We have evolved over the millennia to cope with acute stress and our stress levels rise because our brain is primarily about safety – the survival instinct. However, once the stressful incident has passed, we need to switch off this response and allow the stress hormones to return to a normal level to re-establish allostasis (the process of achieving equilibrium through fluctuating neuroendocrine responses to physical and psychological stress) and homeostasis (the synthesis of bodily functions that keeps the bodies internal environment stable).
Chronic, high stress can have detrimental effects not only on our health but also on cognitive functions. For example, when the “stressed” brain is dominant there is a low voltage in “working memory”, the prefrontal cortex, and a high voltage in the limbic and reptilian brain, the emotive, reactive part.
It is only in the last 50 years that scientists have sought to methodically examine and analyse the associations between the heart, brain and mind. It began in the 1970s with Friedman and Rosenman’s work into type A personality and behavioural style and now there is a clear recognition across diverse disciplines that the cardiovascular system and the mind are intimately interconnected. Research is showing that this is not only in an efferent direction i.e. the brain to the heart (primarily the medulla for regulating sympathetic and parasympathetic outflow to the heart, and the hypothalamus and cortex modifying cardiac responses to emotion and stress etc) but also in an afferent direction i.e. the heart sending signals up to the brain reaching areas such as the medulla, then onto hypothalamus, amygdala and thalamus thereby inserting an influence on it. Although still in its infancy, some very promising linkages are materialising.
Psychological stress and aspects of negative emotionality may trigger adverse cardiac changes by means of hyper-reactivity of the nervous system response that could plausibly relate to cardio-vascular disease vulnerability - for example, by heightened activation of the sympathetic nervous system as well as a decrease in vagal control. Anxiety may contribute to excessive arousal of the hypothalamic- pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a subsystem in your body that is our central stress response, causing the sympathetic nervous system to generate catecholamines resulting in inflammation which in turn may damage the vascular endothelium. Anxiety is also thought to increase cardiovascular reactivity to stress leading to an elevated burden on the heart as a consequence of increased resting heart rate, baroreflex dysfunction (the baroreceptors help regulate short term blood pressure) and abnormal heart rhythms amongst other findings.
If you would like to read more about the HPA axis and how the stress response CLICK HERE.
Stress is a major cause of inflammation, even when there is no antigen i.e. nothing entered the body, but it is our thoughts that “infected” our body with an inflammatory response. Inflammation is traditionally thought of as a defence response activated by injury or infection. However, inflammation can also be induced in the absence of these, for example when homeostasis is disrupted due to the over-activation of the stress response. Oxidative stress (psychological stress promotes oxidative stress leading to damage) and inflammation are inextricably linked and play major roles in the onset and development of noncommunicable diseases (e.g. neurological diseases, diabetes or cardiovascular disease). Research has also shown that chronic stress and stress that occurs because of worry about an upcoming stressor may accelerate the accumulation of oxidative damage and increase the risk for disease. Therefore, by reacting differently to life’s stressors, we have the potential to protect our genes.
Chronic stress shortens the length of our chromosomes (our genes), which has potential implications for our life span. If you would like to know more about the science of how stress affects the heart, brain-heart interaction, health, and longevity, CLICK HERE.
For videos on diaphragmatic breathing, CLICK HERE.
Use of guided imagery will help change and install positive emotions into the limbic region of your brain. Research has shown that there is a chemical change of over 1,200 different biochemical responses in the brain that can help shift an individual from a sense of breaking down to building strength and resilience up again.
Relax in a comfortable position. Focus on your breathing and start to let your body soften and your mind become calm and quiet. Imagine a soothing scene or place, for example, a beach, mountains, a garden, somewhere that you feel safe and calm. It can be somewhere real or imagined, just use your power of imagination (see the scene as clearly as you can, the colours, imagine the sounds around you, the smells). Or think about a happy memory, someone that you love or feel good with and focus on those emotions.
There are many good guided imagery exercises available on audio apps or YouTube - find a voice and imagery that works for you or simply use your own. Use as many modalities as you can i.e. your sense of imagery (seeing as clearly as you can, like colour and texture of the sea) and sense of hearing (e.g. sounds of the waves). Obviously if you suffer with hay fever please don’t use a garden scene or if you have vertigo stay away from mountain tops etc!
Listen to Caron's audio relaxation exercises.
Much research is taking place on mindfulness and its efficacy on stress reduction and there have recently been a number of specific studies on mindfulness techniques and the cardiac population. There is mounting scientific evidence that mindfulness practice not only reduces stress but also builds an inner strength which is conducive to increasing resilience. You are better able to focus which helps quiet a “busy mind’ that may be prone to over-rumination or catastrophising about events real or imagined. By training your mind to become present in the moment, you learn not to get lost in past regrets or in worries about the future. It teaches the sympathetic nervous system to let go rather than running on fight/flight/freeze mode and this deep, internal relaxation of the nervous system fosters healing. Through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have verified that neural pathways in the brain are able to change through mindfulness meditation practice and the longer-term the practice, the more positive changes in the physical structure of the brain are observed.
Hypnosis is perhaps the oldest Western conception of psychotherapy and it is now incorporating some of the most recent understanding of the neuroscience of the brain. fMRI has mapped specific areas in the brain involved in hypnosis and a great deal has been learned about the neurophysiological underpinnings of hypnosis. When practiced, it can increase our ability to decrease anxiety, lower pain levels, improve mood and build up self-control, among other benefits. For example, when someone notices an increased heart rate or are over-worrying about something that in turn can trigger an even bigger stress response leading to a vicious cycle like a “snowball effect”. Research has shown that as well as clinical hypnosis and hypnotherapy, delivered by a practitioner, being useful methods of helping to reduce stress levels and increase better overall health, self-hypnosis has also been proven to be a salient treatment as it gives an enhanced control of the mind and in turn control over the body. The process of hypnosis involves firstly entering into a deep state of relaxation then by staying in a highly focused state of attention (like a telephoto lens zooming in) whilst dissociating from competing thoughts, one makes positive suggestions for the unconscious mind to accept. There are some possible risks with self-hypnosis, particularly if you have a history of dissociation,bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
With both mindfulness and hypnosis, if you wish to use either on a more clinical level (e.g. for chronic pain reduction, depression, excessive anxiety levels), it is important to undertake instruction from a fully qualified practitioner preferably with the equivalent of post-graduate study in the discipline. Mindfulness especially, has become huge in the media and some individuals may set themselves up as teachers with little or no training.
Both mindfulness and hypnosis train you to be in control of your mind so that your mind doesn’t control you. All the above need regular practise - these small nudges help to make positive changes in the brain. Think of the brain changes occurring in micro-ways, even a few seconds of practise is rewiring and developing a more flexible vagal system.
