressure. Upon close scrutiny, some of these claims did not hold up. However, the reports of well-being continued, and measurements of levels of certain hormones in the blood revealed a drop in the chronic stress hormone cortisol. It turns out that many of the traditional practices result in powerful changes at the level of our gene expression. As you may know, many of our genes are inactive at any given time: genes are turned on or off in response to environmental conditions. In times of high stress, certain genes turn on to help us cope with the situation. However, if something keeps the perception of stress high, these responses continue and eventually become harmful. For example, it is good for our blood to be prone to clotting when we are anticipating a risk of injury. However, it must return to its proper state to avoid a blood clot in the wrong place.

2 Another example: it is good to have constricted blood vessels briefly in response to danger: we may be injured and need to limit bleeding. Over time, however, if the high blood pressure continues, blood vessels will be damaged and cholesterol plaques may form. Our brains are hard-wired to pay attention to danger, and to replay dangerous or upsetting scenarios. It is up to us to actively engage in positive, reassuring, empowering thoughts, to balance out our natural tendencies. Of course, you also want to solve some of the issues that cause recurrent stress, if at all possible. If you just let things run their course, you are likely to remember the things you did wrong, replay them and feel almost like they multiply. You are likely to forget what went well, what you saw that was beautiful or what happened that was gratifying, because within moments, you turn to tackle a new problem. The practices in this handout help you balance out the brain s tendency to live in fear. A body that can be convinced that it is safe has no need to run high sugar levels, high cholesterol levels, to hoard food and calories, to overreact to stress, or to stay awake at night. A body that feels threatened will put off fighting germs, digesting food, dismantling chemicals, being interested in sex, and in connecting intimately with loved ones. It has immediate priorities, not long-term goals. It displays tunnel vision, not creative problem solving. It burns the candle at both ends: it does not have the luxury to be concerned intimacy, or with living a long, happy, healthy life. Some of us are more likely than others to get stuck on stressful thoughts multiple times a day. This includes those of us with significant stressors during childhood (called adverse childhood events ), including sexual abuse, parent incarcerated, death of a parent, divorce, parent with substance abuse or mental illness, and domestic violence in the home. This is because when used repeatedly, certain neural circuits get well worn and become the path of least resistance causing our thoughts to lead to an excessively robust stress response. It even includes those of us whose parents or grandparents had traumatic experiences, because they are transmitted down the generations by epigenetic modification of genes. Stress that affects our mother when we are in her womb can powerfully change the way our genes are programmed. They become programmed to overreact, and

3 thus have to be calmed down frequently and repeatedly. We can still lead a happy life we can turn any adversity to an advantage. It is going to be a lot of work, but the alternative is not a great choice. These practices are taken from the book The Last Best Cure by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. She is a journalist and health writer who faced her own serious illness with the help of these techniques and found, over the course of a year, that they transformed her outlook, her body, and even her blood test results! Nakazawa recommends doing three things from your toolkit every day. For her, one is a breathing exercise, and another is to ask herself daily what three things went well today and why. Breathing exercises One of the most important nerves going from the brain to the body and back is the vagus nerve. When it is stimulated, it sends the signal that we are safe; we can relax; our life is not at risk. One trick is that the vagus nerve can be directly stimulated, mechanically if you will, by breathing deeply (because the diaphragm pulls on it and stretches it), and by chanting ohm (due to the vibration). Here s a breathing exercise that pulls on the vagus nerve: Take a deep breath to the count of five. Do a three part breath, filling your lower belly, upper belly and chest. Hold the breath to a count of five. Breathe out slowly to the count of five. Do five of these when you wake up, before each meal, and again at bedtime. Repeat them again when you are in a tense situation. Soon you will find yourself doing them automatically anytime you tense up unconsciously. Other breathing exercises bring on a sense of calm in other ways. Here are some you can explore, as listed in The Last Best Cure : - Tsoknyi Rinpoche s rapid exhale exercise - Andrew Weil s relaxing breath - Alternate nostril breathing - Ocean or ujjayi breath - Kapalabhati breath

4 - - - Breath of joy Breath of fire Kundalini yoga Guided imagery This was not covered in Nakazawa s book, but many are available free or at low cost online. One website to explore is that of Dr. Marty Rossman, called The Healing Mind. There are also free visualizations on the Kaiser Permanente website. The Tapping Solution, or Emotional Freedom Technique This is a technique using acupressure points on the face to calm down the nervous system. It can be done quickly and easily. It should be repeated up to 10 times a day. You use a set up statement. You may learn this online, or we can discuss it in the office. One learning tool is a youtube video: the tapping solution by Jessica Ortner, or at the website Emotional Brain Training This set of tools for bringing yourself back to a state of calm and for interrupting harmful stress circuits has a lot of high-powered research background. It is described in detail in Laurel Mellin s book Wired for Joy. Well worth reading and practicing. The website is Heartmath This is a tool that is based on biofeedback and requires the purchase of a $300 handheld device you can use to analyze your heart rate and provide biofeedback. Using your thoughts, and focusing on imagining a warm feeling in your heart, you change the way your heart beats, ultimately causing a drop in blood cortisol levels. You practice using your small biofeedback machine for 10 minutes, twice a day. You can upload your information into a computer program that tracks your progress. Gratitude Journal Popularized in the press, this just requires a low-tech notebook, where you write every evening, three things you are grateful for. You can also write less often, and definitely don t write if you are resenting this exercise! What went well today and why

5 This is a variation on the gratitude journal where you get to think why something went well: for example, a presentation you gave went well because you did a lot of preparation work; or the dinner went well because your friends were so helpful. Author Donna Nakazawa says that she writes these three things on an index card and puts it under her pillow. If she wakes up in the middle of the night and begins to worry about something, she touches her card and brings herself back to the events of the previous day that went well, remembering everything she did right. Write about the worst thing that happened to you for 20 minutes x 3 days This seems like a counter-intuitive thing to do: why bring back old memories? However, I think it works to transfer feelings from a deep part of your brain, the amygdala, where they may live as primitive felt events, to the cortex, and the left brain, where feelings are named and thus their power is removed. I first heard about this exercise in research on rheumatoid arthritis: after doing this exercise, the patients overall pain score was significantly reduced for a long time. Name feelings This is a more immediate version: whenever you feel stressed, upset, anxious, and you are not in the middle of a life-threatening situation, name the feeling ( I am afraid, I am sad, I am angry ). Remember that in many cases fear is also a type of anticipation (like stage fright we are both afraid and excited that something is happening). Remember also that sadness is the opposite side of the coin to joy: you must feel one to feel the other. And remember that the antidote to anger is compassion think a compassionate thought about the situation that is making you angry and your feelings will be much reduced. This is not about blocking your feelings, only about naming them and looking at different sides of them. Research (detailed in The Last Best Cure ) shows that certain parts of the brain reduce their excitation when feelings are named: feelings stop being so overwhelming. The bottom line is that we can t let every negative feeling run rampant through our physiology, raising our blood pressure and constricting blood vessels at will: we can take charge, we can remind ourselves that our lives are safe and that the situation at hand may matter very little (if at all) one week or one year from now. YOGA and MEDITATION In future documents, I hope to write also about yoga and meditation. One great series of interviews to watch is The Compassionate Brain with Rick Hansen, on the Sounds True website,