Advait - Stress-Proof Your Brain The Yogic Way: Unique Ancient Indian Techniques to End Toxic Stress, Stop Worrying and Inculcate Mental Toughness

The term Stress is a very broad term, to understand what stress is, we would have to first understand what it constitutes.

It comprises of two segments, an external stress, an outer force/circumstance that puts some sort of pressure on you e.g. work pressure, relationships etc.

And the most significant other half, the internal stress, your bodys physical and psychological response to the external pressure e.g. anxiety, insomnia etc.

Our bodys typical reaction to stress is secretion of certain chemicals/hormones that cause the heart rate to go up, shooting up the blood pressure, and typically increasing the breathing rate, enabling you to assess the situation and then decide to whether fight or to flee, all credit goes to the evolutionary mechanism.

But the major issue is that our body reacts the same way to all types of external pressures, either it be getting out of your cozy warm sofa or meeting someone that you absolutely dread to be around.

And if you are someone who is a habitual worrier who gets stressed easily then you are regularly subjecting your body to this physical stress response which can very well lead to chronic stress, which has the ability to even change the architecture of your brain, which in the long term can cause serious mental illness, lead to depression and even cause dementia.

Some Brain Science

First let us understand what goes on inside our body when we are stressed.

In presence of an external stressor, our sensory organs send an input to our brain and the brain pushes its panic button a.k.a the amygdala.

The amygdala then uses norepinephrine to send lightning fast signals to the adrenal glands (located on the kidneys) and instructs the glands to release adrenaline, which is essential for the fight-or-flight response.

At the same time the amygdala connects with the hypothalamus which send its own chemical messengers through the bloodstream (this is a slow process) to the pituitary gland which in turn activates the adrenal gland yet again (this is called as the HPA axis), but this time it instructs the adrenal glands to release Cortisol, the primary stress hormone and the main culprit in the chronic stress induced ailments.

It is the abundant presence of cortisol, adrenaline, epinephrine and norepinephrine in case of chronic stress that causes numerous diseases in various internal organs within our body and cause neural damage to the brain.

Stress in the absence of a real stressor

We human beings are peculiar in a sense that, we do not need any actual, real stressor to trigger our bodys stress mechanism. We are capable of anticipating or imagining or visualizing an external stress and triggering the stress response within our brains.

Our mind is so powerful that it can imagine a stress and cause stress response.

We can literally imagine ourselves into a rumble, which is very, very bad.

But look at the flip side. If our mind can affect our body then, our body can affect our mind as well.

Moral of the story, we can imagine ourselves out of the rumble too, by simply controlling our physical movements and constructive visualization.

Here is a fun task;

Step 1 - Notice how you are feeling right now, pay attention to your mood and energy level.

Step 2 - Now sit up with a straight back or stand up with your feet shoulder width apart.

Step 3 - Lift up your hands over your head, with your fist lightly clutched together.

Step 4 - Bring a slight smile on your face and hold this position for the next 90 Seconds.

Step 5 - After 90 seconds return to your initial position and now notice the change in your mood and your energy levels.

You will find that in just 90 seconds you have shot up your energy levels and elevated you mood and are now feeling good.

Stress busting can be that simple, you just have to know the right buttons to press.

Controlled stress as a Vaccine

Neuroscientists call it stress inoculation .

As you know, a vaccine is just a weaker version of the same virus, e.g. the polio vaccine is nothing but a weakened polio virus, which is let into our body so that our body learns how to fight with this type of virus and then develops its own immune system response for any exposure to the polio virus in the future.

Similarly, stress inoculation is a calculated and controlled exposure to an external stressor, so that our body learns to cope with it. In common slang we call it, toughening up.

I remember in my early teens I used to watch WWE with my brother. It was the time when John Cena had just won his first championship and he had modified his championship belt with a spinner wwe buckle. During those days, Cena used to repeat a cheesy line every now and then, Something that doesnt kill me, makes me STRONGERRRR

The same thing applies here, controlled exposure to physical stress followed by yogic coping mechanism, will teach your brain to stress-proof itself.

Here is a fun fact;

when scientists want to induce stress in lab rats, they simply isolate them from their group and familiar surroundings. This social isolation is stress enough to trigger a physical stress response in those animals.

Now think of meditation, what is it, if not a temporary isolation from your social group? Thus inducing minute regulated stress, and then using visualization and breathing aided coping mechanism that helps you to train your brain in handling stress.

Now you know why meditation techniques work like a charm in stress management