In my last email blog I talked about the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and the difference between the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) systems. Today we are going to discuss how these systems actually act on our minds and bodies and how this can affect us — our health — each and every day.
HYBRID CAR
One of the best ways to simplify these two systems is to think of your body as a hybrid car. You have your gas tank (sympathetic system) and your battery (parasympathetic system).
When you are cruising around through day-to-day activities, you want your battery to be the one powering you. This is the most efficient way to give you the energy that you need. However, there are times each and every day when you need to punch the gas and get a boost of energy and/or respond to stress. Whatever the reason is, you want your gas tank to give you that quick shot of adrenaline.
This is the way the systems are supposed to work with each other. We get in trouble when we rely too heavily on one system over the other. Generally, this means that we are relying on the sympathetic (our gas tank) to fuel us all day long.
This energy source is not sustainable; eventually, we will run out of gas! This puts a lot of stress on our systems and bodies. We realize that something is not right, and our bodies will shut down until order is restored.
YOUR BODY
How Does This Affect Your Body? In regards to weight gain and losing weight, one of the reasons that over-stressed people have a hard time losing weight is due to inaccurate use of the ANS. In order to lose weight, your body has to shift over into parasympathetic mode, so you do not feel like you are under a threat.
Stress is not always a bad thing. There are some good stressors out there (working out, for example), but the key is not getting stuck in a stressful state all the time.
You need to train your body and mind to be able to handle a stressor and then switch back to battery mode efficiently.
HOW TO SWITCH
One of the best ways to switch back to the parasympathetic mode in your body is by taking ten mindful minutes with the Ujjayi Pranayama breath in the middle of the day! With this practice, you literally turn on your parasympathetic nervous system and become more aware of your thoughts (which for most of us are negative and unkind).
Negative thoughts drive negative behavior. We need to recognize these thoughts, get curious about them and reframe them so that they are positive and supportive.
If you are someone who just feels like you are go-go-go all the time and spinning your wheels jumping from one thing to the next, this is going to be one of the most important habits for you in your health journey.
The tricky part is recognizing when your body is running on stress hormones and if it actually needs to be.
The adrenaline pumped into our bodies used to be from either chasing an animal or being chased. In today’s society, we generally do not have that threat. Instead, our stressors are much more hidden.
Maybe your boss yelled at you at work. You got in a fight with your spouse over something at home. Someone cut you off in traffic. One of your kids didn’t listen to you. The list goes on.
Whatever the trigger was, they happen again and again each and every day.
The key is how are you going to change your reaction to stress and instead choose your response.
Take a deep breathe, be mindful and choose how you want to respond. This 10 minute mindfulness practice will make a BIG difference in your health.
Are you going to let stress affect you and keep your body in a stressful state for the rest of the day, week, year…?
Or are you going to take control of your body and effectively switch systems with 10 easy minutes of mindfulness? The more you practice these breaths with awareness to your thoughts, like anything, the more they become automatic and the thoughts shift to a more kind state — which drives healthy behavior.
The choice is yours.
To our health and beauty,
xo,
Christine
nourish. move. meditate.