The Mind-Body Connection: How stress affects us and holistic stress management techniques

There is such a thing as good stress: eu-stress which helps us achieve peak performance. In this blog, I describe how chronic de-stress affects the body. You will also find a simple tool to help when you are under a lot of pressure. To understand how stress affects your health outcomes, first understand and befriend your nervous system.

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) has two main branches.

The Sympathetic Nervous System - described as the ‘fight or flight’ response is our primitive, hindbrain. It is always scanning for dangers, wants to protect us, and keep us alive. We have developed beyond the reptilian brain, and our dangers today are different to once wild animals. Most of our predators today are psychologically induced stressors: deadlines, traffic, misplaced homework, increasing mortgage rates, arguments with loved ones, thought patterns that send us into the past or future.

When we have not developed or have forgotten to practice the tools of emotional intelligence, self-regulation and resilience, our amygdala hijacks our ability to make decisions and governs behaviors, resulting in a dysregulated nervous system response: Sympathetic Nervous System overdrive.

Other possible outcomes of a dysregulated nervous system are freeze, fawn, and flop. They are all survival mechanisms.

When a predator captures its prey it may carry it in its mouth to a lake and set it aside. The prey will freeze or flop to play dead. Once the predator is far away, the prey has a chance to reboot and run. This dynamic often plays out in unhealthy relationships. One person yells, the other freezes or fawns, if there is no retaliation the situation deescalates. Freezing, flopping, fawning (people-pleasing and yielding) are learnt survival behaviours: "If I stay quiet, If I do this for them, they calm down and I am safe". When this is repeated over and over again, it becomes the norm. The nervous system becomes wired into expecting it, and responding with how it knows to protect you.

When we are in Sympathetic overdrive, we are tense and unable to relax. On alert, ready to fight or flight.

Think about the gym and lifting weights. We tense our muscles to maintain form and prevent injury. It is only in a state of safety, away from the gym, that the body can relax and regulate using the second branch of the Autonomic Nervous System: The Parasympathetic Nervous System.

The Parasympathetic Nervous System is responsible for the functions of ‘rest and digest’, ‘tend and befriend’, ‘calm and connect’. It governs our digestive, immune, reproductive systems and thyroid function. The 'freeze, fawn and flop' responses are theorized to be a dysregulated Parasympathetic responses (Polyvagal Theory).

How chronic stress affects the body

When our Nervous System is dysregulated, some or all of those systems suffer malfunctions, depending on internal and external influences, including genetic predisposition. Over time, with chronic dysregulation we may start to experience gut health issues such as food intolerance and IBS, fertility challenges, hormonal imbalances, PCOS or Endometriosis, autoimmune disease including Irritable Bowel Diseases, symptoms of an under-performing or overactive thyroid and metabolic dysfunction, immunological disease, skin conditions.

Physical symptoms occur to warn us of dangers, to help us identify change needs to happen for our nervous system to feel safe again. Otherwise, we are headed for a complete nervous system shut down known as burnout. Healing from burnout takes 1 – 3 years during which we may keep experiencing surface level symptoms, or we may occasionally relapse under too much pressure we were not ready for – yet. Expanding our window of tolerance after burnout takes gentle nurturing, self compassion, re-establishing and testing our own boundaries first.

When dysregulated or burnt out - your nervous system is Bambi. If something frightens your nervous system, you’ll run away, freeze, flop or fawn.

Ultimately, de-stress and high pressure is a fancy word for fear. Fear is an important emotion; it sets of the alarm when necessary. However, we don’t want fear driving our decisions unless we are in immediate physical danger. When we are in such danger, the burst of cortisol and adrenaline provides the energy to escape.

When we are physically safe, psychological stressors drive an overload of cortisol and adrenaline. When unable to downregulate, chronic stress leads to adrenal inefficiency (physical body burnout). The way our nervous system acts is universal in both men and women. The difference is how the symptoms look on a person’s body, the emotions and sensations associated.

Key to helping us return to feeling Psychological Safety when we are physically safe is our ABC.

Awareness – Noticing the overwhelm is not as easy as it sounds. It requires getting into the habit of checking in with yourself. How am I feeling right now? Am I safe? Notice the sensations in your body. Describe it. Give it a name. Is it a burning, cold, hot, heavy, light, jittery, tight, dull, shaky. Is it related to an emotion? Anxiety, sadness, grief, apathy, disappointment, confusion. Self-awareness if the first step towards Emotional Intelligence and Mastery.

Breath – The bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind. The breath is how we speak to the Autonomic Nervous System. We once thought we had no influence over the ANS, we now know our breathrate upregulates and downregulates the ANS. A slow, extended breathrate signals safety to the body. A fast and shallow breath signals panic. Slow the breath down to come back into your body when it is safe to do so.

Conscious Choices – You get to decide what to do next. Once you’ve brought conscious awareness to the breath, and you are back in your body, you can now assess the circumstances cognitively. From this calm and connected place, we are better able to discern what to do.

When fear presents itself, we are given the opportunity to be courageous. What do you need/want? Emotions let us know when our boundaries are being crossed by others or ourselves. They let us know when expectations and standards haven’t been met, when we lost something or someone important to us. All emotions are welcome, not all behaviors are acceptable.

Your ABC may be clunky and awkward to begin with. Let it be. The more you use it, the better you get at it. Soon it will be your new normal, and no one will even know this is your process.

Emotional Intelligence, Self-Regulation and Resilience are all behaviors that must be learnt, sometimes re-learnt. Remember to be kind and compassionate towards yourself, and others on this journey of befriending the nervous system.

Optimising the stress response is one of the 7 Pillars To Wellness we teach at NuFit Wellness.

All Pillars are intertwined and impact health outcomes. The other 6 pillars are: Nutrition, Movement, Sleep, Light Therapy, Mindset, and Spirituality. Through practicing the principles that govern desirable outcomes, striving for continuous improvement rather than perfection, and recalibrating as necessary, we are able to heal and maintain health in any given circumstance.

Book a Clarity Call or text 'support' via WhatsApp +448 840 632 to explore how we can support you.

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KEYWORDS: Nervous System, Trauma, Regulated, Dysregulated, Optimising, Freeze, Fawn, Flop, Fight, Flight, Sympathetic, Parasympathetic, Emotional Intelligence, Somtic, Psychotherapy, Breathwork, Breathe, Breath, Mind, Body, Stress, Destress, Fear, Anxiety.