Supporting your nervous system in the face of violence
Just to start out, there are many things that we need to be doing right now in the face of the violence we are witnessing. Supporting our neighbors, advocating, protesting, calling our representatives to name a few. However, for today’s blog I want to talk about our stress response. I want to start here because if we can’t take care of our stress response, we are more likely to remain stuck and paralyzed when we need action. Our brains are not designed to keep up with the mass amount of violence we are witnessing. We were never meant to be able to watch our rights be stripped away, people be murdered, and families torn apart and then hop on a zoom call like nothing has happened. Our brains and our stress response were meant to help us run away from or fight back against a predator. I tell my clients this silly story to explain.
Your stress response is like this. You are walking in the woods and suddenly a lion, or tiger, or bear (oh my!) appears. You either run away to your village, shut the gate and are safe . Or you fight back against the lion or tiger or bear (oh my!) and win and run back to your village. Or you play dead and the lion or tiger or bear (oh my!) sniffs you and leaves you alone and you run back to your village and are safe.
Our brains and stress response is meant to get us from point a to point b safely and then be done. We were never meant to be constantly bombarded with the violence and misinformation we are seeing. Our brains simply aren’t meant for this kind of environment. It is important to be able to resist and fight back against the oppression and violence we are seeing, but we can’t do that if we are shut down. So let’s talk about how to reset our nervous system so we can keep moving forward.
In the therapy world, we talk about “completing the stress cycle.” This means we move through all stages of stress from feeling the fear, to movement, to recognizing we are okay. Let’s go back to my silly story. In all three scenarios (flight, fight, freeze), the stress ends with an action (namely, running back to the village) and . This action is what prompts our bodies to relax and know that we are safe. Now, I know that the world is not safe right now, but we can still release the energy from our bodies from time to time in order to help us function.
So, what can we do to complete the stress cycle? The answer is, for the most part, get into your body. Increase your heart rate to mimic fighting or running away. This prompts your brain and body to release the energy that has been swirling around with nowhere to go. This can be as simple as doing some jumping jacks or going on a run. Dancing wildly to music is also effective. Singing loudly or screaming can also help out because of the lung capacity it takes to do these actions can mimic the lung capacity needed to run away from something. If you are struggling to engage with these larger movements, start slow. Do some gentle stretching, ask for a firm hug, or shake your limbs out. If you need to release more energy, try to move froma smaller movement to a larger movement. Do whatever works for you and do it as often as you need it. Remember to take care of yourself while also taking care of your community. We are stronger together.
If you are looking for resources to support our communities, here are a few links to get you started.
https://www.standwithminnesota.com/