Our stress reactions are built from the past when we had to run from lions, hide from them, and hope that they don’t get to our village. Those kind of stress responses from our ancestors have carried on/evolved into our current lifestyle.
The machinery of our mind and body was built for running from lions. It was designed to handle intense momentary stress, followed by longer periods of rest and recovery. It was not designed to handle the constant low grade stress we handle every day.
Today it is not our physical survival we worry about, but our social survival.
- Impressing our colleagues, paying mortgages, or staying attractive.
- Our struggle for social survival produces a cascade of thinking that
start the instant we wake up and only quiets during exquisite moments
- During making love, in nature, or experiences of prayer and meditation.
- Otherwise this stream of thought runs continuously throughout the day ceasing only when we drift into sleep.
We experience much doubt and anxiety. The specific worries that people describe may be different, but the experience is universal
- We react to finances, work and school place drama, relationship conflict, and many other social stressors of modern life as if our very survival were under threat.
In response to our stressful thoughts, our bodies and minds activate the same primitive response mechanisms.
- Our breath shortens, our muscles tighten, our stress hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, etc. flood the body
- We prepare to fight, freeze or flea as if we just encountered a grizzly bear
- Unlike our ancestors who had time to rest and recover, many of us spend almost every waking hour living with the burden of never ending stress.
Re-source: Retreat
Follow these 3 steps to breathe deeply and experience great inner peace:
1. Sit down comfortably. Rest your chin in the notch between your collar bones. Rest your hands comfortably. Close your eyes. Exhale completely.
2. Take a deep steady breath through your nostrils. Fill your lungs completely. Make sure that your abdomen is not bloated.
3. Hold your breath for two seconds. Exhale slowly and deeply until your lungs are completely empty.
Repeat a couple more times until you feel at peace.
craving from “Start Here” – master the lifelong habit of well-being – by Eric Langshur and Nate Klemp
resource retreat from BalanceInMe.com