Stress is normal and healthy, but too much of anything is no longer a good thing. Currently many of us are dealing with chronic stress and there are certain personality types that seem to be predisposed toward more stress related diseases, which have been heightened due to recent world events. If you were already someone who experienced a discrepancy between the type of stressor you are experiencing and the type or intensity of coping response you mobilize into action in your mind and body, the interconnected state of our world and the increased amount of stimulation we experience throughout the day may be pouring fuel into an already dangerous fire.
What can chronic stress look like?
Feeling highly anxious, quick to anger, insatiably busy, talking and moving quickly, or desperately high-achieving. Feeling like there is no time to rest or ability to slow down and enjoy the fruits of your labor. This highly sympathetically charged state is known as hyperarousal, and the discrepancy is in the fact that even when there is no danger present, the system of chronically hyper-aroused people remains hyper-vigilant, perceiving danger cues in every situation and feeling incapable to relax and recover.
Or, perhaps you relate more with those who are stuck in a hypo-arousal state, most commonly seen in people with major depression and chronic exhaustion. Perhaps feeling disconnected from life and presence, dissociated from all or parts of your body, lacking hope or motivation, or like a thick fog has taken over your brain. This is the last line of defence for your nervous system, and is where you end up after intense bouts of trauma or long bouts of hyper-arousal that remain unresolved.
I have lived periods of my life in both of these states, and I remember the heaviness and hopelessness of my existence I felt when stuck in hypo-arousal. The discrepancy here can be described most eloquently by Robert Sapolsky in his book “The Problem with Testosterone:”
“...people with major depression, as a result of life‘s painful lessons, have learned to be helpless. When faced with stressful challenges, they give up before things have even started. They don’t attempt to cope or if they happen to stumble onto something effective they don’t recognize it for what it is.”
An integral piece of information to include here is that both hyper and hypo-aroused states are highly intelligent and adaptive as your nervous system is implementing strategies to help you survive. Although it can feel counter-intuitive initially, we must pause to acknowledge and appreciate these reactions and the system that is putting them into action. At the very least, this increases some safety signals and starts to soften our state from the threat defense system into the mammalian caregiving system. Eventually, these reactions will lessen in their severity and intensity because of the Self-Compassion practice and the space for wisdom that emerges.
Coping strategies vary
Sapolsky continues on to describe another coping strategy that highlights a discrepancy between stressor and the physiological response mobilized into action. Other than hyper-arousal and hypo-arousal, there are also those who suppress what they feel consciously, or repress what they feel unconsciously. They may be perfectionists or feel a duty-bound resolve to follow rules, or retain a structured and predictable existence at all costs to avoid disorder of any kind, or simply those who keep a tight lid on emotions in fear of what will come out and, potentially, how others will perceive them.
Again, these reactions or “personality types” began and continued on as adaptive responses to our individual environments’ and what helped us survive. There are young parts within each one of us (i.e. inner children) that still wield these reactions out of fear of what will happen if they don’t.
Whichever coping strategy you have developed to deal with stress, an aspect that I have found vitally important to remember through the process of doing my own work in learning how to regulate my nervous system and build my resilience, is that acute stress is good for us, in fact, it is essential. Whereas, chronic stress is the precursor to an extensive list of disorders and diseases. While we need to be aware of, and consciously take action to reduce chronic stress, it is equally important to work on changing our relationship with acute stress so that we can utilize it to strengthen our body-mind systems.
Duration, Path and Outcome
According to neuroscientist and Stanford professor Andrew Huberman, when things are uncertain (which can be all the time, especially if we have a habit of focusing on uncertainty), the brain will immediately shift to solve for the following: Duration, Path and Outcome or DPO.
Duration: How long will 'this' take?
Path: What course, direction, pace or movement patterns will it take to arrive at a desired outcome?
Outcome: What will happen at the end?
Being in a state of assessing DPOs is like having your energy constantly leaking from a faucet that won’t turn off. Now let’s pause and reflect on these past three years with this in mind.
How long will this last? Where is the finish line? What action can I take to get out of this? What’s waiting for us at the “finish line?”
There is so much outside our control and if that is what we focus on, we are creating our own health disaster.
Now the good news ...
We do not have to continue relying on our current coping mechanisms to manage, avoid, or simply survive. There is a different way.
We have teachings, practices, skills, and tools that are available now that give us exactly what we need to change our relationship with acute stress, take responsibility for what we can control, strengthen our focus and awareness to perceive differently, and reconnect with the unshakeable inner stability that remains present regardless of the constant change and flux in life … all of which changes our inner environment so that chronic stress cannot take hold. It’s called breathwork.
No matter what personality type you relate with most at this time, or what relationship you currently have with stress, learning breath literacy will sharpen the tools you already have and expand your sense of feeling resourced and supported when the winds of life blow with a vengeance. Using your breath as an intervention as well as a lovely hand to hold throughout your day will empower you to shut off the tap that drains you, improve your overall health and enjoy more freedom from the pull into DPO’s.
Want to practice with me?
If you are in Calgary, and interested in learning the ways in which you can relax more efficiently, amp up your energy when you need to take action, and exercise your nervous system for more health and flexibility, join me for a breathwork gathering at The Practice Calgary (330 - 5010 Richard Road SW).
When: Tuesday December 6 & Tuesday December 13, 6-730pm (come to one or both)
If you would like to attend, please email media@thepracticecalgary.com with the date you would like to attend.
A $20 deposit via etransfer to billing@thepracticecalgary.com will reserve your spot at one event.
Space is limited, and I would loooooove to have some familiar smiling faces there with me.
Let’s breathe together.
xo