We can turn on the stress response just by thought alone. We can think about our problems and turn on those chemicals – that means then our thoughts could make us sick. So if it’s possible that our thoughts can make us sick, is it possible that our thoughts could make us well? The answer is absolutely yess.

Joe Dispenza

Every morning when I head out to start my day, I can see two worlds:
I see screen addication, I see confusion, I see fear of an idea of the future.

Then I take a deep breather and I open my eyes to a world without a story.
I see presence, I see creation, I see trust.

We all know that relaxation is essential – yet it is an art to remain in the state, especially in the sophisticated and fast-paced age we live in, where the ability to be comfortable with not knowing is a skill. Our world is infused with a “virus” that’s tensing humanity up – chronic stress. The information overload and the news that cause a sympathetic activation won’t stop any time soon, but pleasure, gentleness and relaxation can be found now by raising awareness about the causes of stress.
It’s not just about breathing from your belly, out-thinking your stress using affirmations or thinking positive – we cannot use our conscious mind to regulate our nervous system.

Before you start to continue reading, I want to mention that I am not a professional health advisor – I’m just a girl that is very passionate about learning about the nervous system and loves to summarize information that maybe inspires you to become more aware of your body and thoughts.

The Survival State

According to Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, stress is responsible for causing 95% of our illnesses. Most people spend 70% of their life living in fight n’ flight mode – the hormones of stress, like cortisol can downregulate our genes. Cortisol is a hormone that your adrenal glands (found above the kidneys) produce and release. It regulates your body’s stress response, controls your metabolism, suppresses inflamation, regulates blood pressure and blood sugar, helps to control the sleep-wake cycle. In the state of fight and flight your body also releases adrenaline. Persistently high adrenalines caused by chronic stress can heighten blood pressure, cause digestive problems, insomnia, weight gain, memory & concentration problems.

There are three different types of stress:

• Acute Stress: Short period danger.
• Chronic Stress: Long term stress.
• Traumatic Stress: Experiencing a traumatic experience that influences the present.

Our nervous system is responsible for sensation, perception, feelings & emotions, thoughts and actions. Indicators for an homeostatic imbalance can be feeling stuck, addicted, attached and mentally unable to map a way out. Our whole time perception is influenced by our state – If we are in a relaxed state, we are more in tune with what’s going on inside of us. When we are stressed, the time outside of us seems to go very slowly – for example when we experience difficulties to just lay and do nothing, we feel unable to enjoy doing nothing, slow down and lean into “boredom”. Compared to when we are in a relaxed state, where time seems to just fly by.

Stress itself is not only bad for us – It’s like a phenomenally beautiful biological process that we are fully equipped with to have over and over without harm. Like a gazelle that is hunted by a lion – eventually when the gazelle found a way to get out of the situation it calms down and fully recovers from the event. Stress also activates our immune sytem. That’s why when we work-work-work and as soon as we rest, we are more likely to get sick.

One interesting term I stumbled on my reseach is Mitochondria – tiny power generators that keep our cells healthy and exist by the thousands in each of our body’s 37 trillion cells.

This is how the National Human Genome Research Institude defines Mitochondria: “They are membrane-bound cell organelles that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions. The mitochondria’s purpose is to produce that energy. So for example, the muscle has a lot of mitochondria, the liver does too, the kidney as well, and to a certain extent, the brain, which lives off of the energy those mitochondria produce. So if you have a defect in the pathways that the mitochondria usually functions with, you’re going to have symptoms in the muscle, in the brain, sometimes in the kidneys as well; many different types of symptoms. And we probably don’t know all of the different diseases that mitochondrial dysfunction causes.

Mitochondria are membrane-bound cell organelles that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions. The mitochondria’s purpose is to produce that energy. Some different cells have different amounts of mitochondria because they need more energy. So for example, the muscle has a lot of mitochondria, the liver does too, the kidney as well, and to a certain extent, the brain, which lives off of the energy those mitochondria produce. So if you have a defect in the pathways that the mitochondria usually functions with, you’re going to have symptoms in the muscle, in the brain, sometimes in the kidneys as well; many different types of symptoms. And we probably don’t know all of the different diseases that mitochondrial dysfunction causes.” – National Human Genome Research Institude.

A study of the university in Colombia has shown that it is very sensitive to daily affect and might be under our control. In the study they found out that people that woke up with more positive emotion and they went to bed with more positive emotion they had higher mitochondria. The chronically stress participants had general lower mitchondria overall, but this mood effect pretty much immediately overroad that at the middle of the week of that study.

Small Triggers For Stress

You’ll always find a reason to be stressed, unless you lay your burdens down and say:
“I ,myself, am unable to handle all of these burdens that come along with being a human.
I’m gonna surrender them to god and allow the best to flow, so I can sleep at night and I am not stressed.

Dan McDonald

• Number one – Diet. We can eat as much of what we consider as the “right” healthy foods, when we’re stressed out, our body won’t digest & funtion well. There is no diet that can make up stress.
  
• Expectations – Don’t let other peoples projections define you. We’ve all been consciously or unconsciously expecting friends, family, partners to act a certain way, fe. text us back. Expectations can cause this sensation of closure that can last for days, weeks, months, even years if we hold onto it. A subtle stress in our system caused by a fricking projection. If we simple let go of the expectations that we hold onto, stop putting ourselves and others in a box, there’s a refreshing spaciousness entering our being.
  
• Surrender – Releasing the grip. Practicing faith in a challenging situation takes courage, but choosing to believe it’s gonna work out makes life easier. Also to release the anticipation of the wrost case szenario.
  
• Red flags – Listening closely. Energy’s don’t lie, your body does not lie as well. Our intuition is truly a gift. As soon as we start to listen to the signs our body tries to communicate to us and listen to the red flags of environments, people etc. there will be more easy in our live.
  
• Existential Stress – What’s my purpose? Hope, how to make this a better world without having control over the world? The sense of being on the right path immediatly brings more ease into our system.
  

Screens, Social Media & Mental Health

Year 2023 – a digitalized world is taking over. It’s crucial how many people and especially kids & teenagers suffer from illnesses caused by too much time on the screen and Social Media, especially since the pandemic 2020. These days, a consensus of neuroscientists agree that brain development likely persists until at least the mid-20s – possibly until the 30s. It breaks my heart to learn about the negative effects of screens and seeing young children staring into a screen watching tiktok videos.

Screens excite the nervous system visually, cognitively and psychologically. The stimulation of screens are interpreted as forms of stress by our brains – they release stress hormones, raise blood pressure and increase our general alertness. Dr. Victoria Dunckley, an internationally recognized expert on the impacts of screen time on the developing brain says: “Eventually, all of these effects overwhelm the brains “short circuit”, the brain’s frontal lobe – the most developed part of the brain that makes us human. This happens, in part, by the shifting of blood flow away from the frontal lobe and toward the deeper, more primitive parts of the brain. Thus, any or all of the frontal lobe’s functions can be impaired. This includes mood regualtion, focus and executive functioning (getting things done), impulse control (emotional reaction), creativity and even things like kindness and empathy.”

Doorways / Practices

Bringing your awareness into your body, your thoguhts. There are so many practices that can bring you into the state of relaxation. Here are a few inspirations that help to witness inner workings and how the mind is affecting the mind and body. Learning how to watch the mind and starting the journey of developing good habits and displacing destructive ones that cause pain.

– Vows & Prayer
– Body Check-In: Tense face, eyebrows, hands. What am I feeling in my body and mind when nothing is happening? – Window into unconscious stress.
– Stay focused on self regulation (Daily & Weekly Time managent)
– Meditation (Resting back & Trusting the unknown meditation)
– Breathing
– Yin Yoga (My favorite free online class)
– Releasing Natural dopamine invoked by Play and Humor. Have you ever felt tensed up and your friend starts to be silly and you feel your whole body relax? Laughing promotes the release of endorphins and suppresses cortisol
– Sauna – Optimizes stress responses (Scientific studys)
– Nature Emersion
– Intentional Plant Medicine
– Activating Sensory Cues: Touch, Massage
– Stop rushing ~ Seeing the beauty
– Hypnosis: Deep relax, not sleep, deep focus
– Managing Media Consumption
– Having one screen-free day a week (Planning your downtime with screen-free leisure activities so you don’t resort to your phone the minute you’re bored)
– Sun Exposure
– Conscious stress (Conditioning our emotional and physiological stress response): HIIT training, Sauna, Cold Exposure
– Embracing uncertainty, living the impermanence
– Appreciation & Gratitude
– Changing the scene, switching things up and getting out of the routine


Thank you for reading towards the end, I hope that this article brings some inspiration and wonder to learn more about it!

What’s your number one stress regulator? Let me know in the comments.

Sources & Inspirations

– How to move about your day in a relaxed, soft & peaceful state | Taylor Brianne:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdbuWsHX_80
– Podcast Joe Rogan #1513 – Andrew Huberman:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HnJSVAxlfZVREkojSJ39c?si=89b1430a1f2448a6
– Video: “HOW TO AVOID THE #1 CAUSE OF DISEASE AND DEATH!” https://fb.watch/ij1Ex6aF5w/
– Podcast “Tech making Kids Moody, Crazy and Lazy?” with Dr. Victoria Dunckley: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0T1Ohg3xIL4wbPN1sH3ssI?si=1ff61414b95844bb
– Stress is KILLING You | This is WHY and What You Can Do | Dr. Joe Dispenza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfdvbZFXbNA
– Podcast “Digital Hygiene, Screen Time, Brain Health & Protecting Our Kids”:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QIzjSwRMYFE8gjEZWI7Ns?si=22481dbe7eed4953
– People Really DON’T WANT To Become Successful | Joe Dispenza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XucQiu_d5-A
– How To Reduce The Harmful Effects Of Chronic Stress with Dr. Elissa Epel: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3dVDQheKgo6XQahT7bF3XB?si=00b9ec1b8f364532

Der Beitrag A Pleasure Found In The Idleness Of Nothing erschien zuerst auf Studio GRL.