Tension Free Life for 2018 -Part 13 EMOTION & THINKING BRAINS

The stress response is based on the trigger which occurs in the form of fear, doubt or worry. Hence, the stress response is emotion-centric. The problem of the emotion-centric response is that it is so well automated that it hijacks the thinking brain. That is the reason one can’t think straight while he is in stress. The clarity of the situation and taking appropriate action is not possible in the automated centric process. Thinking brain intervention is a must in the stressed out situation. But, in reality, in most of the cases, this is not happening.

But, it is possible to bring the thinking brain into the picture while in stress. Stress response can be altered with the thinking brain. This requires brain training and it is a learnable skill. Obviously, this cannot be practiced in the peak of the stressed out situation. This should be practiced when one is a normal state.

Tension Free Life for 2018 -Part 12 MIND FOCUS

Do you know the power of focus? It is the penetration power of the mind and this power is given to all of us equally. What happens when one focus on a particular task for a prolonged duration of time? He can get the penetration power to handle the task. When he penetrates into the task, the world around the task explodes. He tends to see things that a normal unfocussed eye can’t see around the task. This is how he solves the problem related to the task while others struggle to solve. The penetration power is like the magnifying lens that allows the world around the task to see in high definition. This new visibility gives the probabilities of the means and solutions related to the task.

This means to say that the task itself is simply magnified. Such is the power of focus. But, unfortunately, the attention span of the individuals decline heavily in the recent years. Because there are too many distractions which deplete the ability of an individual to stay focussed.

In other words, if one focuses on the problem then the problem gets magnified. On the other hand, focussing on the solution, the solution gets magnified. So, it is wise to focus on the solution in order to solve the problem related to the task. But, the question at hand: How focused are we practically?

Attention is a learnable skill & it is our rights to stay attentive. One can train the brain to enhance the attention faculty. Attention is again a power. The question now is how to harness this power for our growth.

Focussed eyes see things that normal unfocussed eyes can’t see around the task in hand.

Tension Free Life for 2018 -Part 10 BODY–MIND CORRELATION

The body follows the mind. This is the psychological effect on our physiology. Have heard about the prevalent medical field called Psychoneuroimmunology? The immunity system of the body can be altered by the psychic state of the mind. Psychosomatic diseases are the illnesses that arise from the disorder of the psychic state of the mind.

It is important to create the free space in the mind. This space allows our ideas to move around freely in the mind. When the mind space is cramped then there is no free flow of fresh ideas and one gets stuck in a particular mode. Wherever free flow is not possible, energy transference will not be smooth. This causes tension in the mind. Tensed mind creates a stiff body. The body becomes stiff when the mind is tensed. The muscles and joints mobility will be lost. Now, this becomes a good start for an array of all other illnesses.

So, create a free space in the mind. How to do this?

Create a free space in the mind in order for the body to move freely

Tension Free Life for 2018 -Part 10 STRESS CIRCUIT

Our brain triggers stress response based on the threats. It is an automation triggered by the emotion. It is carried out by the ANS (autonomous nervous system) and the response is completely involuntary. It is an activation of the sympathetic nervous system to provide the right source of energy and prepares the body to face the threats. Once out of threat, the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and the energy level is pulled back to normal state.

Certain hormones such as adrenaline, cortisol, and noradrenaline are secreted with the triggers and sympathetic nervous system activation. These hormones initiate certain physiological changes notably increased blood flow, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, increased breathing, dilation of pupil and relaxation of the bladder.

All the physiological changes prepare the body to provide the additional energy to face the threats. But, these are temporary and stay as long as the threat is present. Once out of threat, the parasympathetic nervous system kicks in which withdraws the hormones secretions and bring the physiological changes to normalcy. These, in turn, bring the body back to the normal state.

The response is a cycle of turning on the sympathetic nervous system, bring up the energy level, turning on the parasympathetic nervous system and bring down the energy level to normalcy. This is a temporary process and stays only in the presence of the threat.

Stress is a cyclic pattern of turning on/off the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

Tension Free Life for 2018 -Part 9 Mind Game

Virtual tigers are in the individual's mind frames. What is real to you? It is not things that happen around you or within you. What is real is what you think about the things. Even though plenty of things happening around you, you automatically and selectively pick up few events that are of interest to you. Rest of the events will be discarded by your filter. This is a selective attention. Even then the selected events will not get into your mind as they are. They are coloured and projected to the mental screen how you wanted that to be. This colouring is based on the life experiences and individual faith & value system. So, it is a kind of double filtering process that happens automatically.

Because of this double filtering process, the mind thinks in a certain way. Since these filter and tint are different for different persons, the mental projection for the individual's is different. Hence, they think and act differently for the same incident. As said earlier, what one thinks that is what is real to him and hence, he acts differently than others. If he thinks that the incident present in front of him as a threat then it is one hundred percent threat for him even though in reality the incident is absolutely safe. Simply, because what one thinks that is what is real to him.

The entire system then follows the cues of his mind and responds accordingly. If one feels the event is a threat then automatically stress response kicks in followed by the whole array of the physiological and psychological cascade of responses. This can be easily explained in the context of a dream which many of us would have experienced at least few times. Let us assume that one gets a dream where a tiger chasing him. The body reacts to this thread by pumping up his heartbeat, increase the level of sweat gland, increase the breathing rate and so on. Even though the threat is not real but still the body reacts as if the threat is real. If one instantly comes out of the dream to his consciousness, he can still feel those rapid changes and the body reactions clearly.

This is how sometimes when the filter and glasses that are used for the projection into the mental screen are not perfected then probably one may live completely in a kind of a situation similar to the dream state. He thinks the event is a danger while in reality, it is completely safe.

One may end up spending the entire life unrealistically if the mental projection glasses and filter are not perfected 

Tension Free Life for 2018 -Part8 VIRTUAL TIGERS

Unlike our primitive ancestors, we live in a very safer world now. We have proper shelters, food, and other basic necessities which the ancestors were deprived of. Modern day men are completely out of threats from the wild animals. Modern day needs/problems such as financial situation, children education, office work, house renovation, road traffics, income tax etc now turn out to be the virtual tigers. Any of the above listed necessities might kick in the stress response because of the two causes of the stress that we mentioned above.

The stress circuit which worked in the primitive times and the one that works now in the modern days are one and the same. Only the big difference between these two scenarios is that the time duration of the threats. In the wilds, threat stays as along as the tiger is in your vicinity. Threat vanishes the moment tiger disappears from the scene. In this case, the thread amplification is larger but the duration is lesser. But, now this virtual tigers are not as big as the threats of the wild but constant nagging troublesome issues always sitting in the back of your mind. So, the threat amplification is smaller but the duration of the thread is longer now.

When the virtual tigers (threats) are repeated very often then there will be multiple stress responses leading to chronic stress. Chronic stress is the cause for multiple lifestyle diseases such as migraine, hypertension, anxiety disorder etc.

The stress circuit which worked in the primitive times and the one that works now in the modern days are one and the same.

Tension Free Life for 2018 -Part7 CAUSES

Often at times, the task in hand demands more energy than what your resource capabilities are. It demands more energy and it depletes your resource capabilities. On the other hand, you may expect a particular favourable result out of your action but in reality the result happened to be hostile. Both of these situations create doubts, worries and fear in you. Eventually, the stress response kicks in because of the worries, doubts and fears.

So, two common causes of stress are

1.            Task in hand demands energy far more than one’s resource capacity

2.            Result of the action is not in favour