In any part of our lives, whether it be personal or professional, every situation perceived as stressful, activates the 'fight or flight' branch of the nervous system (also called the sympathetic nervous system). The purpose of the system is to provide the body with a boost to protect itself during short periods of stress. Think of your ancestor, the caveman, fleeing from a bear or tiger whose path he innocently wandered across. The bear or tiger probably isn’t going to stalk him for days, so he doesn’t need to have the fight or flight system running constantly, just long enough to escape the immediate danger and return to his natural, relaxed state. In order to help us out in these brief times of emergency, our 'fight or flight' system enacts the following biological changes:
• Increased consumption of bodily resources. This includes neurotransmitters, stress hormones, and energy stores, particularly stored glycogen from the liver.
• Shifting blood away from the internal organs to the skin and muscles of the body. This stops all digestive processes, and allows a readily available supply of blood, oxygen and blood sugar to provide energy to the muscles.
• Release of stress hormones. When a stressful event occurs, a sequence of hormones is released in the body, ending with a class of chemicals called glucocorticoids. These chemicals:
- Elevate the heart rate and blood pressure to meet any immediate demands, allowing maximum opportunity to fight vigorously or to run as fast as possible for as long as needed to survive.
- Increase immune system performance for brief periods of time
• Increased sweat. Chronic stress results in sweaty hands and armpits. Because sweating is the human version of a radiator, this helps the body to stay cool and work more efficiently while running from that bear or tiger.
Because every one of us experiences these different dimensions of our lives, we are subject to stress on those levels as well. There are physical stressors, emotional stressors, mental stressors and spiritual stressors. They are an unavoidable reality in our experience of life, and successfully managing them is how we grow. They are gifts and we grow through them.
As I’ve said, all of these features are really helpful for brief periods of time. But the stressors that we face in the environment of our modern world aren’t temporary like the startled bear or starving tiger that our ancestors faced. They can persist for long periods of time and thus our 'fight or flight' systems stay active for durations that weren’t originally intended in their design. In fact, in the face of chronic stress, our 'fight or flight' system can have the following negative effects on our body-mind:
• Radical swings in energy levels during the day as blood sugar levels change
• Progressively reduced energy levels over the long term
• Weight gain, including in particular the accumulation of fat around the middle (potbelly) in response to blood sugar fluctuations and hormonal stress
• Low self esteem caused by weight gain/body issues
• Self identity issues
• Digestive troubles including gas and acid reflux
• Chronic constipation, common to approximately 90% of people worldwide today!
• Strong, smelly body odor
• Persistence of glucocorticoids and other stress hormones in the body trigger:
- Chronic elevation of blood pressure and heart disease, not to mention elevated triglycerides (fats)
- Weakened immune system, as the more stressed out the body is, the more susceptible it is to colds or flus that go around
If the stress persists in your body-mind long enough, you’ll begin to experience the effects of chronic stress. These health effects are characterized by prolonged or repeated exposures over many days, months or years. Symptoms may not be immediately apparent but the over production of stress hormones is also likely to lead to adrenal fatigue. The adrenal glands are small glands that sit atop each kidney and manufacture your stress hormones and most of your sex hormones. As the adrenal glands fatigue, the body starts to suffer from:
• Low energy
• Poor recovery from physical exercise
• Diminished sex drive
• Accelerated aging
• Difficulty concentrating
Now that you’ve read this laundry list of symptoms, it probably comes as no surprise that fatigue is the most common reason for visiting physicians worldwide! Has a clearer picture now why you often feel fatigue?
With that, I will now explain to the 'integrated doctors' which exist inside of us, and those are the only 'doctors' you will ever need. So, how do we cope with and overcome excessive stress? With the help of the 'Integrated doctors', you will learn how to identify if you are not eating right, not feeling happy or not having enough rest. Today, because so many people are either sedentary or over-training. Obese people carrying mega size potbelly giving all sorts of excuses for not having any physical activity or exercise, while athletes drowning themselves with chronic stress hormones burning out their adrenals.
First of all, foundation for wellbeing. Food and drink dramatically affect our energy levels and our biochemical reality, which in turn influences our emotional and our mental reality.For years of meeting different types of people, I’ve seen over and over again that when the diet is deficient, there just isn’t enough energy or clarity of mind to initiate and sustain the changes needed for self-healing. But, bear in mind, not everyone is necessary able to eat the same types of foods. In fact, the kinds of foods and the proportions of those foods that are right for you may vary quite radically from your friends and loved ones. You body may react well with eating avocado, but the other person may has a pretty awkward response after eating that same very food.
Secondly, there is a 'physician' inside of everyone, particularly in charge of energy management and recovery. When you’re overly stressed and your fight or flight system is triggered repeatedly or for long periods of time, one of the first things to suffer is your sleep. Unfortunately, your body’s ability to recover and repair itself is tied in very real, biological ways to the sleep that you get.
This 'physician' duty is to encourage you to get the necessary sleep to recover from the challenges you faced the day before and to wake energized for the day to come. At the same time, this 'physician' guides you to get the relaxation and the selftime you need to stay calm, focused and energized during the day. For example, this 'physician' can show you how to get active rest during your workday that will help you to tackle your projects more efficiently and effectively than ever. In short, following this 'physician' specific guidelines and sleep recommendations will take you a long way towards permanent health and wellbeing.
Next, we have another 'physician' that always there to lead us toward a life that fulfills our individual needs. This particular 'physician' advises us that if we lead a life that doesn’t fit with our core values and doesn’t fulfill us, every facet of our life becomes a burden. So, the less your current lifestyle fits with your core values, the more frequently your fight or flight system is active. The important guiding truth that this physician offers is that happiness is an essential feature of genuine lasting health. This 'physician' shows you how to create and undertake the deep introspective study and intention to discover what makes you truly happy.
Lastly, the 'physician' who tells you whether you are sedentary, lack of physical activity, or suffers exhaustion from over training or exercise. Over the course of history, humans have become more and more sedentary. We no longer have to hunt and gather just to feed ourselves, and most of us aren’t working in the fields growing our own food either. Our jobs and careers require us to sit most of the day in front of computer screens, and the daily demands of our life often keep us from any kind of beneficial physical movement. Daily movement isn’t simply necessary for keeping a trim figure or decreasing the risk of heart disease. In fact, it’s necessary to get nutrients to and through our body, to move waste out of our bodies and to generate emotional stability and mental clarity. This 'physician' is there to show you the way to acquire more life force and how to move it into action so that you can truly experience and enjoy life.
The big question is, are you ready to consult your own 'panel doctors'? Your own 'integrated doctors', which very few of you, would realize and know about it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people argue that it’s just easier to take a pill and forget about it. But, because pills don’t address the root causes, the constant, excessive stressors that trigger our fight or flight systems, they can never give us the freedom of true health.
When we don’t listen to our body and resort to unnecessary drugs to avoid the actual cause of our problems, we are no longer really living. We’re just aging, and fast. It should come as no surprise that the anti-aging business is the latest and greatest medical boom to come along, with yet another host of drugs, synthetic hormones, injectable and surgical cut and tuck procedures, none of which addresses the stressors that caused the problem to begin with!
With a little bit of training, you can learn to hear the voices of your own ' integrated panel doctors'. Each of these inner doctors will help you to understand the symptoms that you’re facing and their causes, and provide you with the tools and guidance you need to transform these distressing pressures into opportunities for personal growth and wellbeing. Sounds cool?
If you are ready to truly live, to enjoy energy and vitality again, if you are ready to regain your shape, balance your emotions and tune up your mental function, I’m sure you are ready for the truly beautiful spiritual experience your integrated doctors offer you, a fulfilling, happy life of wellbeing. In the next post, I will share with you in details on all these 'integrated doctors' within your inner self.
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