Stress Reduction: 7 Valuable Energy Science Tools
Meditation is a tool to help quiet the mind and therefore the physiology since the mind and body are intimately spliced...we cannot separate them What is mind is body and what is body is mind There are published scientific articles regarding not only the scientific understanding of meditation and its physiologic consequences but also attesting to its long term benefits
In Ayurveda the energy patterns of Vata(energy of physiologic movement) and Pitta(energy of transformation or metabolism) are involved in stress Both of these energy patterns are involved in stress and engages the control dramas of Vata which is flight(run away) or Pitta(fight) or a mixture of the two energy patterns
But there are many things that can be done to reduce the body's response to stress from an energy science point of view These methods or techniques are ways to quiet the mindbody and hence improve its ability to handle stress
Stress and Retraining the Nervous System
The accumulation of stress events that are not dealt with adequately leads to a heightened level of stress over and above baseline This increased sympathetic nervous system activity puts us in a altered physiologic state where we are then more responsive to simple stress events that would not ordinarily trigger us(crying child puts us over the top) This is called "chronic stress syndrome" but is nothing more than a primed sympathetic system that is operating over and above what is appropriate Done for long periods of time it can lead to adrenal fatigue
Our reaction to an event in our environment as a perceived threat can engage the flight or fight response This mental response to "out there" prompts a part of our nervous system named the sympathetic nervous system The opposing part is the parasympathetic nervous system It turns out that the former is engaged in times of stress(fight or flight) and the latter is engaged during periods of relaxation
Everyone experiences stress in their lives but it's how we deal with it that's important So retraining our nervous system out of hypervigilance or "fight or flight response" and to teach it to be calmer in the face of that "perceived threat" whatever it might be is the key to dealing with the stress
7 Energy Science Things That You Can Do To Reduce Stress
The energy science of Ayurveda and the yoga tradition state that it's not just one thing that we do to help deal with stress but a multiplicity of things that we can do to invoke a more calm(parasympathetic) response to events that occur to us in our environment
Nutrition Amazingly when we eat foods that produce imbalance it brings about a minor stressor but a stressor nonetheless Over time as discussed earlier this loads the sympathetic nervous system, raising its level of activity
Herbal support There a number of Ayurvedic herbs that can lend support to the nervous system that are called rasayanas These are a special group of herbs that can provide strengthening support to an overloaded system
Pranayama These are breathing practices that can have a calming effect to the autonomic nervous system by increasing the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system which happens to be in very high concentration anatomically in the diaphragm
Nasya At the upper part of the nasal cavity is a plate that has direct access to the brainstem Named the cribiform plate this provides herbal access to the nervous system so that they can provide strengthening support to an overly fatigued nervous system
Asana practice Done properly by focusing on bodily sensations, asana practice can be meditative and hence reduce the mind's tendency to respond in a sympathetic way
Meditation is an energy science tool to quiet the mind In so doing it produces a parasympathetic response, that is, a calming effect Done over time(at least 3mo of practice) it will retrain the nervous system so that it is not so reactive to events in our environment
Watching thoughts as clouds This practice helps us disengage our internal world At times our thoughts become so real for us that we think they are us! But we are not our thoughts we are the observer of our thoughts Thoughts are like hotel guests....they come and go but we as the observer....we never change When we watch the thoughts come and go as clouds we disengage from the mind
By and by introducing each of these tools can be life changing and help you conquer stress Just begin with 5 minutes and you'll see benefits and want to spend more time
