Are You "Home Alone?"

The home in your heart... where mind and body touch one another.

Some of us have a nurturing and empowering home in our hearts. It was built by our life experiences, in our early relationships. As we became adults, that inner home gave us a strong foundation and safe refuge. We can be alone, even under stress, without feeling disconnected.

And that makes us healthier.

"... strong relationships help build an internal regulatory system that modulates your stress response. In contrast, when those pathways haven't been or are not being stimulated, that internal modulating system for stress weakens. And with ongoing isolation, the firing of your stress response increases, leading to a state of chronic stress. Chronic stress weakens the immune system, which ultimately leads to more illnesses of all kinds." (Medscape, Can Being Lonely make You Sick. June 12, 2017)

The changes to your brain caused by the interaction between experiences, relationships and physical processes is called neuroplasticity. It's how the home in your heart is built. And it affects your physical health as much as your emotional health.

If you had a stressful, disconnected, even traumatic life as a child, you lived with a constant flow of stress biochemicals. That caused your brain to build more and stronger pathways to send and receive those biochemical stress messages. Your brain became "hardwired" for high levels of stress biochemicals. Stress became your default physical experience.

"When trauma and abuse are a part of a person's relational experience, then fear, distrust, and isolation are coded into the nervous system... These folks exist in a state of chronic disconnection that does not allow them to feel safe in any human connection. This can be lethal over time." (Medscape, Can Being Lonely make You Sick. June 12, 2017)

When our inner world, the home in our heart, was built by that experience, we often feel alone, but we can't find the connection we need. We feel anxious, or angry, or hopeless.

For most of us, though, it's not all one way or the other. We may have a safe inner experience much of the time, but under stress, or in certain situations, the home in our heart becomes unsafe. We don't feel loved or even loveable. We feel alone and disconnected, anxious and fearful.

Normal life stresses, like job changes that you can't control, relationship conflicts, the death of a loved one - even caregiving for a loved-one who is dying - these all cause measurable increases in stress biochemicals. They can overwhelm our resources, and leave us "home alone". If left unchecked, the increases in stress results in unhealthy remodeling of our brain and nervous system.

And once that remodeling happens, stress biochemicals become the "default" biochemical wash. Like drinking the water downstream from a toxic waste dump, your body experiences high levels of stress biochemicals daily.

Cancer. Heart disease. Stroke. Diabetes. Your risk goes up as your stress biochemicals increase.

But here's the good thing. This is where meditation comes in. You can put neuroplasticity to work for you. You can nourish and grow the home in your heart, no matter how it was built or the mess it may be in now.

Just like your mind/brain interactions can send out more stress biochemicals, your mind/brain interactions can also release calming, healing biochemicals. Your brain can build healthy new pathways, literally re-wire itself to reduce your stress reactivity, and give you a new default option.

Rewiring your brain takes work. Exercise, relationships, thinking patterns - they all make a difference, but meditation is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to create that change.

And it's totally under your control.

It's easier to rebuild that nurturing home if you're a believer, and if you feel safe with God. You begin to experience the connection, and realize you are never totally alone.

"Nothing before, nothing behind.

The steps of faith

Fall on the seeming void, and find

The rock beneath." (John Greenleaf Whittier)

Though maybe your belief about God had been poisoned with toxic waste too. Then you might run screaming. But whether you believe or not, meditation helps.

It's how your body works.

Meditation bathes your brain in calming, soothing biochemicals - a nourishing "biochemical chicken soup", instead of toxic waste. And day by day you begin to remodel your brain and build a safe and loving "home in your heart".

The more you meditate, the more it helps. The more you build a safe nourishing home inside, the more resilient you become - no matter what's happening out in the world. It's a powerful way to mitigate the negative effects of stress.

Stress happens. We had no control over it as kids. We have more control as adults, but even with healthy lives and positive coping, we will all experience stress, sometimes very powerfully and painfully, and for long periods of time.

But now you can choose. You can nourish your brain and body, even during times of painful stress. You can heal and protect your brain by building a safe, connected "home in your heart". You can give your body the resources it needs to recover from damage from the past, to comfort and protect you now, and to weather the storms you will face in the future.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Are-You-Home-Alone?&id=9739962

What Stress Can Do To You

Everyone experiences a certain amount of stress in their lives. Some stress some of the time is normal.

In fact, since our prehistoric origins, the stress response has been vital for motivating us to react during times of crisis.

Today, we are not literally dealing with "hunt or be hunted" on a regular basis, although, there are certainly times that may feel that way!

Our stress hormones can help us to meet strict timelines, and deal with situations we find difficult in our daily lives.

Physical

The physical way we experience stress can vary. Some individuals become extremely irritable with their family members and coworkers.

Others describe a vice-like feeling of tightness in their chest or shoulders that makes it hard to breathe. Many people report cardiovascular issues like a racing heart and profuse sweating.

Some individuals suffer excruciating headaches or joint and muscle stiffness.

Gastrointestinal issues may be experienced, like severe stomach pains and diarrhea. Stress and negative emotions often go hand in hand with poor physical health.

Experiencing emotional stress jump starts the production of cortisol.

If this happens on regular basis the excess cortisol begins to break down the body's neurological, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and immune systems.

Emotional

Often, it is the emotional side of stress that we initially experience. It is our body's way of warning us "Hey, I'm not OK here... pay attention."

Unfortunately, many people have become accustomed to ignoring the seriousness of messages from their inner selves. They prefer to self-medicate, or deny their stress altogether. These are dangerous habits to get into.

Society has taught us, particularly men, that feeling and expressing feelings is wrong. Denying your feelings can make things much worse.

Chronic or unrelenting stress, if ignored, can manifest as a physical response in the body in the form of illness, or emotionally as depression.

Left unchecked, stress can be very damaging to a person's health. This will compound the problem. This can lead to adverse effects on other aspects of a person's life.

If you find yourself experiencing any of these signs, stop and reflect. Review your life and your priorities to eliminate, or at least reduce, some of your stressors.

Symptoms of stress such as acne, bald patches and dry skin may be visible and obvious. Although the mental and emotional damage may not be visible, their effects on self and loved ones usually are.

If your stress levels are left untreated, you are likely to develop even more serious health problems such as heart disease, obesity and depression.

https://ezinearticles.com/?What-Stress-Can-Do-To-You&id=9660618

10 Reasons Why Stress Is The Most Dangerous Toxin In Your Life

What we think and feel, and how long we think it or feel it, determines our health. The science is strong, and yet so often stress is considered an amorphous gray area, something we can’t put our finger on or measure, and so it gets dismissed as not being “real.”

In the not-very-distant future, I believe wearable sensors will be able to detect shifts in stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline in real time. You will be able to place an invisible sticker on your wrist, open an app on your phone, and see how the cheeseburger you just ate, or the conversation you had yesterday, impacts your stress response. When that happens, the gray area will become very black and white.

Even when we have that technology however, connecting the dots between knowing your hormone levels and changing your behavior will come down to understanding how those hormones impact your body and your life.

Here are 10 concrete ways stress is possibly the most dangerous toxin your body faces every day.

1. Stress changes gene expression.

The chemicals your body produces when you are under stress turn on or off of genes that change everything from how much fat you store, to how well your immune system works, to how fast you age, to whether or not you will develop cancer.

2. Early life events determine your set point for stress.

Research shows that even very early childhood events “set” your CRH, or corticotropin releasing hormone, at a high or low level. CRH is like the foot on the gas turning on your adrenals, and therefore your stress levels.

3. Stress causes brain damage.

High levels of stress hormones damage critical parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus, the area responsible for memory. One reason people experience “adrenal burnout” after long term chronic stress, is because the brain, in order to save itself, turns off the adrenals.

4. Stress shuts down the immune system and increases inflammation.

From slowing wound healing, to diminishing the protective effects of vaccines, to increasing your susceptibility to infections, stress is the ultimate immune-modulator. Stress can also reactivate latent infections — people who get cold sores know this from experience.

5. Chronic stress damages the energy powerhouses of your body, your mitochondria.

These energy factories produce ATP, the currency through which all cells and organs in your body do their work. The good news is this damage is reversible over time, as stress goes away.

6. Stress reduces your ability to metabolize and detoxify.

Studies have shown that the activity of hundreds of genes responsible for enzymes that break down fats and detoxify prescription drugs, are negatively impacted by stress. Stress can also increase your toxin burden by increasing your desire for high fat, high sugar foods.

7. Your cardiovascular system responds to stress, increasing cardiac output if you have to run away from a tiger.

But chronic stress has been shown to increase the thickness of the artery walls, leading to high blood pressure and heart disease.

8. Stress messes with your sex hormones.

Stress increases the amount of something called sex hormone binding globulin, the school bus that ferries testosterone and estrogen around your body, meaning fewer of these hormones are available to your cells. Chronic stress also increases the production of cortisol, leading to something called “cortisol steal,” where fewer sex hormones are produced.

9. Stress is bad for your bones and muscles.

There is evidence that higher stress levels are associated with lower bone mineral density, and many studies show that people under chronic stress experience more physical pain.

10. The gut and stress are intimately intertwined.

You may have heard that 95% of your serotonin is in your gut, and you may remember a time when you were nervous or sad, and your belly was in knots.

But more research is showing how stress impacts the function of your gut every day. It slows transit, leading to constipation and the re-circulation of hormones like estrogen through your liver. It increases the overgrowth of bad bacteria. And it loosens the barriers between the cells that line the intestines, creating something called leaky gut, that then leads to inflammation, food sensitivities and even autoimmune disease.

OK, so now that you know how stress impacts your body, what to do about it becomes the real question. Enter functional medicine, in which we look at the body as an interconnected matrix. We then recommend ways of modifying and supporting each aspect of the matrix, so that the system comes back into balance.

If this is an are of your life that you hope to improve, I recommend that you find a functional medicine physician who can help you bring your body back into balance.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-14560/10-reasons-why-stress-is-the-most-dangerous-toxin-in-your-life.html