There is currently an epidemic of Anxiety and Depression in this country and it’s growing. It’s evident that we live in a culture that promotes imbalance. We can’t easily change the culture but we can change our response.
By looking at why this is happening it gives us clues as to how to successfully overcome this debilitating condition. This is a natural response of your body so let’s use the body’s natural responses to reverse it!
Let Me Show You How I Rewired My Nervous System
Anxiety, fear, tension, pain are all patterns that your Nervous System develops in response to the stresses of life. About 5 years ago I started some practices that I’ll share with you shortly that completely transformed how my nervous system deals with stress.
After using a number of practices, I was truly taken aback by the profound impact they had on many areas of my life from sleep to energy to my mood. I identified the key practices that made the greatest impact.
These practices changed how I embraced life. I call it resilience, that ability to respond to life’s stresses and immediately return to balance. It’s not difficult or complicated but it takes consistency to rewire how your nervous system responds to the demands of life.
Understanding How Anxiety Develops offers Keys to Solving it
If you think about it, anxiety is a fear response. When you are in the midst of an anxiety attack you are in a state of terror. It feels like life or death. It doesn’t have to be a conscious fear that you are aware of. Most of the time it’s a response of your body that is outside of your control.
Anxiety is most often the result of longstanding stress and the body’s attempts at survival. Stress of any kind triggers your Fight-or-Flight nervous system. It doesn’t matter if it is a real threat or just one that is perceived as a potential threat. The result is the same.
Go back and read the last two lines again. The impact on your body is the same from both a real and a perceived threat.
Our bodies and our nervous systems evolved during times of real threats to our very existence. They are programmed for one thing above anything else. Survival! That’s a good thing.
The problem is that today we rarely face threats to our survival. Yet, our nervous systems respond as though we were facing a life-or-death situation. This is what is commonly called the fight-or-flight response.
What is that fight-or-flight response?
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Increased blood flow and tension in the muscles
- Shutting down digestion
- Increased cortisol and adrenaline
- Increased alertness and energy
Those are all great responses for a very short time. Big problems arise when we start to live more and more in that state. For many people this becomes their normal everyday state.
What is the impact of that fight-or-flight response over time?
- Increased tension and pain
- Increased inflammation
- Disturbed digestion
- Altered hormones
- Disrupted sleep
- Fatigue
That’s not a great recipe for a life of enjoyment. Not only does it result in anxiety but over time it erodes your health. You can’t live in a state of inflammation, poor digestion, and disrupted sleep without experiencing more and more health challenges.
Over time the combination of inflammation, poor digestion, poor sleep, and fatigue leads to some combination of anxiety and/or depression. And, the anxiety further perpetuates the cycle. It becomes harder and harder over time to escape
5 Critical Legs to Successful Anxiety Treatment
There are a lot of pieces to helping you overcome anxiety. These are the 5 that have proven most important in my experience.
- Removing Nerve Tension and Interference: this is most critical in the neck or cervical spine and in the pelvis as these areas have the greatest impact on turning down the fight-or-flight system and turning up the Vagus Nerve. Chiropractic care that is corrective and balancing is vital and makes the most significant shift.
- Movement and Posture Correction: most of us have adopted sitting and standing positions and movements to help relieve tension. The problem is that over time these habits actually perpetuate the cycle of tension, pain, and anxiety.
- Corrective Breathing: most of us are a combination of mouth breathers and chest breathers. This type of breathing continually activates the fight-or-flight system. The first thing I teach people is how to breathe using their diaphragm.
- Vagus Nerve Activation: The Vagus Nerve is your foundation for wellness. When the fight-or-flight system gets chronically activated the Vagus Nerve is turned down. Breath, movement, nature, and touch are all strategies to activate the Vagus Nerve.
- Sleep: from sleep routine to darkness, position, and pillow sleep is a critical element in your recovery from anxiety. Removing nerve interference often has a profound impact on sleep but its important to address all aspects of sleep.
Anxiety is the Canary in the Health Coal Mine
Think of your anxiety as a warning sign that your body is out of balance. The process likely took months or years to get to the point where you began to experience anxiety. It was a process to get to this point and it will be a process back out of it.
The good news is that not only can you change your physiology and overcome anxiety, but in the process become stronger and more resistant to all stress. Think of this as an opportunity for you to take back control of your body and your life. It’s not complicated or challenging to overcome anxiety, but like all processes it will take time.
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I look forward to exploring how we can help you.