Calming Down Your Limbic System - Relief Of Stress

The amygdala, as part of your limbic system, is responsible for always being on the lookout for potential dangers. If a danger is recognized, the body reacts with stress - in the past, this was usually a perfectly sensible and appropriate response to life-threatening situations. Nowadays, the system mainly reacts to worrying thoughts, interpersonal conflicts, problems at work, financial worries, etc. Your limbic system is on permanent alert and can trigger strong emotions and inner turmoil.

In this lecture, Christopher uses a metaphor to explain what happens and how you can intervene to get back into a calm state. Christopher will also give you 2 very effective and simple exercises for your everyday life, which you can use to quickly reduce stress levels and ensure a more relaxed limbic system in the long term. You always have the opportunity to calm your system yourself.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this lecture about downregulating your limbic system,

Especially your amygdala,

Which is an important part of the system,

That you can better manage stress,

High emotional situations,

Where stress is not a reasonable response to the situation you are in and most of the times it isn't.

Your limbic system is very old in your brain,

It's nearly the same as when we were cavemen and in this age it was highly important.

You can be very grateful for your amygdala to have this part of your brain because otherwise we weren't here.

The amygdala is a watchman or a watchwoman who always checks for potential threats.

As a caveman that was very important because there were dangerous animals and it was absolutely important to release stress hormones when there could be a threat to attack,

To run away or to play dead.

And this high emotional stress state was absolutely reasonable.

But how is it today?

Your limbic system is the same but fortunately there aren't so many threats in our modern world.

At least no threats really threatening your physical body.

No wild animals.

But and the limbic system can't separate there are co-workers who stress you or your boss,

Your financial situation,

Your kids or thoughts about what could go wrong,

You're worrying and it doesn't matter for your brain if you're just worrying about things that might happen or there's a lion standing in front of you.

It can't distinguish.

So your amygdala senses a threat and reacts.

So and what you can do in this situation you all are very familiar with stress situations.

This is what this lecture is about.

I want to explain it to you with a metaphor that you can easily understand what's happening in your brain and how you can react to calm down your amygdala,

Your limbic system.

So that you very quickly get to a state of calm,

Of relaxation,

Or at least a let's say normal state again.

And on the other hand to train your amygdala,

Your limbic system to not react in this inappropriate way to such situations again.

I will give you two techniques which are very easy to practice,

Which are very effective even when you try them the first time.

So that you can very quickly and easily deal with your stress to calm down your system and to live a stressless life.

So let's dive into the metaphor.

Imagine you're a castle.

A castle with high stone walls around to protect all the inhabitants,

All the people living inside,

Your psyche or what's going on inside.

And in the middle there's a huge watchtower,

A huge watchtower.

And so the people living in there,

They needed someone to go up and watch the environment for potential threats.

And there was this one person called Amygdala.

And Amygdala said,

Oh yes,

This is my job.

I'm such a fearful person.

And it's so important to always look for threats.

And this is exactly what I made for.

I want to go up.

And the other people were thankful that they had found someone who would love this job.

And so Amygdala is standing up there in the watchtower,

Watching for potential threats.

And as I said,

It's a very fearful person because of experiences during your childhood,

The environment,

Because as a little child,

You couldn't handle many things.

You were dependent to your parents or persons looking after you.

And maybe you experienced in your environment,

People being stressed,

Worrying all the time about financial situations,

About health issues,

Talking about how hard the work is,

And how mean some people are and all those things.

And then you did something and that wasn't right.

So your parents argued with you and all the things which caused Amygdala,

The limbic system,

To get more and more fearful.

So Amygdala is standing up there in the watchtower,

And they're hanging two bells,

One really big bell,

The alarm bell,

Which Amygdala can ring when there's a potential threat.

And there's also a small bell,

Which she can ring when the threat is gone.

So Amygdala is watching and she feels like,

Hmm,

Somewhere there in the forest,

I don't know if they moved something.

Oh,

And I'm so fearful,

So I better ring the bell.

And she rings the huge alarm bell,

And all the people inside the castle,

They go crazy.

And there are some,

The stronger ones,

The fighters,

Who get armored and get their weapons,

Swords,

They get ready to fight.

And there are other people,

Children,

Older people,

Who are scared,

Who hide themselves,

Or who prepare to flight.

And that's the state in the castle.

Alarm bell ringing,

People being afraid,

Preparing to fight or flight.

And the threat could be just a thought about the weather maybe.

You wanted to do a cycle tour tomorrow with your friends,

And the weather forecast says rain.

And you worry about if it's really raining,

What you can do with your friends,

If you get wet,

Or if you should better cancel the tour.

But what would your friends say?

And there's this one friend,

Who wouldn't understand if you would cancel it,

But you don't want to go when it's raining,

And you're worrying about these things.

And Amygdala is going crazy.

Oh,

There's something happening.

There's a threat somehow.

Hmm,

I don't know.

And your system is in stress.

The problem isn't really that you're stressed for some minutes.

When you think about it,

And then you say,

Okay,

I cancel it.

That's my decision.

And we'll find another date where the weather will be better.

Then the stress will go away in some minutes.

But that's not what you're doing.

You're thinking about you're not reacting.

And so the stress state remains for hours,

Or even until the next day,

Or even the next days,

Because you do the tour,

And then you worry about if the people liked it,

Because it was raining,

And some were complaining about it,

That they didn't like the tour.

And after the tour,

You you keep worrying on about what your friends may think about you.

Because there was this one situation where you want to go faster.

And a friend said,

No,

You're always racing.

You're too fast.

You don't care about my needs.

And then you think about my wife or my husband has said something similar a year ago.

And does he or she really love me anymore?

What will happen if not and you're worrying and maybe you know,

These many times,

Unconscious,

Sometimes conscious thoughts,

And your whole system keeps in stress.

So amygdala is ringing a bell,

Sometimes louder,

Sometimes not as loud.

But the people inside the castle are afraid,

There are some who want to fight there.

There are some who want to fly it,

And they have great fears.

That's okay for the minutes,

But not over hours or even days.

Imagine this state,

Alarm bell ringing for hours for days,

People prepared to fight or flight.

That's not healthy.

But there's a way out.

A quick way out.

Because inside the castle,

There's living a very wise person.

And this person is who you really are.

And with power of will,

You can act as this wise person.

That's your very own force,

Your power,

Power of will.

So this wise person can climb up the watchtower and ask amygdala,

Amygdala,

What's going on?

And then listen to amygdala,

What she says.

And if it's not wild animals attacking,

If it's,

I don't know,

Maybe I've seen something.

So you listen to her.

And then you can explain to her that this is not a reason for this alarm.

You can calm her down.

And she'll stop ringing the bell.

Because you as wise person,

Tell her that everything is safe.

And then you can ring the little bell to tell the people the threat is over.

That is very important.

And the people only hear this little bell when amygdala calms down.

So listen to her,

Try to understand.

And this is a very conscious thing you can do by act of will and say,

Okay,

These are just thoughts or something else.

This is just another person complaining.

This person won't physically hit me.

No need for this reaction.

And amygdala calms down.

And the people inside the castle calm down,

That's very important.

That you ring the bell,

The little bell to say,

Everything's okay again.

People can calm down,

Go back to work,

To whatever they were doing.

And you climb down the tower and the tower and look for people who are maybe still a little bit afraid and you can walk over to them to tell them everything's okay again.

You are safe here inside the castle.

And the whole system will calm down.

So be this wise person who does something.

And now you will ask yourself,

How?

Okay,

I am this wise person.

Cool.

But how can I do this?

And therefore,

I will give you two techniques,

Which are very simple and very effective.

And you can do them in every situation.

Those techniques are breathing techniques.

And you are breathing all the time.

So you can't tell me that in this situation,

There's so much going on,

You have so much to do that you can't do this technique.

You are breathing all the time.

It's just about breathing in another way.

One technique is the box breathing.

It's a technique originally from yoga,

Which is used for many years and still used by the US Marines,

Special elite troop of the US Navy.

And when these men are able,

In combat situations,

To do this breathing technique,

In really high stress states,

To calm their mind down,

That they can act reasonable,

They have a clear mind,

In really life threatening situations,

Then you will be able to do this technique in your everyday life.

How does it work?

It's very simple.

It's about breathing in,

Holding breath,

Breathing out and holding breath again,

The same time.

So for example,

Breathe in for seconds,

Hold breath for seconds,

Breathe out for a second,

Hold the breath for seconds.

And the same again.

You can also do it with five seconds or six seconds.

It doesn't matter,

But let the different phases be the same time.

You can count in your mind,

21,

22,

23,

24,

21,

And so on.

This is one breathing technique.

And this will directly affect your amygdala,

Your limbic system,

To calm amygdala down.

Another very interesting technique,

Which is subject of recent studies,

Which children very naturally do very often,

Is to breathe in two times,

And breathe out very long.

This breathing in very fast,

And on top of it,

Even more on top of it,

Even more breathing in.

Maybe you remember a child doing this.

Maybe you want to do it right now,

One time.

And you feel instant relaxation.

Breathe in very fast.

And on top of it,

Breathe in even more.

And then out breath,

Long out breath,

And relax.

Of course,

There are many other breathing techniques,

But these are two which are very effective and very easy.

So,

When you experience stress,

And it's not a wild animal standing in front of you,

Then first step,

Listen to your amygdala.

Amygdala,

What's going on?

Okay,

I'm thinking,

I'm worrying about these things.

There's another person complaining,

There's this,

There's that.

This is no need for a physical stress reaction.

Amygdala,

Calm down.

We are safe.

Our body is safe.

And then do the breathing technique,

Or do it at the same time.

And your system will calm down very quickly.

And the more you do it,

The more your amygdala,

Your limbic system will learn that this particular situation is not a situation to produce stress.

That everything is okay.

And this will help you to calm down your limbic system in general.

I hope this was very understandable,

And also practical for your all day life,

Which will support you in a better health,

And more happiness,

And a stressless life.

If you liked this lecture,

Then please rate it.

Leave a comment if you want.

If you're more interested in who is it,

This wise person,

Who is it who experiences the limbic system,

The emotions,

The stress?

When you say,

I feel stressed,

Who is this I?

Who feels the stress?

When you don't identify the stress,

When you think,

When you worry,

Who thinks?

Who observes the thoughts?

Which leads you to deep self-realization.

This is my main topic in my life,

In my teachings.

And there are many courses here on inside timer,

Which will guide you on this way,

If you want to go in this direction to your higher self,

Your true self.

Then I'm very looking forward to see you in a course where I can also answer all questions you have.

Thank you very much for listening.

I wish you all the best from Christopher.

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