This week we have a special guest post by Tina Clarke. Tina is a Somatic Educator & Coach for those with Chronic Health Issues, their carers and supporters. She has twenty years experience in the mind and body wellness field and works online with groups and one-to-one. You can find out more about her work by on her website www.tinaclarkewellness.com or on Instagram @tinaclarkewellness
‘Supporting others is outward focused work, and can mean that we forget to look after ourselves even when we know theoretically that we can’t pour from an empty cup. Supporting others is fulfilling work but it can also be stressful and tiring in the long term which can potentially dysregulate our nervous system and cause health issues.
Long term stress & our nervous system
Our nervous system is the interface between our mind, body and our environment and in normal functioning should allow us to flow easily between states of inaction and action/ relaxation and slight stress – this makes us responsive to our world and interactions. Stress can creep up on us, and our body knows we are stressed before our mind recognises it; long term it will “dysregulate” our nervous system keeping us stuck in active, stress states making it more difficult to come back regularly and easily to calm and relaxation.
The Health Effects
Neuroscience tells us that going regularly into stress states reinforces those nerve pathways and in turn weakens the nerve connections to relaxation; as the old saying goes, if you don’t use it you lose it. The health effects of long term stress on mind and body are far and wide, starting with hormone imbalance and lowered immunity and ranging from fatigue, digestive issues, sleep disturbances, headaches and migraines, high blood pressure, depression, heart disease and even chronic illnesses like Irritable Bowel Disease and Cancer. Chronic stress changes the cells in your body and brain.
Prevention
Although the facts seem stark, there is plenty of hope as our brain and body are “plastic” – a term coined by neuroscientists to describe the body and minds ability to change, and not stay in a stagnant state as previously thought.
For self-care, reducing our stress responses and maintaining good nervous system flexibility, there are many approaches available, but cultivating awareness is a great place to start. Begin to do regular ‘self check-ins’; notice your physical sensations and emotional states throughout your day, just for a moment, without the pressure to change it or fix it. It could look something like this:
‘I notice my breath is shallow and a little tight….my mind is jumping about…and I notice contraction in my body as I sit here at my desk. I feel a little tense.’
Remember you don’t need to jump in to correct these observations of yourself, think of it as sensory exploration. The more often you can do this short, simple process, the more your body will automatically start to shift in small ways back to a more comfortable, calmer state.
There is of course much more that you can learn and do to reduce stress and begin to befriend all your emotional states, such as a physical movement practice, meditation, walking in nature, connecting and sharing with friends, somatic (body based) practices or getting some support and assistance, like coaching or therapy.
(Future Sci OA. 2015 Nov; 1(3) The effects of chronic stress on health: new insights into the molecular mechanisms of brain–body communication. Agnese Mariotti)
Dr, Gabor Mate, When The Body Says No’
With love as always, Hannah and Team Bird
Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash