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 '"

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."

Stress- 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 glass and filter are not perfected " 

Virtual tigers -Stress

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 these 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.

Stress -Natural response

The primary need of all the species on the planet is to stay safe and protected. Human species are the weak animal by nature. They can’t fly like birds and run like rest of the animals. In the woods, they are exposed to all sorts of threats from different predators. Because of their weakness and threats posed by other animals, they developed flight/fly response to the external threats.

Stress is a flight/fly response which provides the sufficient instantaneous energy that allows them either to fight with the animals threatening them or simply, run away from the place of the threat to a safer place. Either of these demands energy to cope up with the situation.

So, stress is a natural response to stay safe and protected. How the skin protects the body from the external surrounding, stress protects you from the external dangerous ambience.

The stress response is part of the evolution and is a source of evolutionary energy.

Two points are worth to remember in this discussion.

a)            Firstly, it is an automated natural response based on the demanding situation.

b)            It is an instant boost of energy for a very short period of time which dies off after a certain period.

In the woods, if there is a movement in the bushes then the brain is programmed to naturally fear, worry or doubt to assume the probable presence of tiger/lion behind the bushes. Fear/worry/doubts are the trigger points for the stress response.

But, unfortunately, in the modern days, the same stress response which is supposed to protect and safeguard us is causing all kinds of modern lifestyle diseases. This is really ironical.

"How the skin protects the body from the external surroundings, stress protects you from the external dangerous ambience"

Locus of stress?

In today’s scenario, one encounters stress in every aspect of the life. Stress emanates while driving, in traffic, children education, in office, at home and so on. What is that which causes stress? This is a genuine question. Is that external situation that causes the stress or the internal experience to the situation causes the stress? If it is the external situation such as office causing stress then the office should be stressful to all of the employees uniformly. But, in reality, the same office is stressful for some while it is enjoyable for others.

The external office is the same for all.But, the internal experience of the office varies from person to person. Hence, stress is not external but very much internal.

Knowing this fact, if one blames the external situation such as office then it is mere his ignorance. So, it is good to revise the location of the stress if one tends to blame the external situations. Those external situations are simply the triggers but not the causes for the stress. Your experience to the situation plays the key role in deciding the locus point of the stress.

Here is a question: Are you clear on the locus of stress? Please review your recent stressful situations and analyse sensibly the exact locus of the stress.

"The locus of stress is pretty much internal in contrast to the belief that stress comes from the external surroundings."

Word Power - Part2

FASHION STATEMENTS

“I am stressed”. “Life is hectic”. “Office is frantic”. “I am dead tired”.These are some commonly and widely used statements of young’s and matured likewise. These have become the fashion statements of the modern world. Please do remember the power of words and effects on our emotional state. Whatever the words that were repeated will get reinforced and finally, those become our property. So, do not carry stress on our shoulder. It is not a PhD degree to carry along with us to feel proud of.

Stress is not a property that one wants to carry along as a title and hence, discard those fashion statements right away if you have developed such habits knowingly or unknowingly.

What kind of words that you listen and talk?

It is time now to review the words that are commonly exchanged in your surroundings. Importantly, review the people to whom you commonly interact on day to day basis.