Stress Management with IN2MINDS Hypnotherapy & Coaching at the Vivacious Living Health Centre – Applecross and Mandurah

Humans can withstand extraordinary stresses from the environment, but if we are pushed too far, our stress response turns on our bodies and begins to create breakdowns both mentally and physically. The human brain retains a primitive memory that is programmed to cope with every stress basically the same way our ancestors coped. If someone or thing threatens you, you instantly make a dramatic shift into a state of arousal. A full blown fight–or–flight response explodes throughout your body, preparing you for action. The brain then releases a flood of adrenaline from the adrenal cortex, which races through the bloodstream and completely overturns the normal state of the body.

Most of the time, your cells are occupied with renewal, roughly 90% of a cell’s energy goes to rebuilding new proteins and manufacturing new DNA and RNA. When the brain perceives threat, however, the process of building is set aside. Whatever you decide to do in fight–or–flight situations, your body needs a massive burst of energy to propel your muscles. To allow this, the normal style of metabolism that builds the body, called anabolic metabolism, converts to its opposite, catabolic metabolism, which breaks down tissues, proteins etc.

Adrenaline launches a cascade of responses, blood pressure rises, muscles tense, breathing becomes shallow and rapid, sexual desire and hunger are suppressed, digestion stops, the brain becomes hyperalert and the senses crystal clear. As a temporary expedient, the stress response is vital, but if it is not terminated in time, the effects of catabolic metabolism are disastrous. Every aspect of stress arousal leads to its own specific disorder under prolonged situations.

As stated previously, we carry all of our experiences and emotions from the past within us

As we go through life, we constantly experience two different sources of stress: internal and external stress. Internal stress consists of all of the old emotions of the past. It’s sealed within the nervous system, always there, whether we’re aware of it or
not. External stress is mostly caused by our emotional response to the demands that life puts upon us, such as work, school and relationships. Internal stress and external stress are always combining to create the level of stress that we’re experiencing at
any moment.

Your body reveals its particular weaknesses when you’re experiencing stress, the way a weak link in a chain opens up when the chain is stressed by being pulled from both ends. Some people respond to stress by getting headaches, others may experience skin problems, while still others may lose the ability to concentrate or remember. If the stress is temporary, the effects can also
be temporary.

Chronic stress, on the other hand, can lead to serious health problems such as a depleted immune system, hypertension, heart attack, stroke and even death. That’s why it’s so important for us to handle our stressors in a better way than merely coping with them or distracting ourselves from them.

Our bodies respond immediately when the level of stress is reduced. Let’s say a chain is being stressed by having tension applied on both ends. What would happen if we removed the stress from one end? It would go limp. If there were a weak link starting to give way in the chain, it would close up again. In the same way, as you remove this stress from your system, your body is better able to heal and protect itself from disease.

Internal Stress

Internal stress is a major factor in both emotional and physical health. Below is a description of just how intense our internal stress can be at any given moment;

Your emotional state at any given time is represented by how hot or cold the contents are. As the contents heat up, you
experience increasing emotional pressure and discomfort. As the contents cool down, you begin to experience a state of peace, calm and relaxation.

There is a flame in the subconscious that keeps the contents seething, because it’s fed by three fuel sources. One fuel source is your past, the second is your present set of circumstances, and the third is your future. All three are able to feed the flame at any one time, because all three can generate emotion.

 If you’re concerned about the future and anything that’s going to happen, or might happen, your concern provides more emotional fuel for the flame. For example, if you’re a person who dreads giving a speech and you have to give one next week, you’ll begin to feel anxious about it long before the event occurs. You’ll continue to feel more and more nervous right up to the moment that you give the speech.

Chronic Stress

Some people experience this kind of anxiety all the time, even though there’s no real threat in their present or future. In their case, the anxiety is chronic and the ongoing stress is constantly feeding the flame. 'Chronic anxiety can cause all kinds of problems,
it can even create an imbalance in brain chemicals due to the constant release of the chemicals generated by fear, such as adrenaline.'

With unresolved issues from the past adding fuel for the flame and worries about the future providing yet more fuel, it’s easy to see that even when nothing particularly challenging is going on in the present, you still cannot be completely stress – free in the moment. Then, when some little but significant thing comes up in the present, you simply boil over, becoming overly stressed, angry, frustrated or depressed.

When you boil over, so to speak, you’ll be driven to find some way to cope with your painful emotions. You’ll feel as if you have no other alternative but to seek out drugs to flatten your mood or find comfort in some kind of distracting activity like eating, working, or just plain busying yourself with activities.

It’s worth noting that the future event you perceive as causing your stress isn’t really causing it! The thoughts you’re having about the future event are creating emotions that resonate with similar events in your past. This emotional resonance causes a cascade of powerful feelings from the past into your present, which in turn causes an over – reaction to the upcoming event.

In the vast majority of cases, when we’re worried about the future, we’re really living in the past. In our example of worrying about having to give a speech, the worry is generated by negative emotions from the past, emotions held in the nervous system relating to fearful or embarrassing experiences of public speaking.

This explains the fact that when we dissolve away painful emotions of the past, we simultaneously and automatically rid ourselves of excessive worrying about the future! When the emotions of the past are removed from our nervous systems, upcoming or present situations cannot resonate with them, because they’re no longer there. We feel much more peaceful, calm and in control.

When past and future fuel sources are reduced or eliminated, there’s only one fuel source left to affect your cauldron – whatever is happening in the present. As a result it takes a lot more to get you upset. You become more patient. You think more clearly.
Your perceptions become more accurate, and even your memory is likely to improve. You can begin to experience the freedom of truly living in “The Now.”

Emotions and the Nervous System

You can think of the nerves in your body as wires that carry electrical signals from one part of the body to another. For instance, nerves carry information from the eyes, ears, nose, and other parts of the body to the brain, so that we can perceive the world.
This group of nerves is called the sensory portion of the central nervous system. The central nervous system also carries the signals from the brain to the body so that we can walk, talk, and do all the things we do. This group of nerves is called the motor system. It is the motor system that we have conscious control over.

Another major part of the nervous system is called the autonomic nervous system. It operates at a subconscious level and controls many of the functions of the internal organs and the glands, which secrete hormones. The autonomic nervous system is also very much involved in our ability to feel and experience emotions.

Exciting new research has recently challenged several longstanding assumptions about emotions. For years psychologists maintained that emotions were purely mental expressions, generated by the brain alone. We now know that this is not true.
Emotions have as much to do with the heart and the rest of the body as they do with the brain. Emotions are produced by the brain and body acting together. Today the idea of separating the brain from the body is rapidly becoming out of date. It is the autonomic
nervous system that connects the brain, heart, and body.

The picture to the right shows how the autonomic nervous system affects different organs or bodily functions, utilizing two branches of nervous system activity. Different emotions cause different messages to be sent through the nervous system to many parts of the body, including the heart, skin, face, etc. In the research laboratory, one of the easiest ways to see how different feelings and emotions affect the nervous system is to look at how rhythms reflect the activity in the two branches of the autonomic nervous system.

Emotions like frustration, anger, anxiety, or worry can cause the signals going down the two parts of the autonomic nervous system to get out of sync with each other. This can be likened to having one foot on the car's gas pedal (the sympathetic nervous system) and the other on the brake (the parasympathetic nervous system) at the same time – this creates a jerky ride and burns more gas. Just as it would cause extra wear and tear on the car, the same process also causes extra stress in our bodies.
This stress takes its toll. It can deplete our energy, interfere with our ability to think, cause nervous system disorders and other health problems.

It can block our performance capacities and diminish our quality of life. Many people call emotions that lead to this inner disorder, “unhealthy” or “negative” emotions because of the harmful effects they have on our bodies, health and performance, especially
when experienced often.

Everyone has negative emotions occasionally, and we can learn from having them – but over time too many of these emotions become a habit and take a toll. For our happiness and well – being it's important that we become aware of our feelings and take
charge of our emotional experiences.

Research shows the following consequences of unhealthy emotions.

•  Less ability to think clearly

•  Less efficiency in decision-making

•  Less ability to communicate clearly

•  Reduced physical coordination

• Higher risk of heart disease

•  Higher risk of high blood pressure

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Stress Management with IN2MINDS Hypnotherapy at the Vivacious Living Health Centre - Applecross WA.