Have you heard of triggers before but not quite sure what it means?
The concept of triggers is related to the fight or flight response and it was first described by an American psychologist called Walter Cannon.
He discovered that when we face danger,
Our body automatically prepares to either confront it,
Which is fight,
Escape it,
Flight,
And then later we've now discovered a freeze,
Which is becoming paralysed in response to danger,
And fawn,
Which means you're trying to please to avoid conflict.
Triggers are signals that suggest a potential threat,
Making us feel anxious or wanting to withdraw,
And when this happens our body releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol and triggers get us ready to react to threats,
Often making us feel on edge and stressed.
They mobilise us to fight,
Flee,
Freeze,
Or fawn.
Our minds can sometimes misinterpret situations,
Imagining threats when there were none.
This can cause our body to react as if we are in real danger,
Even when we're safe.
This might be anxiety or worry.
I used to be like this with spiders.
As soon as there was a spider,
I'd definitely go into my flight.
Scream,
Scream,
Scream,
Scream.
I'm so much better now.
I've actually used a therapy called EFT tapping,
Emotional freedom technique,
And if you want to find out any more about that,
If you look at Simona Franco,
F-R-A-N-K-O,
On Insight Timer,
She's got some tapping scripts there which are very,
Very useful.
So this imagined threat can cause unnecessary anxiety and stress and in such situations one effective way to calm our body's response is through controlled breathing.
Deep,
Slow breaths can signal to our brain that we are not in immediate danger and helps to deactivate the stress response.
Other techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing or the 4-7-8 method can be particularly helpful.
Sometimes even just by focusing on the breath,
Just focusing on the inhale and the exhale.
That can be enough to calm you down.
Focus on the inhale and the exhale.
It takes you out of your mind into your body,
Helping to calm the nervous system and reduce the release of our stress hormones,
Helping to bring us back into a state of relaxation.
If you'd like to know a bit more about some breath work practice,
Please do check out my courses.
This is Sandhya.
I hope you enjoyed this short talk.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
