Slow the Stress Response

What are the bears in your life?

Do you fight bears?

Recently, I started a Facebook challenge on the Nourishing Roots: Mind, Body, Spirit page where each week I post one challenge for followers to incorporate into their lives that will strengthen them in mind, body, and/or spirit.

This past week's challenge was to slow the stress response by learning how to tap into the parasympathetic nervous system and get off of the sympathetic fight, flight, or freeze response. I separated it into a three part series, and I wanted to share the compilation here, with the videos I included to accompany it. (If you do not feel like reading through to the end, at least skip down to watch the video on how to use breathing to tap into the parasympathetic response.)

Give me an “amen” if you feel stressed in life.

It may sound shocking, but me too! We all operate in a minefield of stress every day. We run late, everyone needs us, we have a to-do list that we couldn’t accomplish in a month much less in the day it needs to be completed in, we have jobs… the list goes on and on!

This is why we are going to focus this week on slowing the stress response by getting in touch with our parasympathetic nervous systems.

“Wait - my what?” you may be asking.

If so, that's okay! I know it's been a long time since high school health class, but hang on with me for the week and we will cover the major bases. Because there is a lot I want to share, I am splitting this article into three sections, so if you miss one, check back at Nourishing Roots: Mind, Body, Spirit Inc. for the other portions of the article.

Most likely you have heard of the fight, flight, or freeze response when responding to danger. These are the reactions created by the sympathetic nervous system, part of the autonomic nervous system.

Opposite of the somatic nervous system, which controls muscles and movement and can be consciously controlled, the autonomic nervous system controls our body's automatic responses to events by regulating our heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and digestion.

So when a bear attacks - or you are running late to work, find the coffee maker broken, realize you have no food to put on the dinner table, or are suffering through the fifth tantrum of the day - your autonomic nervous system kicks in with a sympathetic response. Basically this means the brain, acting as your body's general, commands hormones (your body's soldiers) to flood the system in order to protect you. Did you watch the video at the top of the page? We feel like the man on the right fighting a real bear when in reality it is not always as real-life ferocious as we perceive it to be.

The sympathetic response looks like this:

• Blood pressure increases to more quickly deliver blood to the lungs, heart, and muscles for a quick escape from the perceived danger

• Blood flow to the digestive and reproductive systems (I mean, they can’t stop a charging bear)

• Stress hormones (i.e. cortisol, the stress hormone) and neurotransmitters (i.e. epinephrine - you know, that stuff in an EPI pen) flash flood the body to increase strength and speed

• Glucose (sugar) is rapidly released and burned for a quick energy boost

While this is exactly the design God created, our lifestyles and habits of mind have created a monster inside of our bodies. Most of us live in a constant sympathetic state. Without realizing it, our bodies are constantly in DefCon 5 with our general (the brain), her majors (the organs of the endocrine system, especially the adrenals), and their soldiers (our hormones) never getting a break. They are constantly on the edge. So it’s no wonder when we hit thirty things suddenly start falling apart.

A closer look at the parasympathetic response.

God, in his infinite wisdom, created a balance to our sympathetic nervous system - the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system, often known as the “rest and digest” system, controls our ability to relax. It controls our resting heart rate, metabolism, and breathing rate.

The parasympathetic response looks like this:

• Blood pressure decreases

• Heart rate and respiration slow

• Blood flow increases to digestive and reproductive systems

• Stress hormones decrease

• Neurotransmitters that relax the body increase

Though the autonomic nervous system is like an automatic car, shifting into higher and lower gears as necessary, we do have a little bit of manual override, like where you can choose to move into 1st or 2nd gear on your gearstick because you need that little extra bit of control.

The parasympathetic nervous system is controlled by the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a wandering nerve, covering area from the brainstem to the abdomen. It controls both sensory and motor functions, and a healthy “vagal tone” can help you regulate emotion, respond to stress and perceived stress more calmly (bringing it down to DefCon 1 or 2) and increase your health and longevity.

So how do we tap into our parasympathetic nervous system?

There are quite a few ways to do this. One of the most common ways is by breathing. Because the vagus nerve runs behind the throat and branches of it help control voice production, breathing, and swallowing, learning breath control can go a long way in stimulating the calming vagal response.

Try these exercises:

• 5x5x5 - inhale 5, hold 5, exhale 5, hold 5, repeat

• 4x8 - inhale 4, exhale 8

You can breathe while you walk, work, drive, or just sit still. Sitting still and pairing breathing with calming mental images may help to increase the calming effect.

If you practice daily, even for only 5 minutes a day, in time you should start noticing things that used to stress you out (strangely, for me, this included washing dishes) do not elicit as much of a stress response any more.

If you are interested in learning more about how to use the parasympathetic nervous system while increasing flexibility, check out my yoga and flexibility services and schedule a free consultation.