Reboot the Nerves
In our modern lives, we rarely have a truly life threatening event, we typically are NOT being chased down by a lion, bear, or violent invader. Yet we often feel like something major is happening, as we work on a big project at work, determine who to date, decide which product to buy, choose which medical treatment to take, or respond to climate disasters, etc. Our mental and energetic focus on this event/activity sometimes tells our body that this is almost a life-threatening situation - it’s concerning and stressful and our body needs to get ready for action. At night, we may think about our options, the pros and cons, and what we should do. This major decision or event takes a bunch of our mental and physical energy. Through evolution, we’re wired to rise to the task and do all we can to survive and do what we need to do. Your nervous system responds; your body releases extra glucose (sugars), cortisol (stress hormones), and adrenaline preparing the muscles for extra exertion by increasing our blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate.
Eventually the task is over, the event has happened, or the decision is made, and life goes on. However many times our body doesn’t let go and doesn’t recover from the stressful event, particularly if there’s another big task, decision, event, or crisis waiting in the wings. In general it takes the body longer to relax than it does to get amped up. As a result, many of us end up with a nervous system that won’t relax and which thinks the body is in an almost life threatening situation. Our bodies are working hard to help us survive and doing what biologically would have been helpful a couple thousand years ago.
By intentionally adding a noticeable physiological stress to our bodies that we can quickly recover from can help the nervous system get out of its rut and build more range or capacity for change within the nervous system. In popular culture folks are doing this with cold water immersion - intentionally putting yourself into what could be a life threatening situation in a controlled and safe way and then allowing your body to recover afterwards. We can create a similar effect with breathwork, by intentionally changing our breathing patterns we can cause a biochemical shift between the oxygen and carbon dioxide balance in the blood - creating a dramatic enough shift that the nervous system notices. Then we shift back to normal breathing, and normal biochemistry, the nervous system notices and it often shifts to a more relaxed and calm state than it was earlier. The beauty and the magic happens afterwards, with the recovery.
In the lunchtime virtual series starting Tuesday November 14th, we’ll deliberately stress the body using our breath and then relax the body with the breath. Some session, we’ll also use movement with our breath to intentionally create a more activated state and then deeply relax. It’s often easier to relax after a little movement and challenge of the body. Get out of the mental half stressed condition and help the nervous system reboot itself with some deliberate swings from activation to relaxation.