Symptoms are the body returning to health.
There are 2 broad categories of how this happens.
The first is things like when we eat something bad and we vomit it up to keep ourselves healthy. Or fever is our body’s wisdom asserting itself to kill off bacteria and viruses so we can keep the outside out and the inside in.
The second way that our bodies return to health is in the case of chronic stress.
We are made for a hyperalert stress state for a half-hour every 2 to 3 days.
This system is in place so we can do things like fight for our lives and run away from lions. And it works beautifully if we let it.
In our modern lives, we rarely use this inborn survival system how it was designed. We keep ourselves in a mildly hyperalert state a lot of the time. We do this with the three main categories of stressors: Thoughts, Toxins, and Trauma.
When the fight or flight system is activated a whole cascade of physiological and biochemical responses happen in our super smart bodies. We down regulate non-essential systems e.g. sexual drive, reproduction, digestion and the immune system. Fighting off microorganisms or reproducing doesn’t matter when you are running away from a hungry lion.
We also up regulate other lion fighting essential functions e.g. mobilizing blood sugar for quick energy, increasing HDL cholesterol for wound healing, sending blood flow to the central organs and away from hands and feet to slow bleeding, and clenching your jaw so you don’t break it.
Operating in this mode for more than a half-hour every 2-3 days causes your body to start to breakdown. It’s too physiologically expensive. Systemic inflammation goes up and over time joints start to degenerate leading to arthritis. Aches and pains develop. Blood pressure and cholesterol increases and our platelets get sticky inside the blood vessels. A whole host of chronic degenerative diseases begin to appear. These symptoms and diseases are our bodies attempts to return to health by conserving energy.
Culturally, we generally keep running our systems hot and just deal with the symptoms. We go on high blood pressure medication or take an anti-inflammatory for arthritis. We do exercises for degenerated hips and knees. We get chiropractic adjustments or massages for sore bodies.
Sometimes we look at what is causing the stressed state. What is our body attempting to tell us? We change our ergonomics, we improve our diets and lift weights to be stronger. Meditate and do yoga.
One of the more upstream ways we can help out our body is by noticing our thinking. When we become aware that we are using our thinking to run our systems “hot” we start to disengage from the stress and shut off the survival mode.
Our bodies don’t believe it so much anymore.
When we don’t buy in to the illusion our natural health begins to reassert itself.
Entrainments for your nervous system can be used to help you notice your own thinking patterns and it gives your brain the space to reassess a perceived scary situation with more resources. You then relax and allow your body to heal itself.
It is always a wonder to me how beautifully we are made, how perfectly we work and how healthy you already are.
With love,
Dr. Sara
Blog