Meditative technique in balancing stress:
“Management of this stress comes in many forms and must be personalized. Whether it is meditation, yoga, or other relaxation techniques, one must develop a consistent habit of dealing with this unavoidable aspect of our lives. ”
Stress is our generation’s saber tooth tiger.
Activation of the fight or flight response is an instinctual program
for our survival. This response is controlled by the autonomic
nervous system, which I prefer to call the automatic nervous system.
In pre-historic times, this system was activated solely by external
sensory stimuli. When our mind?s eye saw danger, adrenaline would
flow to set forth a chain of events that would maximize our chance
of survival. It is a system then that helped us escape pain, and
it still exists within us. In our present time, perceived danger,
whether in the forms of internal stimuli as subconscious conflict,
or external danger in the form of such things as deadlines or time
pressures produce the same generalized stress reaction with the
release of cortisol and adrenaline as when ancient man was being
chased by a saber tooth tiger.
Recognizing that this is a normal response, one should be reassured that there are no good or bad reasons for stress. It is important to identify what gives you stress. A chronic stressful state will cause a continual release of hormones that may eventually lead to depressed immunity, vascular inflammation, weight gain, just to name a few.
One method of balancing the stress reaction is to activate the competing branch of the automatic nervous system, the parasympathetic system, which tames the adrenaline and cortisol surge by reversing the effects (for example, slowing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, slowing down breathing). One can achieve this by active meditation. I will explain a technique that has worked well for my patients and me.
Position yourself in a quiet room with the lights low or off. For those able, you can sit in a seiza position — kneeling on the floor, sitting on your calves with your heels touching your buttock; hands on thighs tilted slightly inward; sitting up high. For beginners, a comfortable chair will suffice. Close your eyes. Begin taking slow, deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. When inhaling, visualize the clean, pure air entering your lungs and expanding your lungs and pulling down from the diaphragm. The inhalation should be slow and steady and be for at least five seconds. At maximum inhale, hold the breath for at least a second. The exhale should be slow and steady and longer than the inhale — as long as possible. Visualize every bit of stressful waste products discharged throughout the exhale. After several cycles, begin contracting individual muscle groups with inhalation and relaxing them with exhale. Start with your toes, then calves, then thighs, then buttock, then low back, etc...,finishing with your scalp muscles. Once this is completed, visualize yourself walking into an elevator. See the elevator doors close and with each inhale/exhale cycle, watch the floor indicator go further down into the sub-basements. Go down approximately ten levels. When you reach the tenth sublevel, watch the doors open to a beautiful meadow. See yourself walk into the meadow and great your inner self. This may be represented as a person or a bird or anything or anyone that comes to mind when you are there. Walk through the meadow with yourself as the person that you are or wish to be. Agree that together you can face any situation with calm energy. After a few moments, say goodbye until next time. Agree that although not always meditating, this person or thing will be always be a part of you.
Re-enter the elevator and go slowly up. Continue the inhale and exhale cycles; the latter longer than the former. When exiting the elevator, continue a few more cycles and then gently open your eyes. Your goal should be this meditation exercise one or two times a day for a minimum of ten minutes, but a goal of at least twenty minutes. You will find that when done as described above, you will invariable end at twenty minutes without a timer.
Further understanding the stress response:
All human behavior is driven by our instinctive need to survive and propagate. From this comes our instinct to avoid pain and seek pleasure. If given a choice, our instincts will drive us from pain first and drive us to seek pleasure, secondarily. Simply stated, avoiding pain assures we will survive; seeking pleasure assures we will be able to propagate. Simply put, without survival as a base instinct, we would not exist long enough to propagate.
A division of our nervous system controls how our instinct translates into behavior. That division is called the autonomic nervous system. From this point forward I will call this system the automatic nervous system, as it is, as the name suggests, automatic, essentially on autopilot. It is the system that always has its antenna raised looking out for signs of danger approaching. When danger, i.e. the possibility of pain, approaches, the sympathetic portion of the automatic nervous system discharges adrenaline that signals the need for the individual to confront or avoid ? fight or flee.
The origin of sympathetic comes from the Greek sym meaning in connection with, and pathos meaning suffering. It is clear that this state was named well after man developed a consciousness and hence a sub-consciousness. Having sympathy for someone is connecting with their pain or suffering. The sympathetic nervous system connects with and attempts to protect the individual from facing pain or suffering. The activation of this nervous system creates a very uncomfortable state when adrenaline is released: the heart begins to race, respirations become more rapid and shallow, the pupils dilate, blood pressure rises, muscles may twitch, blood vessels constrict, blood clots more easily. If one were about to fight or flee, or was in danger of hemorrhaging and going into shock, these responses would be very beneficial to increase survival. However, with modern man, the likelihood of these events happening in our lifetime is relatively small. What is interpreted as danger or a threat to one'’s survival is in the twenty first century very much different from what was considered danger thousands of years ago. Yet the same response exists. This is a primitive, generic response to stimuli that may or may not represent real danger. In fact, the majority of events in the present day that activate this nervous system are not threats to our survival and do not represent real danger. As prehistoric man struggled to survive, the terrain was much more dangerous with predatory animals and perhaps other humans posing a direct physical threat. There existed no hospitals to stabilize a victim if they sustained an injury causing major bleeding. At that time, this system was critical for survival.
The activation of our sympathetic nervous system today is not so easy to understand. Why does our heart pound, for instance, when we are about to speak in front of a group? How does that represent a threat to our survival? Why should the sympathetic nervous system be activated to protect us under these circumstances? As I stated before the sympathetic system is a primitive, generic, imprecise system. We need only perceive that an event is threatening for it to protect us. What will activate this system is the following list of direct or imagined states or emotions: fear, anger, stress, confrontation verbal or physical, stress, and feelings of hopelessness. What these states or emotions have in common is the sense of not having control over one’s environment. Losing control is interpreted as a threat to survival and hence causes a surge of adrenaline to aid in running away. What causes us to feel these states or emotions comes from a compilation of real life experiences or created from the teachings or observations of others, namely parents or direct caregivers. These teachings, observations, and/or experiences form the basis of our belief system. Most of this is forged beyond our control prior to adolescence. This phenomenon is derived from the understanding that the first decade of life is the time when the brain absorbs more information than any other decade. This learned behavior forms the basis of automatic responses to our environment.
How this automatic response is regulated has to do with several parts of the brain. The hypothalamus (derived from the Greek meaning under-chamber), which is our brain?s ultimate regulatory and homeostasis center, processes much of the information that is responsible for the effect that certain hormones, namely adrenaline and noradrenaline, have on our behavior. Essentially our instinct to survive is present always. The hypothalamus connects the nervous system with the endocrine (hormonal) system. The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that is for homeostasis. That is, the nervous system gets the input (stimulus), the hypothalamus processes the information, and then it sends the appropriate messages to the appropriate glands to send out hormones that cause the physiologic response to the stimulus. Charles Darwin writes in the Descent of Man: “–man is descended from some lowly-organized form. Man still bears·the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” This stamp is the primitive nervous system. It is uniformly believed that our brains evolved first from the reptilian brain, progressing to the mammalian brain, and most recently adding the neocortex. The section of our brain that is considered the mammalian brain houses the majority of our automatic responses. This has been present for tens of thousands of years and has preserved our survival as a species. The development of the autonomic nervous system parallels the development of the mammalian brain and is intimately connected with the part of the brain called the Limbic System. Within the Limbic System is a part called the amygdala (from the Greek meaning almond because of its shape and size). Within this small structure lies the key to activation of the automatic nervous system. The amygdala gets sensory input from the visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortices of the brain. It processes this information rapidly determining whether or not the information implies danger. If it does, impulses are sent to the hypothalamus and autonomic nervous system centers in the brain stem. From there signals are sent to different glands, namely the pituitary in the brain and the adrenals adjacent to the kidneys, to stimulate the release of hormones, especially cortisol and adrenaline.
Direct stimuli from one’s environment first passes through the amygdala. But internal stimuli from our neo-cortex, i.e. thoughts, are processed by the hypothalamus. If these thoughts are associated with stress or danger, a hormone is released directly from the hypothalamus and stimulates the amygdala setting off the same chain of automatic reaction. The latter chain of activation comes from our neo-cortex, which is higher on the evolutionary ladder. Thoughts and consciousness are characteristics of man only about 6,000 years old. An internal stimulus to the hypothalamus, which is derived from the neo-cortex, is what then activates the primitive system (more than 100,000 years old). The primitive system is one that is automatic and instinctive. Although at our present state it does not greatly aid in our survival, it remains quite active, and in many cases contributes to our mortality (e.g. heart attacks). Once stimulated most of us know the discomfort it causes us. What can be changed is our conscious interpretation of what we consider to be danger or a threat. If we are able to alter these interpretations or associations then the automatic activation of the sympathetic system can be quieted.
Realizing that this is an instinctual system looking to protect us gives us a clue as to the thoughts or experiences that activate it. The sympathetic arm of the automatic nervous system is activated solely for the purpose of protecting us from pain. If it becomes activated it is because that thought or experience sent by our neo-cortex to the hypothalamus is interpreted as dangerous. If given a choice, therefore, we know to avoid any thought or activity that will activate this system.
As we have evolved, the sympathetic branch of the automatic nervous system has served two purposes. Early in our evolution it served to directly propel us away from pain, and hence harm, by causing all its effects to prepare our physical bodies for fleeing or fighting. More recently in our evolution it has served to warn us to stay away from certain danger areas that indicate pain is near. Certain anxiety we may feel comes from activation of this system. Many times the activation is from a subconscious thought. For instance, if one feels anxiety speaking in front of a group, the anxiety is a signal that something about that act is dangerous. The anxiety is a warning to them that they are approaching dangerous territory and should stay away. Somewhere they have associated speaking publicly with a threat of impending pain or danger. Hence, this pain or danger may not be physical pain. The pain could be pain from embarrassment, shame, or failure (a loss of control). Figuratively these have been processed in the brain as deterrents to our survival. Surveys have shown that people fear public speaking more than death. Other studies indicate that people fear spiders more than death. The sympathetic nervous system serves as a barometer. When it is activated it indicates that the person is entering an area of danger; departing from their comfort zone; entering an area that they may not feel confident they can negotiate. Modern man uses the sense of adrenaline as a warning signal that not only physical danger may be approaching, but also more likely emotional or psychological confrontation is approaching. Anxiety and panic are the result of this system being activated by subconscious thoughts.
As I have stated, the automatic nervous system arises from our primitive mammalian brain. It is automatic and will fire as long as it is told to. In other words, if a message is sent that danger is approaching then it will fire. The message from one?s environment passes through the amygdala, as outlined above and the circuit begins. In modern man, however, those messages are not as black and white as the environmental senses of danger that pass through the amygdala. Internal feelings are processed in the hypothalamus first and are determined there whether they are critical enough to warrant protection from. The hypothalamus is our inner homeostasis unit. Very often the determination in the hypothalamus that danger looms is fallacious, based on information first laid out in the developing mind of a child.
The challenge becomes to use the more mature
mind to alter the messages being sent to the hypothalamus. This
is the first step
in changing
behavior.