Here is the transcript for today’s mini-episode in The How to Not Panic Sessions.
Hey there. I’m so glad you’re here. Yesterday we talked about Thinking On Purpose to help you step into the driver’s seat of your brain and start thinking, at least SOME of the time, on purpose. If you missed that one, go back and listen, these are all going to be short-but-impactful lessons to help you manage yourself, to help you manage your mind, to help you really settle in and get through the Coronavirus pandemic.
So today we’re going to talk about Completing the Stress Response Cycle.
To do that...let’s take a quick moment and remind ourselves what the heck anxiety IS in the first place.
Anxiety is both an emotional feeling AND a physical sensation. It has both aspects to it. So you can think anxious thoughts and feel anxious feelings; many of us are familiar with that in our lives and have probably experienced some anxious thinking and anxious feelings over the past few days and weeks, right?
Then there is the physical side, where your sympathetic nervous system gets activated and kicks off the fight-or-flight stress response. This is when you experience a huge biochemical change in your body - adrenaline and cortisol flood your bloodstream and you notice your heart is pounding, your breath is coming fast and shallow, your blood pressure soars, maybe your palms get sweaty. There are other things happening underneath the surface, too - your pupils dilate, and your digestive and immune systems are temporarily suspended.
That fight-or-flight response, the stress response, is activated by a perceived threat. Your brain perceives a threat, this could be real or well, not-so-real, and your body responds in order to keep you safe. Historically, if you consider our ancient ancestors, pretty much every threat that came along needed to be dealt with by either fighting or fleeing for your life. Pure survival.
Now, as humans continued to evolve and invent things like taxes, bills, and PTA meetings, some of this gets a little muddled. What’s a real threat? What’s a perceived threat? Things like taxes and bills and PTA meetings are considered to be JUST AS THREATENING as a wild animal running at you. The brain can’t tell the difference. The brain is an amazing tool, but we have to learn how to USE it the best way possible, right? We have to learn how to operate this tool, this brain, and help our minds and bodies make sense of the threats coming our way.
So, now we find ourselves in this global pandemic of the Coronavirus. This is a threat, my friends. Our brains are on high alert. If we take our hands off the control panels of our brains, if we stop managing our minds right now, our brains are going to lump the Coronavirus...however near or far from you it may be in this moment...into the same category as having a wild animal running at you.
Meaning, your sweet brain that’s just doing its job is going to interpret all of this as the highest threat level possible to YOU, to your FAMILY, and to your SURVIVAL.
So we talked yesterday about thinking on purpose. About finding anxiety-producing thoughts in your mind, about noticing where you’ve been outsourcing your thinking to the news or friends or family, and about stepping into a place of power with your thinking and thinking on purpose. This isn’t work that any of us do 100% of the time. It’s a process. It’s a practice. But it’s important to be aware of this and keep the practice of thinking on purpose close by.
Today we’re going to address the physical side of anxiety by completing the stress response. If your body, your sympathetic nervous system, has already activated the stress response and you can feel your body responding with a faster heart rate and shorter breaths and sweaty palms, then it’s really important that you help yourself by COMPLETING the stress response. If you’re aware that this is something you can DO for yourself, that you can actively help yourself complete the stress response, then you can support your body physically, but you can also support yourself mentally and emotionally as well.
Because: what do you do when you notice anything that feels like anxiety in your body? You have a thought about it and you add mental and emotional suffering, that emotional feeling of anxiety, to the physical discomfort of experiencing the fight-or-flight stress response. Can you see it?
So, how do you complete the stress response cycle? The stress response cycle has 3 parts: the beginning, where you notice the threat; the middle, where you fight or flee; and the end, where you made it and you’re SAFE!
Knowing that cycle, those 3 parts of the stress response, the beginning, the middle, and the end, you can find where you’re at in the cycle and help move yourself towards the end, that “I’m SAFE” part.
I’m going to go ahead and assume that you are like me and my clients, so forgive the assumption. But I think it’s going to work out for us, ok? I’m going to assume that you notice the beginning, where you become aware of the threat...but that you jump SO QUICKLY to the middle, where your body is completely ready to fight or to flee, that you almost can’t tell a difference between the beginning and the middle. That the beginning and the middle of the stress response feel more like ONE step instead of TWO separate steps. You with me?
So, the real question here, and the whole point of this mini-episode, is to bring attention to the middle, where you’re in the throes of that fight-or-flight experience, and help move you to the end of the stress response, that part where you feel relief and know that you’re safe.
If you think about this, the fight-or-flight part of the stress response and all of its discomforts is because your body has prepared you for physical action. You have more oxygen in your blood, your blood pressure is soaring, your breathing is coming fast so that you can take in even more oxygen, and you have a flood of adrenaline coursing through your veins. You are completely prepared for action.
But what do most of us do when we’re feeling this way?
Most of the time, we’re sitting still. We’re trying to contain this experience. We’re trying to play it cool so that no one around us notices what’s going on. Basically, we are doing the exact OPPOSITE, physically, from what our body is prepared to do. Can you see it?
The machine of your body is completely armed and ready for battle and you’re forcing your body to sit still and quote-unquote “manage” the anxiety through stillness, through quiet, through calm, cool, and collected. It just doesn’t meet you where you’re at at all. It’s a total mismatch.
So, you have to give your body a way to complete the stress response. To move THROUGH the middle, the fight-or-flight part. How do you do that if you’re not fighting or fleeing?
You MOVE your body.
Take all of that natural energy, that fuel that is coursing through your body, and MOVE. Take a walk, do 10 or 20 sun salutations, ride a bike, lift some weights, go for a hike, swim, do an exercise class. Literally ANYTHING that gets your body moving.
Now, let’s bring this back to the Coronavirus and this moment in time. People aren’t going to the gym or public pools or group exercise classes. I get it. That’s fine. You don’t need to do that anyway. The most basic, and the most effective, way to move through the stress response cycle is by walking. Put on your shoes, and go out the door. Keep your distance from other people. Wave from across the street. But the fresh air, the movement, the sun or snow or clouds or whatever-you’ve-got weather-wise will do you SO much good.
Basically, this is an episode where I am building a case to show you how wonderful and effective and HELPFUL it is to go for a walk. I’m done here!
Kidding. But also, not kidding. Walking is such a transformative way to take care of yourself. Let yourself walk for 20-30 minutes. Really get moving. Let your body cycle through the stress, let it process. Think of walking as a funnel for all of that energy. You’re channeling all of the adrenaline and cortisol and fight-or-flight THROUGH your body, you’re allowing it all to flow, and you’re moving it OUT. That’s how you get to the end of the stress response cycle...to the place where you breathe a sigh of relief and can say, “I’m safe.”
I love you guys. I’m thinking of you all and I’ll see you again tomorrow for another short, mini episode in this series, The How to Not Panic Sessions. Don’t hesitate to reach out - you can find me on Instagram @khanlinmccormick or through my website, www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com. I’m here for you, I’ve got you. We can do hard things and we can do hard things together. Alright, my friends?
Ok, see you tomorrow. And until then, take care.
