to something, but not meant to be in your body 24 hours a day or 18 hours a day at
even lower levels. So, how does that dissolve? That dissolves when the calming nervous
system i.e. the para-sympathetic nervous system has a chance to come up, because what
that does is that it tells the brain that I am not stressed any more, so the adrenal is not
produced any more. It allows digestion to happen, and you can absorb new energy for
the rest of the stuff; the toxins are secreted, your kidneys work well – you are not just
trying to produce cortisone to deal with the threat – but your kidneys are functioning
and cleansing your body of all the stuff that’s come.
Chronic stress can lead to serious health problems, because it compromises our nervous
system, it compromises our immune system. It increases our risk of heart attack and
stroke; it can contribute to infertility. On one hand, it can suppress our immune system,
because the para-sympathetic nervous system is not getting a chance to get activated;
on the other hand if your sympathetic nervous system is highly activated, autoimmune
disorders happen, where you start attacking your own body organs. You age much
more quickly, you have skin problems like eczema, you have digestive problems from
malabsorption to irritable bowel syndrome to weight problems, because your body is not
functioning the way it should.
So why is it that the stress reaction happens on its own – we don’t have to do anything
for it, but relaxation response, even though it is innate, it doesn’t come up, we need to
do something for it? It is because our environment is no longer conducive to eliciting
that. When ten things are drawing your attention your stress response is ready to get
activated. ‘Oh, I haven’t finished this. Oh, I haven’t done that. Oh, that person is calling
me’ – so, all of that is giving messages to stimulate your stress response. Unlike the
animals, we do not let go – for instance, once the animals are done, they have nothing
else to distract them, once they have survived, they are going to laze somewhere, they are
not going to brood on the next thing they have to finish. So that’s our responsibility – the
relaxation response needs our will, needs our effort to kick in. And if you set in the right
environment, it will kick in.
How to overcome chronic stress?
Chronic stress does need us to change things in our lifestyle. Acute stress – we can do
with some interventions in the moment, but this does require a little bit more effort.
The first thing is to understand the need for deep relaxation. Deep relaxation is the exact
opposite physiological state of a stress response – metabolism decreases, breathing slows
down. Some people say, ‘If I do it one day, what difference will it make, everyday I am
still going to be stressed.’ But research shows that if you do it consistently, for a period of
time, the general level at which your nervous system gets set – that reduces. So, it is of
value in the long run, it is not just for those 20 minutes.
The next is abdominal breathing.
Bring your awareness to your breath.
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