Your brain is constantly on the lookout for danger, ready to trigger bodily processes and reflexes to protect you from anything it perceives as a threat. When danger is detected, all animals react with an almost instantaneous sequence of hormonal and physiological changes, preparing them to either fight, flee, or freeze.
This quick response is a normal instinctual reaction of every animal’s nervous system to fear and was crucial for our ancestors’ survival.
However, this activation was only meant to happen infrequently in life-or-death situations. Yet, it still exists in our brains today and often kicks in for everyday stressors like traffic, work, bills, or conflict. Frequent activation of this response and the subsequent bodily changes can have detrimental effects on your brain and body. Over time, this heightened stress state can become constant and turn into chronic anxiety.
The good news is that there are many ways you can calm your body, make your brain feel safe, and reduce anxiety.
The Sympathetic Nervous System and Anxiety
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) manages this stress response in your body. When activated, your heart rate and breathing increase, pupils dilate, blood flow gets redirected to muscles, the frontal lobe of your brain shuts down, and your body is flooded with stress hormones. The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) acts as the “brake” to calm your brain and body back to a resting state once the threat has passed.
Humans are unique in that danger doesn’t actually have to be imminent to trigger an SNS response. Our sophisticated brains can go into high alert just when remembering, anticipating, or imagining something upsetting or scary. I’m sure you’ve experienced this leading to anxiety and panic even when there is no real threat present.
Fortunately, we can also use our minds to calm our nervous systems down too.
The Impact of Anxiety on the Brain
Anxiety can actually be beneficial in short bursts, for example, the energetic buzz you feel before a first date or speaking publicly. This type of stress, called eustress, helps us perform better under pressure. However, when anxiety becomes prolonged and chronic, it can cause significant damage to your brain and body. Specifically:
- Cortisol: The hormone initially boosts brain function, but when levels stay consistently high for too long, it eventually suppresses function.
- Hippocampus damage: Chronic stress leads to an excess of glutamate in your brain, causing hippocampus cells to die resulting in memory loss.
- Amygdala overdrive: Stress strengthens connections in the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, making it more sensitive, active, and dominant. This results in a brain that’s constantly in fight-or-flight mode.
- Dendrite retraction: Stress causes dendrites, the receiving part of neurons in your brain, to retract, disrupting signal transmission and hindering neurogenesis, the birth of new brain cells.
The Health Effects of Chronic Anxiety
Long-term activation of the SNS due to chronic anxiety can lead to a number of health problems, including:
- Cardiovascular issues: Increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
- Weakened immune system: Making you more susceptible to infections.
- Mental health conditions: Higher risk of anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses.
- Metabolic changes: Weight gain and glucose metabolism disturbances.
- Inflammation: Linked to various health issues.
- Digestive problems: Exacerbation of gastrointestinal issues like irritable bowel syndrome.
Strategies for Managing Anxiety and Calming Your Body
Understanding how and why your brain activates the stress response can allow you to take steps to reduce anxiety and live a calmer life. The bottom line is, your brain and nervous system need to be supported and feel safer. Some ways to do that are:
Exercise
All forms of exercise cause the brain to release feel-good chemicals and give your body a chance to release stress. Even everyday activities such as house cleaning or yard work can reduce stress. Exercise is one of the best ways to negate the damaging effects of stress and anxiety and strengthen and calm your brain and body.
Exercise helps build a strong brain that can prevent the toxic effects of stress and even repair itself. It not only increases oxygen and blood flow to the brain while you are doing it, but it also has these long-term protective effects:
- Calms the amygdala.
- Increases intracellular energy production efficiency.
- Enhances insulin receptor production and neuroplasticity.
- Boosts brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which supports brain cell growth and function.
Sleep
Adequate sleep is crucial for managing anxiety and supporting your brain. A regular sleep routine helps restore the body, boost the immune system, improve concentration, regulate mood, and lower cortisol levels.
Sleep can reduce stress by lowering cortisol levels and keeping the immune system and anxiety in check. In research, adults with lower stress levels sleep more hours per night than adults with higher stress levels. There are several reasons why adequate sleep is associated with stress reduction:
- Restoration and repair
- Stress hormone regulation
- Cognitive performance and memory consolidation
- Emotional regulation
Social Support
Strong relationships with friends and family can improve your outlook and mental well-being. High levels of social support increase resilience to stress, improve overall health, and decrease the risk of death.
Your brain interprets social threats just like other threats. Every unreturned phone call or unanswered text becomes a reason for your brain to sound the alarm. In fact, the pain of social rejection, exclusion, or loss, activates the same areas as physical pain in your brain. Feeling isolated can put your brain in a state of chronic stress or anxiety. Being around people or socializing with friends or family makes your brain feel safer and can reduce anxiety.
Mindfulness Practices
Practices like yoga, visualization, and meditation can activate the PNS, reducing anxiety and promoting a more balanced state of mind. Engaging in mindfulness activities can help you stay present, lessen the impact of stress, and reduce anxiety.
In research, mindfulness reduced anxiety as much as medication. Mindfulness also:
- Builds resilience and reduces stress
- Calms the amygdala and the stress response
- Improves sleep which helps brain function
- Improves immune system and reduces inflammation
Slow Deep Breathing
Taking slow, deep breaths through your nose into your diaphragm with slow exhales calms your brain and body. Science shows that slow breathing is your remote control to calm your brain and body to reduce anxiety and stress instantly. Deep, slow breathing engages the PNS, turning down the SNS stress response and improving both physical and mental health. Here are six slow breathing practices you can use to calm your brain and body instantly.
A calmer brain means a calmer you and life.
Further Reading:
Why Your Brain Sees Anxiety as an Advantage
Most of us are pretty safe in our day-to-day lives. So, you don’t actually need to BE safer. You just need your brain to FEEL safer. You have to intentionally direct your brain to stop inflating threats and undervaluing resources. Read more
The Easy 5 Step Practice that Quickly Stops Anxious and Depressing Thoughts
Grounding is a simple mindfulness practice that you can do anywhere at any time, and it instantly takes you out of the depressing, anxious thought loop. Read more
How Your Neurons Make You A Nervous Wreck (and how to rewire them)
Your brain learns to pair certain things with fear, whether it is needed and logical or not. The good news is that it can unlearn and lessen anxiety. Read more
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