By Derek Bye | B.S. Exercise Science, ACSM-CPT
Just about anyone I know has had the feeling of being “anxious” at a given time, or experiences this feeling of anxiety on a consistent basis. Today I want to reveal some insight that will hopefully allow you to better understand anxiety and what you can do to control it.
Anxiety is an increasingly common disorder among many people, and it can have a significant impact on your quality of life. Anxiety is a natural part of being human, but when it begins to affect your everyday life activities it’s time to do something to control it. If you experience difficulty communicating/expressing yourself or developing and maintaining relationships, this post should be helpful for you.
A look into the physiology behind anxiety:
Our nervous system plays a huge role in controlling our anxiety. After all, the spinal chord is literally an extension of the brain. This means that there is a mind-body connection, meaning that whatever is happening in your mind is having an effect on how your body is acting. Our autonomic nervous system (the division of our nervous system that is not consciously controlled) is divided into two categories. 1. The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and 2. The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)
1. Sympathetic Nervous System– the SNS is a division of the nervous system that creates a “fight or flight” response from the body. This occurs when there is a perceived threat from the individual, and they need to be able to deal with it right away. Physiological changes that occur during this response include an increase in heart rate, increase in adrenaline (hormone), rapid breathing, and feeling more alert (caused by increased cortisol). During this time, blood will also be moved away from the digestive system to fuel the muscles. This will most often result in tense muscles and sweating.
2. Parasympathetic nervous system– the PNS is a division of the nervous system that’s responsible for “rest and digest” actions in the body. This includes lowering the heart rate, slowed breathing, and returning blood towards the digestive system. During a state of “rest and digest”, you are in a state of relaxation.
Now that we understand the two different divisions of the autonomic nervous system, can you tell which one causes us to feel anxious? That’s right, it’s an overdevelopment of the sympathetic nervous system that creates the physiological feeling of being anxious.
The nervous system works by looking for patterns that occur frequently within the body and becoming more efficient at it. This is why when you lift weights frequently, your nervous system adapts by making you stronger. It’s recognizing the pattern, and it’s becoming more efficient at sending electrical impulses to recruit muscle fibers to contract stronger. This is one example of how our nervous system responds (adapts) to patterns in our body.
This same concept can be applied to how anxiety works in our body. As I stated earlier, anxiety is an OVERDEVELOPMENT of the sympathetic nervous system. This division of the nervous system puts you into “fight or flight” mode because you have a perceived threat. Some of these perceived threats may include being judged by others, messing something up, or fear from a past traumatic event/experience. Whatever it may be, it is stored into the subconscious mind and is the root cause of your anxiety. Typically, someone with an anxiety disorder has multiple anxiety triggers so it’s important to become conscious of what it is that makes you feel uncomfortable. This is what we can refer to as your ability to develop emotional intelligence (EQ).
Exercise your brain: Send your anxiety for a run
Meditation is the best method to combat anxiety. Meditation is a scientifically proven approach that allows us to train the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), and relax the SNS. The more consistent you are with meditation, the less generalized anxiety you’ll experience. Your body will be much more relaxed and you won’t have random spikes of adrenalin hormone for no apparent reason. Your mood will become much more consistent and best of all, you’ll develop emotional intelligence. Meditation allows us to get in touch with our subconscious mind and find out what kind of thoughts are going through our head. Then, we can identify the negative thoughts and work towards replacing them with positive ones.
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