Social isolation is one of the most powerful, negative experience that causes a shorter life expectancy than smoking, obesity or diabetes. Humans rapidly degenerate into an immune-suppressive state in an environment of chronic social isolation. If we cannot talk to others and find a release for our emotions it will leave us vulnerable to immune invaders such as viruses, bacteria and fungi. Human beings are not designed to survive alone. Being amongst other humans increases our chances of building healthy immune systems. We are creatures who need relationships. Studies on rats have shown that when isolated, the rats sympathetic nervous system triggers the fight or flight response leaving the rat in a constant state of anxiety.
The brain is a relational organ that requires constant social interactions to stay in a positive state that supports cognitive and emotional resilience. The resiliency of your entire nervous system is encoded in its regular cues of safety and love it derives from its environment.
The polyvagal theory I have talked about in a previous blog tells us that our immune systems have an innate ability to co-regulate the emotional state of another human being. The healing power of social interaction cannot be over-emphasised. One of the biggest challenges in life could be fighting off the temptation to isolate yourself from your social environment because of trauma or past betrayal with other human beings.
If you are anxious about feeling anxious your nervous system will interpret this as a fresh threat that requires more activation of the fight/flight response.
So how do you stop yourself from feeling anxious?
Anxiety is energy that requires appropriate leadership. It is a powerful energy that affects the physical body. If you are overly exposed to traumatic events throughout your life then the anxiety can be overly activated even if there is no threat present. Understand that anxiety is your friend, not your enemy. It looks after you during times of danger but the more awareness you can gain about how anxiety works in the body, the more power you have to self-regulate the anxiety by listening to the body and realising that fear is the biggest fear that drives the anxiety. If you can learn how to embrace the anxiety and see it as a natural state but realise it is a consequence that reminds you of a trauma from the past that fuels anxiety in that moment. Instead of being afraid make friends with the anxiety. Anxiety can help you to fulfil your destiny and help to motivate you if you can learn to work with it rather than against it.
The amygdala is the area in the brain that governs the emotional state. If you think about what we are going through right now in the world, the added pressure is mobilising our amygdala which is trained to react to our environment. You can learn to relax and work with the body and the energy by paying attention to your feelings and recognise what your needs are at any given time.
A few things that can help you to regulate yourself:
Understand you can nurture your anxiety, speak to it and tell it you want relaxation.
Breathing is a fabulous way of triggering relaxation. 90% of the toxins in our body get released through the outbreath. Many of us do not breathe properly and becoming aware of your breath can help you to restore your body back to health.
Regular meditation will flood your body and your mind with calmness and relaxation.
If you would like to book either some counselling or hypnotherapy sessions to help you then please feel free to get in touch. I am working both face to face and online.