How To Reduce the Intensity of Overwhelming Brain Stress
In the last couple of years, there has been an unprecedented amount of pressure and stress put on people with the fallout of the pandemic. Disruptions in supply chains, new company dynamics, and children being deprived of normal social interaction as they’ve had to either stay at home, or go to school in sometimes traumatic conditions, unable to see each other’s faces.
Queen and David Bowie said it perfectly in their song “Under Pressure;”
“It’s a terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends scream
‘Let Me Out!’”
While once a catchy tune, more and more people can resonate deeply with the sentiment behind the lyrics.
It feels like the price to pay for being a human in the 21st century is an unending cascade of pressure. Beyond the discomfort of being forced to do more with less, pressure can slowly eat away at your ability to succeed.
In this article, we'll discuss where these pressures are coming from, how they impact your nervous system, and how you can reclaim your sense of self by taking the pressure off.
Are You Overwhelmed?
For most people, it isn't whether or not they feel pressure in their life, but rather how much pressure they're currently feeling from one source or another. In addition to the issues we may already have with depression, anxiety, brain fog, auditory processing, memory loss, etc, now we have additional stressors knocking at the door, adding to our startle reflexes (FPR), and/or fight or flight modes. With each passing month, it seems that we are being told our choices are being taken away and we need to be happy to do less, redefine how we do our jobs or educate the kids given the changing times- continued lockdowns, disrupted supply chains, unavailable work force, continued pandemic restrictions. As a society, our access to the lighter joys of life has been oppressed, shifting our nervous system into a protective state as we scramble for the fundamentals of life (community, connection, safety, self-acceptance, and nourishment).
Chronic Vs. Acute Pressure
Pressure can be acute or chronic. For example, your child studying for a big exam may put on some acute pressure. However, the fears and expectations around masks and sanitization that come with going back to school presents a chronic pressure that your child has to think about every day.
Research shows that when you’re under pressure the stress that it produces makes you less productive. This flies in the face of many people that put pressure on themselves “to get things done[*][*].”
Why is this? Let’s take a look at what pressure does to your nervous system.
What Pressure Does To Your Nervous System
Neurologically it makes perfect sense that chronic pressure would inhibit success. To be the most productive version of yourself, you need to be able to access a variety of different areas of your brain, be flexible in your thoughts and actions, and be able to recover and find resilience when things get hard.
In a stressed brain and body, however, resources become scarce and your focus turns to tunnel vision as you rely on your primitive survival instincts. This is not a time for creativity, it's not a time for learning, it's not a time to develop new skills, and it's certainly not a time to rest and recover.
This is due to the activation of the sympathetic branch of your nervous system. In sympathetic mode, your one and only goal is to survive. Your ancient ancestors were able to survive in the wild because of this highly tuned nervous system response. Without it, they would be too busy taking in the beautiful landscape around them to notice they should be running from the hungry tiger that was eyeing them for dinner[*].
The problem is that modern life's pressures and stresses don't arise and then resolve as they did for our ancestors. You see the tiger; it looks hungry, you run and hide, the tiger moves on, you survive to live another day, now back to taking in the beauty of the land around you.
Today, the "tigers" you're running from never tire because they come in multiple forms of pressure. At first, pressure may give you a hit of adrenaline, a little push to be the best. We see this in the kids that are forced to stay home and learn on a computer, but are still expected to get the grades they would achieve in a classroom setting. Or the work from home parents that now have to care for their children all day in addition to their job because schools have gone remote.
You might say that these people are in "fight or flight," But after a while, this drive wears out, and something new happens. This is when your nervous system is pushed so hard that "fight or flight" is no longer an option, and all you can do is freeze or fold[*].
A perfect example of this would be the tennis player that quits right before the big open or the Olympic athlete that trained their whole life to get to the Olympics and can't perform when their big moment comes.
How Brain Harmony Can Help Rebalance A Stressed Brain
At Brain Harmony, we see friends come in with all kinds of internal and external pressures. Many of our parents are worn out and feel like they could always be doing better to care for their children, while our young friends are constantly striving to achieve and succeed to please the adults around them.
The pressure of being a human in today's world is enough to put anyone in a sympathetic nervous system response.
What we've found is that unwinding the damage that pressure has caused takes two fundamental steps. First, we need to work on something called vagal regulation, and second, we work on neurological organization.
Vagal Regulation
Your vagus nerve is a crucial component of your autonomic nervous system response and plays a role in parasympathetic activation. As opposed to sympathetic activation, parasympathetic mode takes you out of the fight or flight response and into a more calm, focused state of being. When you're in parasympathetic mode, your brain and body get the message that you're safe, and there's nothing to worry about.
Enhancing the tone of your vagus nerve allows you to move into a place of relaxation where you can start to access skills like learning, creativity, and self-motivation.
At Brain Harmony, we have several tools that we use to enhance vagal tone. One tool is the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), which offers your brain inputs through specifically designed music that creates balancing vibrations that reach your vagus nerve. These vibrations bring your vagus nerve back online and enhance your ability to shift into parasympathetic mode.
Along with SSP therapy, another tool we love to use is the Alpha-Stim. Alpha-Stim produces alpha brain waves, which move your nervous system into a place of calm, relaxed focus. The Alpha-Stim is especially helpful for those with a racing mind, anxiety, and trouble sleeping.
Neurological Organization
After completing the step of vagal regulation, your nervous system is in a state of calm and receptivity. It's not until we get our friends into this place that we begin step two, neurological organization.
Pressure and the stress that it induces create disorganization in your brain. A perfect example of this is the lack of productivity that employers see when their employees are under too much stress. The stress turns off your brain's capacity to function optimally, and thoughts and behaviors that under normal circumstances might come naturally are now just out of reach.
With integrated listening systems like iLs Focus Unit, Brain Harmony introduces neurological organization so that you can reclaim your brain's natural ability to be efficient, to learn, and to access creativity.
These tools not only help to take the perceived pressure off, but they enhance your ability to succeed by pointing your energy in a new direction -- calm focus with an internal groundedness to keep going.
Melissa’s Brain Harmony Success Story
Melissa was a mother of four children, all with special needs. The pressure she put on herself to take care of her kids drove feelings of anxiety and produced chronic stress. Eventually, she was diagnosed with PTSD.
Melissa reached out to Brain Harmony for help, which provided her with the tools she needed to truly start enjoying life and its simple pleasures. (Click photo below to watch video interview with Melissa).
Click to view Interview with Melissa
Many people are unaware of the amount of pressure they put on themselves. Today, it feels like we’ve become so accustomed to the pressures and stresses of life that most people forget what it feels like to be truly free. To sum it up with another Queen and David Bowie verse:
“And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves. This is our last dance, this is ourselves...Under Pressure.”
If you resonate with this sentiment and want to discover a way out of the pressure chamber, schedule a Free Consultation with Brain Harmony today.