Anxious or nervous – why?
1. Anxiety in a new situation
Being in a new situation, meeting new people, or speaking in front of a group can produce “nervousness, fear, anxiety, butterflies in the stomach, cold feet, sweating, dry mouth or muscle twitching…
Why??
When words or actions or situations trigger anxiety or another emotional response, the body’s fight-or-flight brain-activated protection system goes on alert. This is the oldest of our protection systems needed by our ancestors who lived in the jungles to keep them safe from wild animals.
These old body signals can get turned on in us today if we are put in a situation that our mind or nervous system feels unsafe triggers. They can be annoying if we have not learned how to use and diffuse this hyped-up old pattern energy.
After trauma or life-changing illness even years later, these fears and anxiety can be debilitating, and cause the mind to freeze and the person to shut down, or overreact.
These old triggers can be defused slowly and instead of it always being a trigger it can create a new understanding in our emotional awareness while diffusing the old pain if gently worked on. These triggers do not go away by ignoring them.
2. Overwhelm & Confusion
If you feel overwhelmed by the suddenness of an event, the fight or flight energy of the body takes over. A person quits thinking calmly and rationally and tries to survive the confusion and fear by fleeing, hiding, fighting, or attempting to appease their abuser or making excuses for forgetting or having memory lapses. Usually, the ability to share feelings and thoughts is avoided or swallowed to get physical support and help.
Over the long haul
After the initial crisis or accident passes and some external wounds go away, the emotional wounds remain hidden in the body’s and nervous system’s fascial tissues and the psyche, awaiting a later expression but never forgotten.
The problem is these deep-seated wounds don’t go away but leave open sores that never heal without help.
How does the body react to a crisis?
The body and brain have organized communication systems that catalog all our experiences and sort these happenings as sensitive impressions in the brain and other body parts.
Example: If I were driving my car through a 4-way intersection and got hit by an out-of-control motorcycle, I would naturally be more cautious at that intersection or around motorcycles the next time I drive.
I would unconsciously become more vigilant; my pulse may race, etc. These responses seem confusing, but they are a normal reaction to previous trauma.
If you have suffered from
- Suffer from nightmares, flashbacks, or night terrors
- Suffer from anxiety and depression
- Suffer from a weakened immune system
- Have trouble controlling their emotions
- Are super sensitive to sensory stimuli
- Get more headaches and migraines
- Have an overactive adrenal function
- Struggle with memory and recall of memories
- Struggle to communicate clearly
- Are irritable and reactive
- Have difficulty sleeping or trouble waking frequently
- Exhibit risky behaviors
- Have trouble focusing
- Feel jittery and edgy
How to begin to release these stressors:
Today’s tip to relieve old stress
Rub the area under your nose above your upper lip while belly breathing profoundly and slowly inhale through your nose and then exhale very slowly through your nose. Feel your belly decrease in size as your belly muscles contract.
**If this helps you after your practice every day for one week, send me your comments and experiences -it can encourage others. Thanks!
Andrew Gallup, now at the State University of New York at Oneonta, was first inspired by the idea during his undergraduate degree when he realized that stretching and yawning might help to chill the brain and stop it from overheating. The strong gaping movement of the jaws forces blood to flow around the skull, helping defuse excess heat. Then inhaling cool air into the sinus cavities sends oxygen around the carotid artery leading back into the brain. These movements may flex the membranes of the sinuses – fanning a soft breeze through the holes that should cause our mucus to evaporate, thus chilling the head like air conditioning.
