It’s dark. Your eyes catch a glimpse of the floor under your feet, and you see something bizarre next to your feet. Long
and round, almost like a pernicious reptile we all fear. Your heart rate starts shooting up as your body starts preparing to deal with the not-so-comfortable situation at hand. You frantically reach out for your phone and somehow manage to turn on the flashlight. As you put light over the mysterious little thing… Phew! You take a sigh of relief.
“It’s just a cut-out piece of wire,” you mumble under your breath.
Now, if it was just a piece of wire, why did your body react so weirdly?
Well, it is because your Amygdala triggers a fight-or-flight response upon perceiving the first signs of danger.
Amygdala is the cluster of cells located in the base of our brain responsible for activating the fight-or-flight response in the body. Without an Amygdala, our body will lose the ability to timely and effectively respond to the “perceived” threats in the environment.
Along with humans, all other mammals also possess an Amygdala, and this complex cluster of cells forms an important part of the limbic system of the brain.
While the Amygdala serves an important function of preparing us for threats, it sometimes goes overboard with the job.
Because most of us live in a state of stress almost all the time (thanks to the inventions of modern society), our Amygdala becomes maladaptive over time.
It starts perceiving even the minutest of discomforts as “threatening stimuli” and thus keeps us in a state of fight-or-flight all the time.
So, what can we do to fix this problem for good?
How can we regulate this region of our brain to make our life more fulfilling and deeply inspiring?
Here is when the superpowers of mindfulness and meditation practices come into play!
Impact of Mindfulness and Meditation practices on the fight-or-flight response
Mindfulness, which was once thought of as an activity fit for monks perching high up in the snowy peaks of Tibet, is now being recognized by cognitive scientists as the best antidote to stress and anxiety.
A still and tranquil state of mind means that the activity of the Amygdala is slowed down, and mindfulness training is one of the very best ways to achieve that state.
Scientific studies have shown that just eight weeks of some form of mindfulness practice significantly hampers the activity of the Amygdala and, in fact, causes the Amygdala to shrink in size well.
This change in the structure of the brain is called neuroplasticity.
So, daily mindfulness practice or some form of meditation is a free-of-cost tool that you must have in your arsenal if you want to come out of this constant fight-or-flight situation.
How does Mindfulness Help with Calming Down the Amygdala?
Daily mindfulness practice helps quieten the monkey mind (which is the constant chatter going on in your mind).
Once the monkey mind is put to rest, the mind becomes free and present to focus on the truly important stuff. It can then sift and sort through the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs giving rise to your reactions and eventually the fight-or-flight response.
Dr. Joe Dispenza defines meditation as the act of becoming familiar with your inner world - your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Thus, with regular practice of meditation, you can expect to know the deep-rooted fears that are a cause of your stress and anxieties, and once you know them well, you will have greater control over them next time an outer stimuli tries to instigate a reaction by touching those emotional buttons of yours.
A Simple Mindfulness Practice to Tame the Fight-or-Flight Response
● Find a quiet and relaxing place where you will not be disturbed for 20-30 minutes.
● Sit up, with your back as straight as possible.
● Place your hands on your knees and close your eyes.
● Start by taking a deep breath that goes all the way to your belly.
● Hold your breath for a few seconds.
● Now exhale all the air out in a relaxed motion.
● Take at least 20 of these deep breaths at a time.
Do this for a minimum of 2 weeks to see a difference in how your body reacts to fearful situations.
Remember! Consistency is truly the key to success in this case. The more you incorporate practices of mindfulness and meditation in your everyday life, the better you will become at regulating your emotions and the activity of your Amygdala.
Although in this blog post, we are talking about taming down our fight-or-flight response, it still has some functions that make it one of the most important systems in the body.
In the following section, we are going to explore the pros and cons of the fight-and-flight system in detail so you may gain a better understanding of this response system and its impact on your brain, body, and health.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Fight-or-Flight Response
The first major advantage of the fight-or-flight response and the Amygdala is that it elicits the fear response, which makes us aware of possible danger and life-threatening situations. Many drugs and stimulants inhibit the activity of the Amygdala, and that is when we see people engaging in all kinds of reckless behaviors, which could sometimes be fatal.
Secondly, the response to either stay and fight or to run away in the face of danger has been crucial to the survival of our species on this planet. When humans lived in the wild and had to rely on their senses to avoid being eaten by a savage beast - the fight-or-flight mechanism of the body was our best friend.
In case of a threat, this intelligent response system would increase our heart rate to supply more oxygen to all the major muscles in the body, preparing the body for the incoming danger. Also, this system would heighten our senses so that we could vividly see, hear and react to every possible danger sign in perfect time.
But today, we don’t live in the wild anymore, and unlike ancient times, we have an abundance of food and security, which covers our basic survival.
Still, unlike our environment, our brain hasn’t evolved over time (it is still primitive at best), and thus it still makes us startle when we hear, taste, touch, or sense something out of the ordinary. For example, loud noise can still make our heart go racing because once this response was very useful to save ourselves from being hunted by a wild predator.
The problem with the overactive fight-or-flight response mechanism is that it gives rise to emotions of stress in the body, which are quite addictive. Our body latches onto those survival emotions like a recreational drug; thus, just like a drug, our body craves higher doses of those chemical cocktails each time.
This keeps the human body in highly stressed and arousal states. When the body is anxious and alert, it has no time for repair, growth, or transformation because all the energy is being rushed towards the muscles to prepare for a possible fight or flight.
When the body continuously stays in this stressful state, the state of homeostasis is jeopardized; the vital functions of growth and repair collapse, and that is the beginning of the disease in the body.
So, this is how a useful fight-or-flight response becomes very dysfunctional with time and becomes a burden on the optimal body functioning instead.
Comments