By Robert C. Thames, Founder of Pathways to Transformation
Were you able to extinguish this over the recent holidays? Or is it still smoldering–just waiting to reignite? With goal setting and catching your breath throughout January, are some of those old habits reappearing in February?
It seems like the older I get, the more distasteful this experience becomes. How many times must I learn this lesson? It’s certainly still something I am battling. In the heat of the moment, we tend to forget the destructive outcomes of this lack of strategic discipline. While we may instinctually think this practice is beneficial in meeting deadlines, and checking tasks off the ever-expanding to-do list, living this way can actually be harmful.
Stress can cause the hypothalamus region of our brain to signal our adrenal glands to secrete five primary hormones into our bloodstream, and their effects can be beneficial or detrimental.
- Adrenaline, the “fight or flight” hormone, can be beneficial to a point. It can be critical in a survival situation by increasing your heart rate, physical strength, body temperature and breathing. Blood flow is redirected to your heart, lungs, and muscles. Energy is increased due to extra glucose in the bloodstream, vision is sharpened, and one is more alert and aware. However, overreacting to stress can produce high levels of adrenaline that can weaken the immune system, create restlessness and anxiety, poor sleep and insomnia, ulcers, weight gain, andweight gain, and strain on the heart.
- Cortisol contributes to the increase of blood sugar and enhances the use of it by our brain, along with other substances that repair tissue damage. It suppresses organs deemed non-essential in a stressful situation, altering immune system responses and the digestive system. In excess, it has some of the same detrimental effects on the body as adrenaline, as well as impairing memory and concentration. It facilitates inflammation.
- Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that can trigger excitement and feelings of well- being from achievement. Low levels of dopamine can lead to depression, lack of motivation, and a feeling of helplessness. Dysfunction of the dopamine system has also been linked to Parkinson’s Disease, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that has a lot to do with regulating our moods and sense of well-being. Low levels of serotonin have similar effects as dopamine, including depression, autism, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and social anxiety disorder. Like dopamine, an imbalance of this hormone can have negative effects on your sleep cycle.
- Oxytocin is a hormone that facilitates feelings of connection, calmness, love, nurturing, and healing. It can be the antidote to the overabundance and excesses of the hormones above. It can feed perspectives of abundance and peace vs. scarcity and fear. Medical research has often focused more on the first four hormones, and deeper understanding of the calm and connection system is needed.
Needless to say, there is a lot going on in your body when you find yourself in a hair- on-fire state! The collective integration of these five hormones in the actions we take can have major positive and negative effects on our personal health and well-being. The cumulative effects of too much or too little of these chemical messengers can wreck our health or fill us with sustaining energy. While they are somewhat difficult to measure, I would submit that you know when they are surging because you can feel the change in your state of being by observing your intensity.
- Operating with a hair-on-fire mindset tends to alienate anyone within proximity, often those we love most. In our manic effort to get things done, we can damage and sever relationships with the very people who can help us.
- Ultimately, this mindset has a tendency to create lower quality outcomes than we intend, as our approach is often a “mile wide and an inch deep”. Focus is spotty and distracted, as we rush to create more achievement in smaller blocks of time.
- Fear and self-limiting beliefs can replace confidence and courtesy in the rush to completion.
So…what’s the solution? In the final analysis, you aren’t likely to get it all done anyway, so why not pause and pick the things that intersect with your passions and joy? Toxic messaging assaults our mindfulness daily. It influences our mindset and the very hormones flowing throughout our bloodstream. Are you weary of the highs and lows? In an article for Mindful.org, Tara Healey of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, suggests we learn to better separate our responses from our reactions.
A simple technique that I have learned in Vistage training is called STOP:
- Stop…just stop.
- Take a breath.
- Observe…take a moment to sense what is going on in you and around you.
- Proceed…with compassion and purpose.
This is a new practice for me, as I have been seeing the negative impacts of a hair-on-fire mindset for decades. It’s time to change!
What about you? What practices have helped in your experience?
References:
- http://mentalfloss.com/article/71144/8-reasons-little-adrenaline-can-be-very-good-thing
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037
- https://www.everydayhealth.com/serotonin/guide/
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Ehed6dPMqakC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=oxytocin+effects+on+body&ots=vZiHDVUwdy&sig=zNCsFpJaeu8u1zOASLmpG-KprKo#v=onepage&q=oxytocin%20effects%20on%20body&f=false
- https://www.mindful.org/putting-mindfulness-to-work/