Spring has come again...and none too soon. This winter has been harder than most, with the usual cold and too~short days serving to accentuate the continued effects of COVID isolation and worries. We have been on high alert for a year now, and that stress has taken its toll, with research finding significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, suicidality, and violence both within and outside the home.
In a recent interview with Krista Tippett, clinical psychologist and professor at UMass Medical School, Christine Runyan discusses how the body and psyche respond to this type of prolonged strain. Runyan explains that when threat is detected, our "exquisitely designed" and highly sensitive autonomic nervous system acts beneath our conscious awareness to prepare us for danger by releasing a "cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones." To provide energy, our heartrate, blood pressure, and glucose secretions rise. Digestion slows, clotting agents increase, and blood is diverted to major muscle groups to prepare us for the battle we're convinced is on its way. Runyan says this is a "predictable response...our source code as humans."
When the threat is prolonged, such as in the "species-level trauma" of this pandemic, those responses become chronic, and we live in "a state of physiological high arousal." Our stress has been further accentuated by the social distancing the pandemic requires. "Our nervous systems know touch," Runyan states. "They know closeness and a hug." With those denied, we're robbed of the very tangible sort of comfort we need.
Runyan reminds us that our reactions are normal. "Whoever you are, whatever you are feeling," she says, "of course you're feeling that...That is a normal response to incredibly unfamiliar, unusual, unpredictable, uncontrollable circumstances."
Runyan also reminds us, though, that there is much we can do to mitigate these effects. She explains that "our parasympathetic nervous system...often called our rest and digest or relaxation system, is also innate within us." Its function is to return us to a state of calm, particularly important for chronic threats in which precautions need to be maintained over time.
Runyan offers several suggestions for activating our parasympathetic resources. First, she explains that since our nervous system gets its information through the senses, any soothing stimuli will be helpful. Relaxing music, soft light, pleasantly scented candles, and warm baths, for example, all convey a sense of safety and ease. "Some of the self-care solutions...can sound quite trivial" she admits, though trite was the word Tippett supplied, but their effectiveness makes sense when we "package them through an understanding of this physiology."
Second, Runyan points to working with the body directly. Aerobic exercise has long been known to reduce tension by giving the body what that high arousal state has primed it for, while also helping to directly metabolize stress hormones in the process. Practices like yoga or tai chi work in the opposite way. By moving into quieting postures and syncing our movements with calming breaths, we convey to the body that all is well. Runyan offers another very simple option. Sitting with feet making full contact with the Earth conveys safety, as it is the opposite of the fight or flight posture which has us, literally and figuratively, on our toes and ready to move.
Third, Runyan recommends various breathing practices, the simplest being to prolong the exhalation, which directly activates the parasympathetic nervous system to promote calm.
Her fourth suggestion is to remind ourselves that our reactions are normal and expected. When we place them in context, we move away from harsh judgements that amplify stress, as we "quiet our nervous system by leveraging our thinking brain."
Runyan's fifth suggestion encapsulates all these and reflects her training as a mindfulness practitioner and teacher. She encourages us to slow down, to become aware of and curious about our experience as it is moment to moment. Soothing follows, as do wiser choices about our actions. While settling into the present is particularly difficult when we're activated, Runyan invites us "to incline the mind" this way to more easily "drop into the wonderment of whatever is here." We then activate the parasympathetic nervous system and the relaxation response that has been waiting for us there. Life becomes not just less stressful, but a more pleasant and engaging experience despite its ongoing challenges.
It's been a hellava year, for sure. Yet spring has come again, as it always does with its ever~fresh promise. On my walk this morning, I noticed the greening of the valley was fully underway following our recent spring snows. I also saw two pairs of heron, just returned from their winter home, wading in the shallows of the lake. As I drew near, they rose on broad, slow~beating wings, spindly legs trailing behind as they flew off.
Easter has just passed, with its celebration of the risen Christ a powerful symbol of life rising out of death, compassion out of disinterest and hate, hope from despair, and wisdom winning out over ignorance. As vaccines become increasingly available, large numbers of us will choose to partake, making that loving choice for ourselves, for those we hold dear, and for our community, both here and worldwide.
Spring has already brought additional daylight our way, around 47 minutes more than on the Spring Equinox just a few weeks ago. In relishing that extra daylight, we give aid to our parasympathetic nervous system and awaken the soothing it is designed to bring us. It can also be the first step in dropping down into wonderment, as we utter a heartfelt "Yes!" to all this amazing world has to offer.
Happy Spring!
Leia
The interview with Christine Runyan can be found by clicking here
