As we all know, times are tough right now. The Covid-19 pandemic is the first one most of us have experienced in our adult lives but it’s not the world’s first or the last. Throughout 12,000 years of human history, pandemics have killed an estimated 300 million to 500 million people, with the bubonic plague decimating an estimated 60% of the European population during the Middle Ages.
Fight or Flight State. This term describes the state of your nervous system when your sympathetic system is fully operational.
Relaxation Response. This term describes the response of your mind and body to safe circumstances or a secure environment, causing your heart and breath rate to slow, your blood pressure to drop, your energy usage to slow, and your digestion and immune systems to turn on.
Rest and Digest State. This term describes the state of your nervous system when your parasympathetic system is fully operational, you are mentally and physically relaxed, your body’s vital signs are in their calm state, and the immune, repair, and digestive systems are up and operating. You enter this state naturally when relaxing at home or out in nature, or when you use conscious relaxation to trigger the relaxation response.
Conscious Relaxation. This term describes any technique that triggers the relaxation response, including meditation, breath practices that are calming, guided relaxation practices, and even gentle and restorative yoga asana practiced mindfully.
Sympathetic Nervous System. Your sympathetic nervous system prepares your body and mind for action by stimulating your heart to beat faster and stronger and slightly raising your blood pressure to improve blood flow, by opening your airways so you can breathe more easily, and by stimulating your thought processes so you can assess your situation and think more quickly.
Parasympathetic Nervous System. This system is responsible for nourishing, restoring, and healing your body and mind. When you are physically still and your mind is quiet, your parasympathetic system functions optimally, allowing you to enter the rest and digest state.
- Laugh often, it’s medicine
- Routine is medicine
- Movement is medicine
- Sleep is medicine
- Breath is medicine
- Consistency is medicine
- Storytelling is medicine
- Can think about an event in its entirety, seeing other points of view and placing themselves within the situation and not at the center of it.
- Can select from a menu of possible appropriate behaviors in response to any new or anxiety-inducing event.
- Can commit to implementing their selected behaviors.
- Can accept and work with the challenge of change and difficult circumstances.
- Can recognize and self-manage their feelings.
- Can modify their responses to stressful situations.
During Covid Times waking the witness will help us recognize what our stressors are and why we find them troublesome
(see Waking Your Witness). After facing them and tracing them, we can find healthy ways to work with them. Suggested yoga tools and techniques for dealing with pandemic stress-mess will be the focus of Covid Times Self Care, Part 2.Beth’s self-awareness newsletter is published six times a year. It features informative, inspiring and entertaining tips for finding clarity, contentment, and resilience in a complicated world. For more information and to sign up for the newsletter go to www.bethgibbs.com.
