it out of our body, water is a great way to flush it out. So, water is not just to hydrate
ourselves, it is a necessity to keep ourselves emotionally happy also. Water is really very
important, and often under-emphasised.
Nutrition – It is well-known that caffeine and nicotine are stimulants, so obviously they
don’t help you relax. But things like excessive salt, not only do they cause bloating, they
deplete the body of potassium, an important mineral for our nervous system’s function;
it increases the blood pressure, which puts extra strain on the heart. It is best to stay away
from preservatives, if you can.
Stress-free eating habits – If we make some time to eat at the table, and not while
watching television, we are giving the brain the signal that we are creating the space for
relaxing time. It helps your para-sympathetic nervous system to come up, it helps your
food to digest. So you have to create an environment to stimulate that nervous system to
come into action.
Exercise – We know we should exercise, but what it does is that it works out our muscles,
and post exercise, our muscles relax. It is like the animal after it comes out of the freeze.
And that feels really good to the nervous system. It says, okay relax, there is no threat.
And if you have a constant state of anxiety, when you exercise, it metabolises the adrenal
and thyroxin in your blood and when it is not there your body is in a state of ease. All we
really need is 25 minutes of aerobic exercise.
When we are relaxed we can move towards what is interesting to us, we can be fluid and
free.
How to overcome acute stress?
When we feel acute stress, we feel threatened, we feel disempowered, and we feel alone.
Our fight, flight response goes up, we are wondering ‘what to say back’, or ‘I am just going
to walk out’ – there is some reaction. You are not your most resilient self, witty, or wiser
self. That is because your reptilian brain influences you. There are four things that are
important in alleviating acute stress:
1. Awareness of being stressed – That is really big, because often you are not aware that
you are stressed. You realize it at the end of the day, or you realize it the next day. This
requires some amount of training, for instance, the Buddhists speak of mindfulness – for
you to be in touch with your body, in and out, at different times in the day. But there is a
shortcut to this. Some of us have certain areas that give up more easily than others – so
at least that we can keep awareness of. Someone’s shoulders get stressed or their thoughts
are spinning, going nowhere – that is a sign that they are stressed. Take a moment and
think what are your signs of stress (like back-ache, head-ache…).
So, the first is to bring your awareness to the fact that y ou are stressed. It is also a good
way to stop panic attacks. The earliest you can pick it up, the sooner you can arrest it in
its cycle, the para-sympathetic nervous system going off the charts – so the less work the
nervous system has to do to calm down.
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