Turn off the stress with a breath

The body has a simple function that controls your internal stress level. Your breath is one of the off switches.

Welcome to our newsletter. At Envisage Wellness, Ritu Chib-Eiven and Mitch Eiven approach psychotherapy and coaching a little differently. In both areas our objective is to give you the tools to empower you to discover your own healing or your own path toward achievement. This newsletter is designed to be an extension of that effort. We’ll keep it short, helpful and deliver it to your inbox every other week.

Today’s Topic: Shut down the fight or flight response...when you don’t need it.

Our bodies evolved a fight or flight response over millions of years. It’s an efficient system that uses glands and hormones to help keep us safe. Thankfully, these days, we no longer have to run away from hungry lions. Unfortunately, evolution takes millions of years and our modern lifestyle is only rooted back a few hundred years. Our intellect far outpaces our evolution and we still have this fight or flight response that only comes in handy when facing real danger.

Stress at work, anger at whatever, socio-political concerns, money worries; all these things trigger our flight or flight response. When that happens, whether we know it not, our bodies go into survival mode. Survival mode raises your heart rate, blood pressure and your blood sugar levels. It decreases blood flow to your thinking center, your brain and increases blood flow to your arms and legs (just in case you have to fight off a lion).

When the danger passes and our brain no longer has to protect us, it turns off the process, instantly. In modern times, though, our stressors are frequently chronic. It almost never ends and we stay in fight or flight most of the time. It’s not a healthy state to function in.

STOP. TAKE A FEW DEEP BREATHS.

That will turn off the process. Do it a few times a day. You may not feel it right away. It may take some time for the body to calm down. Nonetheless, the fight or flight process stops as quickly as it starts. You have control.

WEEKLY WELLNESS TIP: Take a breath in through your nose for a count of 3. Hold for a count of 4 and exhale slowly, like you’re blowing out candles for a count of 6. Repeat the process 5 times.

WHAT’S THE SCIENCE? The deep exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). The PSNS shuts down the fight or flight response and refocuses the body on rest and digestion. It slows your heart rate, your breathing, your blood pressure and re-initiates digestion.

Your bones might play a role in the fight or flight game.

For years we’ve known that the fight or flight response is triggered by process called the HPA Axis: The brain perceives danger, the hypothalamus gland secretes neurotransmitters that stimulate the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland then sends out other neurotransmitters that stimulate the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands release cortisol and the body goes into fight or flight mode. End of story, right?

Maybe not. In 2019 researchers at Columbia University determined that our bones must also play a role in the process. According to the study, “immediately after the brain recognizes danger, it instructs the skeleton to flood the bloodstream with the bone-derived hormone osteocalcin, which is needed to turn on the fight or flight response.” Within moments of perceived danger, osteocalcin moves through the bloodstream and affects muscles as well as multiple organs, including the brain and pancreas.

What do we think? Chronic stress forces us to overstimulate our bodies with HPA induced cortisol, and that negatively impacts our physical health. Therefore, it’s reasonable to conclude that overstimulation of a bone induced hormone might do the same thing, not to mention any potential long term effects on the bones themselves. Breathe……..