Stress lurks everywhere
A traffic hooligan endangering you, a colleague's rude remark, or the anxious thought of the amount of your loan—all of these can be experienced by your brain as a threat and set off alarm bells in your body. If something like this happens frequently—meaning we're constantly on alert—it can lead to a variety of psychological problems: from mild discomfort and dissatisfaction to moderate stress and depressive disorders, all the way to outright trauma and psychological disorders.
Stress becomes chronic
When such conditions become chronic, they have lasting negative consequences for the body and brain. This constant negative stress, this overstimulation of the body's stress responses, which are primarily mediated by the sympathetic nervous system (the activating part of the autonomic nervous system), can lead to problems with the gastrointestinal tract, the immune system, the cardiovascular system, and the hormonal balance. The most severe negative effects are often observed in the psychological sphere, in the form of anxiety disorders and depressive disorders.
What can you do?
You need to learn how to consciously control and downregulate your alarm and stress reactions, thus returning to a calm, peaceful level. When you deliberately and consciously take steps to dampen and calm your physical stress reactions, this also helps your brain cope better with stress.
In his book, Hanson recommends six methods:
1. Relaxation exercises
They can be used as needed. A simple technique is the so-called relaxing body scan. You sit comfortably and slow your breathing. Starting at the head, you work your way down the body, consciously paying attention to your breathing and releasing any tension.
2. Diaphragmatic breathing
Long, deep belly breaths slow your heart rate and activate the calming parasympathetic nervous system. If you place your hand on your belly just below your ribcage and take slow, deep breaths, you'll notice your hand moving up and down as you inhale and exhale. After a while, you'll be able to breathe diaphragmatically without hand control. In addition to lowering your heart rate, diaphragmatic breathing uses less energy than chest breathing. It lowers your blood pressure, and massages your intestines promote digestion.
3. Touching the lips
Touching elicits a calming response because the lips are full of parasympathetic nerve fibers. This may also explain—at least in part—the calming effect of actions like eating, sucking, or smoking.
4. Visualization
The power of your imagination can be powerful and causes physical reactions in your body. Your brain essentially sends the same signals to your nervous system, whether something is real or visualized—that is, exists only in your imagination. So imagine peaceful scenes to calm yourself, or—if you have more time—develop elaborate scenarios with smells and sounds.
5. Heart rate variability (HRV)
The small changes in the intervals between individual heartbeats reflect the activity of the nervous system. You can learn to consciously influence this. Studies have shown that there are physical and mental benefits to learning to train the coherence of heart and breathing. HRV biofeedback has long been used as a complementary medicine method in behavioral therapy. It can be used to positively influence depression, heart disease, asthma, anxiety disorders, and insomnia.
6. Meditation
In this process, the meditator shifts their attention away from all stressful topics, relaxes, and focuses inward, which in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system. As many studies have shown, regular meditative practice can indeed change the brain in several positive ways. Meditation also helps with a number of illnesses, including numerous mental health problems.
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Source:
Rick Hanson: The Brain of a Buddha: The Applied Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom, Arbor Publishing, 2010.
