Here’s what I learned about controlling my body’s reaction to stress from Andrew Huberman’s Youtube episode titled “Tools for managing stress & anxiety”. This information really helped me to move away from jittery feeling of needing to react right away. I hope it can help others going through similar experiences.
Key summary: If you are looking for a tool to calm down in real time, you can try the “physiological sigh“.
How to: double inhale through nose and long exhale through mouth. repeat 2 to 3 times.
What is stress? stress is both psychological and physiological responses to stressors which can be physical, financial, or relational. The system that governs stress is genetic. It doesn’t distinguish between different stressors, hence it reacts to all in the same way. It activates certain bodily functions and shuts down others. It is the feeling of agitation that prompts you to take action. Many times, I find myself saying or doing things that I later regret because of this agitation. Bottomline, if you want to control stress, it is important to learn how to manage that feeling of agitation.
When something stresses us out, a chain of neurons in the middle of our body gets activated very fast, like a bunch of dominoes falling all at once. When this happens, these neurons release acetylcholine (which is usually used to move muscles). At the same time, in response to the acetylcholine, other neurons release epinephrine (similar to adrenaline). This chain reaction triggers certain systems in your body to speed up, while others slow down. That’s why your heart beats faster, you feel blood in certain parts of your body but not in others, and why your throat might feel dry etc. Your body is telling you to do something because it thinks something dangerous is happening and it’s getting ready to respond.
How can we control this reaction? One effective method for calming down is something called the physiological sigh.
When you inhale, a muscle called the diaphragm moves down, making more space for your heart. This allows your heart to expand, and blood flows more slowly. Eventually, your brain signals the heart to speed up. So, if you want your heart to beat faster, inhale longer and more forcefully than you exhale. On the other hand, when you exhale, the diaphragm moves up, making the heart a bit smaller and more compact. This speeds up the flow of blood through the heart, like water flowing through a narrower pipe. The brain detects this and tells the heart to slow down. So, if you want to calm down quickly, you should make your exhales longer and/or more forceful than your inhales.
So when you’re stressed, try this: take a double inhale, long exhale and repeat 2 to 3 times. Even if the second inhale just gets a tiny bit more air in, it reinflates the tiny sacks in our lungs. Then when you do a long exhale, it gets more effective at reading your body and bloodstream of carbon dioxide, which relaxes you very quickly.
One thing that opens my eyes is his assertion about how difficult it is to control the mind with the mind, especially when we are in heightened states of activation. Often, I try to calm myself down by thinking logically and considering all the consequences and probabilities. However, this approach has not been successful in ending those stressful moments. In fact, whenever someone, including my inner self, tells me to calm down, it makes me more agitated. It leads to feelings of loss of control, self-shame, or even resentment for minimizing my feelings.
when you are feeling really agitated, activated and worried and you use a tool like physiological sigh, it will bring down your level of stress very fast. Then you will notice that your brain and your mind becomes more available for controlling the stress response and reacting to it. It will allow you to be in a right sweet spot of be alert and calm.
When you’re feeling extremely agitated, activated, and worried, using a tool like the physiological sigh can quickly reduce your stress levels. Then, you’ll find that your brain and mind become more available for controlling the stress response and reacting to it. This puts you in the good balance of being alert and calm which is a sweet spot to work through though times.
It’s okay to feel what you’re feeling, especially in stressful situations. But you don’t have to let those feelings control your reactions right away. Let’s take some time and space for ourselves. We’ll figure things out..