No matter how you are affected by a chronic condition (living with and/or caring for), it’s an added layer of stress in our already chaotic times. Whether we realize it or not, we often internalize stress, which only compounds the situation and can lead to more issues with health and well-being.
At the moment, I’m seeing a lot more people “stressed out” as the expression goes, and people seem to be at a lost in how to handle it. Covid has certainly been a contributing factor as our brains have been on Alert! Alert! Alert! for over 18 months. It definitely wears a body down.
Today’s post is
a continuation of last week’s, Engaging Our Brains to Problem Solve, which looked
at understanding the brain at a cellular level and using that information to
improve health and well-being. It features the work of neuroanatomist Dr. Jill
Bolte Taylor author of “My Stroke of Insight” and most recently “Whole Brain
Living: the Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters that Drive Our Lives.”
The expanding field of neuroscience is developing new strategies for brain health and ultimately less negative impacts from stress, addiction and other ills of modern society.
Most problems are not caused by
momentary stress, but by that momentary failure of resilience becoming
persistent. The resulting cascade of stress hormones, inflammation, unhealthy
habits, and emotional missteps is the root of chronic diseases, emotional
health problems, addictive behaviors, and accelerated aging. According to
Michael Merzenich, Ph.D., the father of neuroplasticity, "the brain must
train itself for resilience" as only a resilient brain can confer a
lasting solution for our problems. Emotional Brain Training
The brain is made of neurons that connect together and influence how we think and feel. Our brains come with the gifts of neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form new connections and pathways and change how its circuits are wired; neurogenesis is the even more amazing ability of the brain to grow new neurons. Basically, change how you think and you’ll change the brain, which ultimately affects how you feel.
There are lots
of books, videos, movies and even institutes focused on this topic. Daniel Amen MD seems to be on every PBS
channel during fundraising campaigns with his “Change Your Brain, Change Your
Life.” The Dalai Lama was so captivated by the field of neuroplasticity, as it
dovetails nicely with the teachings of Buddhism, that he brought together the
world’s top neuroscientists that led to the formation of the Mind Life Institute.
One of the newer approaches is emotional brain training (EBT) which was started by Laurel Mellin, PHD, Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, in 2007. This is a skills-based way to access the resiliency pathways in the emotional brain not by chance, but by choice-and as often as one desires-in daily life. Notice the use of the word “choice,” this is something that Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor talks about as well.
In her article, “Train your brain to feel better with these 4 Techniques” Mellin provides the following steps
Step one: Look at stress as an opportunity. Stressful moments open the brain to revising those expectations, so it’s easier to experience a breakthrough..Through the portal of stress, the synaptic connections that link neurons to bring forward in time old expectations unlock. They become fluid so that fresh ideas can appear in our mind more readily. Research is showing that stress can be good, particularly if we understand how to turn negatives into positives. This helps us wire for resilience.
Step Two: What’s your stress number? Mellin uses a one to five system. The simplest is:
1. Feeling great
2. Feeling good
3. A little stressed
4. Definitely stressed
5. Stress overload
The more detailed breakdown:
Thoughts Feelings Relationships Behavior
1. Abstract Positive Close Optimal
2. Concrete Balanced Friendly Healthy
3. Rigid Mixed Social Moderate
4. Reactive Unbalanced Detached Unhealthy
5. Irrational Overwhelmed Disengaged Destructive
Step Three: Update your unconscious expectations. These are encoded in the brain from past experiences and can cause the brain to trigger a strong reaction. Unreasonable expectations can be false associations, crossed wires from a momentary experience of stress that we coped in some way that wasn’t healthy. The brain recorded that response and replays it in response to small daily stresses…. Emerging research has shown that these circuits can be aroused, reactivated and updated so they are reasonable. When we change them, the brain’s messaging begins promoting stress resilience, helping us bounce back from disturbing news more rapidly. Rewiring these unreasonable expectations has always been the focus of psychotherapy, however, reframing these expectations as emotional circuits has increased interest in using the brain’s power to change through self-directed neuroplasticity in clinical and wellness programs.
Use The EBT Cycle Tool which has been designed to help you move through the stress causing event to a better sense of well-being in a matter of minutes
This
situation is …(complain about a situation)
What I’m most stressed about is … (narrow it to one complaint)
I feel angry that …
I can’t stand it that …
I HATE it that …
I feel sad that …
I feel afraid that …
I feel guilty that …
Of course, I would do that because my unreasonable expectation is …
My reasonable expectation is … (repeat three times)
Step 4: Compassion and humor. Check the brain state of others. Having a better understanding of what they are dealing with may help you to see things in a different light. Laughter helps to release endorphins-the feel good hormone. The effect may not last as long as antidepressants, but the research demonstrates that laughter also triggers serotonin, the neurotransmitter affected by the most common types of antidepressants.
After reading
more about EBT and the 4 steps of how to handle a stressful situation, I found
myself thinking that Taylor’s BRAIN worked well with it. If you haven’t read
last week’s post,
Taylor describes four “characters” of the brain (Referring to the hemisphere's of the brain there are four distinct modules of cells, "characters," Left Thinking, Left Emotion, Right Thinking, Right Emotion). To help use them the most effectively, she came up with the acronym B.R.A.I.N.
Breathe and focus on your breath. This enables you to hit the pause button,
interrupt your emotional reactivity, and bring your mind to the present moment
with a focus on yourself. Before you recognize the opportunity in a
stressful situation (Step 1), slowing down can be quickly achieved by focusing
on your breathe. Working in First Aid at a ski resort, I spent a lot of time
helping people just stop and focus on their breathe as an initial means to deal
with the stress of an injury, frightening situation or hearing the news that
someone was badly injured. It works.
Recognize which of the Four Characters' circuitry you are running in the present moment. Which part of the brain you are using definitely influences how stressful you feel and how you’ll respond. (Step 2).
Appreciate whichever character you find yourself exhibiting, and appreciate the fact that you have all Four Characters available to you at any moment. Relates to Step 3
Inquire within and invite all Four Characters into the huddle so they can collectively and consciously strategize your next move. Relates to Step 3 and using the EBT Cycle Tool as well as Step 4.
Navigate your new reality, with all Four Characters bringing their best game
To add to both Taylor’s and Mellin’s recommendations, below is a list of activities that are generally recommended to help reduce stress and how they can impact the brain:
• Exercise (do something) including yoga, Tai chi or Qigong: Exercise aids the release of hormones which provide an excellent environment for the growth of brain cells. It also promotes brain plasticity by stimulating growth of new connections between cells in many important cortical areas of the brain.
• Eat a healthy diet & avoid bad habits (e.g. too much caffeine, drinking, cigarettes): Inflammatory diet patterns that are high in sugar, refined carbs, unhealthy fats and processed foods can contribute to impaired memory and learning, as well as increase your risk of diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
• Meditate: Thicken the pre-frontal cortex, the brain center that manages higher order brain function, like increased awareness, concentration, and decision making. Changes in the brain show, with meditation, higher-order functions become stronger, while lower-order brain activities decrease.
• Laugh more: Discussed above under Step 4.
• Socialize: Improves cognitive function. It appears to play an important role in preventing mental decline and lowering the risk of dementia.
• Sleep: Important to a number of brain functions, including how nerve cells (neurons) communicate with each other. In fact, your brain and body stay remarkably active while you sleep. Recent findings suggest that sleep plays a housekeeping role that removes toxins in your brain that build up while you are awake.
• Keeping a journal: Not only does it boost memory and comprehension, it also increases working memory capacity, which may reflect improved cognitive processing. Boosts Mood.
• Take a break with art, music and other creative endeavors: Making art reduces the stress hormone cortisol-it’s why Wednesday’s posts are “take a break.”
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