What Mindfulness Offers for Living with Present Day Stress

Tiger stalking prey. Photo by Nikhil Nagle

Stress is our body's natural biological response when triggered by a threat of imminent danger or a demand. This response has evolved over the millennia (and continues to!) to a perfected system-wide series of chemical releases and reactions for optimizing our survival.

Our typical reaction includes:

• Increased focus and attention
• Increased heart rate to optimize oxygenation
• Shift of energy and strength to particular areas of the body
• Suppression of the immune and digestive systems. (Who needs to fight off a cold or finish digesting that meal when we ourselves may become a meal?)
• Converted energies for strength and stamina
• Released cortisol

After a threatening event, our systems return to normal and we carry on digesting food, fighting off potential illness, and planning our next steps.

All of these reactions, honed over tens of thousands of years, support an appropriate response for physical danger--fight, flight or freeze. It is only in our most recent generations that our experience with stress has shifted from a real need to protect our physical bodies to a perceived need to protect our sense of self.

But our biology automatically responds the same--whether there is an actual threat or a perceived threat--and today, it can lead to chronic health problems.

Our systems are designed for quick spurts of intense action and then plenty of time for rest and recuperation.

For most of us today, it is very rare that we are in actual eminent physical danger, and yet our mind and body continue to respond in these exacting ways.

If the triggers for our stress response are extreme or ongoing, our body can lock into the fight, flight or freeze response, leaving us continuously bathed in the biochemistry of stress.  As well, our muscles become chronically tensed and, over time, our bodies get exhausted and our minds overwhelmed.

Our responses to stress are designed for quick physical action and quick release. But, these ongoing autonomic responses can lead to what we presently known as stress-related illnesses, including:

• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Gastrointestinal difficulties
• Immunological disorders
• Sleep difficulties

Without an active plan to help curb the frequency, intensity or release of tension, we become more susceptible to these conditions. Of course, physical exercise is a great tension reliever, but mindfulness offers us more hope in some unique ways.

Mindfulness practice helps us work directly with the signals that send the body into fight, flight or freeze. By strengthening our ability to pause and choose, mindfulness helps us evaluate a potentially threatening situation more accurately giving us more freedom to choose an appropriate response.

For example, tuning into our surroundings and purposefully relaxing when we notice ourselves responding to a non-threatening situation with a stress response is a way of shifting and releasing the body's automatic response. It begins with mindfully noticing where we actually are--looking at sights, listening to sounds, feeling our hands and feet, noticing our breath. Use this as an opportunity to assure yourself that you are physically safe at this moment. Take a few deep breaths to elicit the relaxation response and if it's appropriate, bring your hands to your heart and belly. Think of a few reassuring phrases that would let you know you are okay and silently and lovingly repeat them to yourself.  This loving awareness begins a natural letting go and our conscious intention for relaxing cultivates and ongoing undoing of the stress and tension.

This conscious gentle mindful attention interrupts the habit of response, shifting the chemical bath, and opens us to the loving wisdom available from a heart and mind at rest--allowing us greater access to choose our next steps.

Inquiry:

How do you know when you're stressed? What happens in YOUR body?

~JoAnn Saccato, MA, is a mindfulness teacher, life coach, author and consultant. She is the author of Companioning the Sacred Journey: A Guide to Creating a Compassionate Container for Your Spiritual Practice and Mindful and Intentional Living: A Path to Peace Clarity and Freedom.

Mindfulness is an umbrella term for a large body of popular health and wellness practices based on purposefully bringing a curious, kind and non-judgmental attention to our moment by moment experience. It is a scientifically proven approach that helps reduce stress and stress-related illnesses, increase focus and attention, decrease incidences of and relapses with depression, reduce anxiety, reduce relapses in addiction, and aids in sleep and digestive disorders. It has also been shown to increase well being, life satisfaction and happiness, as well as improved social relationships.

You can reach JoAnn at [email protected] . To follow her and receive a free guided loving kindness meditation and webinar to help you sleep better, visit: www.MindfulAndIntentionalLiving.com