[MUSIC] What is the physiology of stress and anxiety? We all feel the effects of anxiety or stress in our body sometimes. Our heart might start pounding, our muscles can get tense. Sometimes we get sweaty or shaky hands. Our breathing may get faster and shallower, and we can feel restless on edge and irritable. Sometimes we might feel nauseous, or our stomach might feel like it's tied up in knots. These are all physiological responses to stress. In fact our body has developed this response to stress over time as a survival mechanism. You might have heard of the fight or flight response. And that's exactly what's happening in our bodies during these times when we feel stressed or anxious. Fight or flight and sometimes even freezing, kick in when we experience a situation as frightening or threatening. These kinds of situations don't just involve physical threat to our body, but also when we might feel threatened socially. For example, when we worry about what other people might be thinking about us, or how we might perform when giving a speech or playing in a concert, or meeting people for the first time. Even just anticipating those kinds of situations in the future can be enough to set off the stress reaction in our body. So why does our body do this? Well these physiological responses are meant to prepare us to fight, run away, or to freeze when we sense threat. Before modern society developed, this response in our bodies was actually a really useful tool. Being physical ready to run away from a while animal, or to fight to protect our tribe, all within a moment's notice may have meant the difference between life and death. The thing is, we don't really need to do either of those things in the modern world we live in, especially in social situations. So when we start experiencing these physiological reactions to stress, we can understand them as an old and important system which evolved to help us survive threatening situations. But what can we do to reverse the stress response in our bodies when it occurs? How can we turn off this physiological reaction which can be uncomfortable, unsettling, and which can make it hard to concentrate on the things we need to do in our day? I want to talk to you about two different relaxation techniques that you can use when you notice yourself starting to feel stressed in your body. Deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. So why use relaxation strategies? Relaxation strategies work by using your physiology. For example, your breathing or your muscles, to signal to your brain that you're not actually in danger. By slowing down your breathing or purposefully relaxing your muscles, you can turn off that stress response. Relaxation strategies are great, because once you learn how to do them, you can do them anywhere. Relaxation strategies may also be used as part of your daily routine. For example, you might find that doing a breathing exercise every night before you go to bed will help you to let go of some of that stress we accumulate during the day. And we know that by lowering the stress we feel in our body, we can actually reduce the amount of anxiety we experience overall. The first strategy is the use of breathing. There are many different breathing exercises you can use to create the relaxation response, such as different types of yoga breathing, bubble breathing, and meditation based breathing. A good place to start though is with deep breathing. Deep breathing is about reversing the pattern of breathing that we find ourselves in when we're stressed or anxious. At those times our breathing becomes short, shallow, faster and we breathe into our chest rather than our belly. So deep breathing is about focusing on our breath, and consciously guiding our breath to become slow and deep. By doing this, we activate the parasympathetic system which calms us down and puts the brakes on our stress response. To do a deep abdominal breathing exercise, follow these steps. First, get comfortable in any position. You might like to lie down or sit some where quiet, and put your hands on your chest and stomach. Next, exhale completely through your mouth. Begin by breathing in through your nose and focus on breathing in to your stomach rather than your chest. You can notice this by noticing which of your two hands is rising. You want the hand on your belly to rise and fall more dramatically than the hand on your chest. This can take some practice, and you'll find that you get better at it each time. Don't worry if it doesn't come naturally to you at first, just do your best. Keep focusing on your breath, and on breathing in deeply from your nose and into your stomach. Breathe in until your belly feels full, then hold the breath for a few seconds. Exhale slowly through your mouth, this should take about twice as long as it did to inhale, and it may help to slightly purse your lips when you do this, as if you're blowing out the candles on a cake. Continue this cycle, breathe in through your nose and into your stomach. Hold your breath for a few seconds, exhale slowly through your mouth. Do this for four to ten cycles. Some people find it helpful to count while doing this exercise. So breathing in for four seconds, holding the breath for seven seconds, and breathing out for eight seconds, four, seven, eight. You can continue to do this for as long as you need until you feel more relaxed. For some people doing this for a minute can be enough. Others may prefer to spend five minutes doing this exercise to get the maximum effect. It really is up to you. Try it out and see what works. Another relaxation technique is progressive muscle relaxation. This technique works by bringing attention to the tension we're carrying in our body, and focusing on relaxing that tension. To do this, you purposely focus on individual muscles in your body. And one by one, tense the muscle and hold it for a few seconds, and then relax that muscle. You move from one muscle to the next. For example, you might sit in a quiet spot in your house, close your eyes, and start by focusing on the muscles in your right shoulder. You purposefully tense that muscle, hold it for a few seconds, and focus on the sensation of tension, and then relax that muscle. Focusing on how the relaxation of the tension feels. Then you'd move on to your upper arm, then your lower arm, then your hand, then your fingers, and so on. The goal here is to learn to recognize tension in different parts of your body. And to learn how to purposely relax those muscles when needed. Just like the breathing technique, this strategy will become easier to do the more you use it. Here are some final notes about using relaxation strategies. It's important to practice these strategies regularly over a period of time in order to get the best effect. Try to practices these strategies when you're not particularly anxious or stressed out, so that you can really focus on them and learn to apply them at times when you need them the most. The more you practice these strategies when you're calmer, the easier it will be for you to use them when you're feeling anxious or stressed. For example, some people like to spend five or ten minutes each night before they go to bed doing a breathing exercise, or going through the progressive muscle relaxation exercise. This allows them to become more familiar with the routine, and they're much more likely to use it when they start to feel stress building in their body during the day. Finally, we have listed a variety of places online where you can access more relaxation exercises, including guided progressive muscle relaxation and breathing exercises. [MUSIC]
