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CALMER CREATURE
Learning to Calm the Creature inside all of us
BODY SKILLS
Education and Intervention
Below are links that will lead you to Education regarding what is occurring within your body and Intervention on how to better control your body's reactions.
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Interventions:
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Mind Splitting A new perspective
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Education:
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SCHIFFER GOGGLES
Mind Splitting
Mind Splitting
To practice the technique of mind splitting, cover your right eye and think about a specific circumstance that increases your anxiety or stress. Allow your left eye to look wherever it desires and notice the emotions and thoughts in your body and mind. Rate the intensity of the emotions on a scale of one to ten and how pressing and present the event feels. Then, switch and cover your left eye with your left hand while allowing your right eye to look wherever it desires, thinking of the same circumstance. Again, observe your thoughts, feelings, and emotional intensity on a scale of one to ten.
This technique, known as Schiffer goggles, often reveals that one side of your brain has more solutions and perceives things as more temporary and fixable. By dwelling on these solutions, you can transfer these thoughts to the more emotional side, achieving a balance between the two sides for healthier functioning. This can be a shortcut to shift into a more logical mindset and reduce emotional reactivity. For many, covering the left eye brings a sense of calmness, while for others, covering the right eye provides that sensation. To return to Body Skills Click Here.
COOLING AN OVER HEATED SYSTEM
Swimmer's Reflex
To quickly activate the body's rest and restore function instead of the fight-or-flight response, increase parasympathetic responses, and signal to the brain that there is no real physical danger, you can use a simple technique called "Cool Down." This technique can also be modified for circumstances, or parenting purposes.
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Here's how it works: Keep a small, soft ice pack in the freezer. Whenever you feel overwhelmed with any emotion, hold the ice pack in the palm of your hands. The cooling sensation not only lowers your core body temperature but also has psychological benefits. It reduces anxiety response for several reasons, and we'll explain the science behind it.
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This technique is akin to the scenes in movies where a stressed character splashes water on their face and neck to compose themselves. It activates the swimmer's response, which is beneficial when a pool is not available. Running cold water over the palms and then onto the face and neck achieves a similar effect.
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Overheating is a response that prepares the body for fight or flight. It involves flushing, increased body temperature, heart rate, and breathing. When nervous, you may become sensitive to feeling hot, nauseous, or dizzy due to this response. Cooling down quickly can be very helpful, and the body cools fastest in areas with less hair, such as the forehead, neck, palms, and feet.
The dive reflex, which prioritizes blood flow to the brain and heart underwater, can help reset an over aroused nervous system and regain parasympathetic dominance. While using cold water to activate this reflex is recommended, using ice packs is an excellent alternative if diving is not feasible.
Quick tips to remember
Run water on hands, feet or face and neck
Put ice on hands, feet or face and neck
Jump in a pool if its available and appropriate and you can swim
If you have slime to play with keep some in the fridge and you (or you kids) can stand in it barefoot or hold it
VALSALVA MANEUVER
A Simple and Effective Technique
The Valsalva Maneuver, created in the 17th century, is a straightforward technique that many of us do naturally when our ears are clogged, but with a slight twist. Here's how it works: take a breath in, pinch your nose, close your mouth, tighten your abdomen, and blow out without letting the air out. That’s it.
Now, for a tiny twist: push down a bit more with your abdomen, as if you're gently pushing at the beginning of a bowel movement (without actually passing gas). Tighten and release your stomach and lower abdomen muscles. When you put it all together it looks like a fake sneeze, or you are holding in a sneeze. You can intensify the movement by lying down when you do it, but this may be more difficult in public.
This technique is likely the fastest way to lower your heart rate during panic and can also reset many systems that get upset during such moments. However, be cautious as it may cause a slight drop in blood pressure, which can lead to light-headedness. As with any physical activity, make sure you are healthy enough to perform this maneuver.
If the Valsalva Maneuver sounds confusing, another effective way to lower your heart rate is to simply push or bear down as if you're going to have a bowel movement.
Alternatively, you can try holding your nose as if you're popping your ears and fake sneezing a few times without letting the sneeze out. In essence, they all do the same thing, cause a flattening of the pelvic floor, psoas muscle and other crucial areas where the dorsal vagus nerve runs. Many of the exercises for gaining control of a runaway system are going to involve your vagus nerve system. As these maneuvers do lower blood pressure make sure you are healthy enough to use them. Click here to return to top.
Quick tip
Hold your breath and pop your ears carefully. That's it, don't over think it.
VAGUS NERVE WORK
The Wonder of the Wandering Nerve
Below are a few interventions to strengthen your Vagus nerve and assist in calming your body. Click here to read an easy-to-understand article explaining more. Feel free to research more on the Vagus nerve.
Oming- Making the ‘om’ sound, rounding the top of your mouth, closing your lips and ‘oming’ through an entire breath. Repeating this. The vagus nerve, also known as the wondering nerve, runs throughout the entire body, and one area is the roof of your mouth. Making the om sound with that slight vibration that occurs on the m actually stimulates vagal tone. Humming also works, but having the mouth in a more open position is more effective.
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Sit like you just closed a great business deal – Sitting with your feet up on a foot rest, hands crossed behind your head, head tilted up and back slightly arched back stretches you out in all the right places. Take three slow breaths in this position.
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Dorsal vagus nerve relaxation -
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Keeping your eyes open, (because who wants to close their eyes when they are anxious), sit in a comfortable position. Relax your pelvis floor. What this means is that normally we go around with our bottoms clenched so we do not pass gas or leak urine, so a relaxed pelvic floor is not clenched, but not pushed down like you are pooping, but rather neutral and flat.
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Step two is the top part, slouch in your back where that vertebrae that used to get bruised when you had to do sit ups on a hard gym floor. When you slouch in the mid back, you will notice that your rib cage sits on your diaphragm. It is natural to exhale when you slouch here.
Slouch and exhale, letting your rib cage rest on your diaphragm and this keeps you from getting in a deep breath and that is fine, just relax.
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Step three is to relax the psoas muscle, the muscle in the side that you tighten if someone is going to kick you in the side.
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And finally step four, relax from your belly button to your groin, let your lower gut hang out.
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You do all four steps, bottom floor, top, sides gut. This equals a relaxed body. You will know you are doing this right when you feel a heaviness in your shoulders, jaw or eyes and you feel relaxed in general. It may take a few tries. After you get the feeling of it, tense back up and try again.
Get proficient at it. Then you work at making yourself anxious and doing it to stop the anxiety. The better you get, the better it works and before you know it you can make it work in the middle of panic. Return to Body Skills.
BREATHING TECHNIQUES
Simple Technique
Try this simple technique first. There are many techniques, find what works well for you. This simple one is easy to remember during panic and is very effective.
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Take a breath in for 4 counts, hold it for 4, out for and4 hold for 4. Too much thinking? Breathe in for 4 and out for 12.
The point is more out than in, more carbon dioxide than oxygen. Remember, in the ‘good ol days when a person had a panic attack and would hyperventilate and they had them breathe into a paper bag? The purpose was to have them breathe in recycled breath which has a good deal more carbon dioxide in it that if breathing fresh air.
This results in going from hyperventilation (too much oxygen) to either regular amounts of oxygen or slightly under. This tips the scales a bit and sends a signal to the brain that we are no longer preparing to fight or flee but instead can rest and restore.
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More insight: When you are preparing to fight someone, you breathe faster, stand up straight, tighten up your sides (psoas muscle) in case you get hit or kicked there and you blood pressure and heart rate increase. When you are trying to pull yourself out of fight and flight, you want the opposite body sensations and responses.
So we want a relaxed body, relaxed side muscles that are not preparing to be hit, lowered shoulders that are not protecting our necks from attack, slower breathing, etc. It is not the deep breathing that is the key, it is really the slower breathing. We just breathe deeper to slow the process down from shallow and rapid breathing to slow, rhythmic breathing. Think of how the breathing of someone just falling asleep sounds versus the breathing of someone when they are running. Return to Body skills.
Quick Tip
If you are in a state of panic, don't try to deeply breathe. Just hold your breath for a ten count (as long as you are not driving or something). Most of us in panic have too much oxygen, not too little. Rest and restore.
BODY RESPONSES
scroll down for rapid heart rate, increased breathing, sweating and overheating
Your heart rate increases as signals are sent to prepare you to gain safety. This can come through fight, flight or freeze, but the increased heart rate pumps the blood and extra oxygen to the necessary organs and muscles to prepare for whatever decision seems to be best in the given situation.
Unfortunately, when the situation is not a real physical threat, the physiological response may be disproportionate.
The increased heart rate can also trigger thoughts such as “I am having a heart attack”. Remember that this is your body’s defense mechanism and is not designed to harm you but rather help you seek safety.
In the intervention section there are interventions so help you lower your heart rate such as the Valsalva maneuver and swimmers reflex as well as many breathing exercises. Adjusting your thoughts during this process is also helpful. Remember that although the rapid heart rate and seemingly out of control body reactions can be very overwhelming, keep a record of what has happened from previous episodes.
Practicing Vagus Nerve work can assist in shortening the episodes. Using the Calmer Creature App to guide you through the biofeedback during an episode can teach you to quickly control your body’s responses to anxiety, panic, worry and traumatic activations.
INCREASED BREATHING
As discussed in the brief overview of the physiology of panic explained, increased breathing is part of the body’s preparation for fight or flight.
The increased oxygen is a necessary step in getting the needed oxygen to the right organs and muscles to prepare to flee to safety or to fight to protect oneself. Regardless of if the threat is physical or psychological, the signals sent to the body are relatively the same.
Short, quick and shallow breathing are great for running and sparring, but they are not ideal for sending signals to rest or relax, focus and concentrate and connect with others.
This is often why when asked to ‘relax and take a deep breath’ a person can begin to panic more and find it difficult to do so. Deep breathing is to slow the breathing, not to get more oxygen in the system.
From earlier reading, you may remember that our goal is not to over oxygenate. We have plenty of oxygen from our anxiety, trauma and fear response. Our goal is to reduce the oxygen intake. This can be done by square breathing, breathing through cupped hands or a straw or any breath exercise you find that works well for you. Return to Body Skills
SWEATING AND OVER HEATING
Sweating and increased body temperature are physiological responses that can occur during panic or anxiety due to the activation of the body's "fight or flight" response. When you experience a perceived threat or danger, your body's sympathetic nervous system kicks in, leading to a cascade of physical changes aimed at preparing you to either fight or flee the situation.
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Sweating: Increased sweating is a result of your body trying to cool down in anticipation of physical activity. Sweating helps regulate body temperature, but during a panic attack, this response can become exaggerated. The increased arousal can cause excessive sweating.
Also, remember this is not the same type of sweat as the sweat you get at the gym or from non-stressed states. Stress sweat has more fats (lipids) and smells more, just we all need when feeling stress.
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Remember, this serves a biological purpose (outside of increasing breakouts). This prepares us more for fight and flight. This oily sweat allows us to escape the enemy’s grasp more easily and to slip and slide through tight spaces. So, stress sweat does smell more, stain your clothes more and causes you to have more zits, but it has a purpose. Gaining control over your body’s responses will reduce your stress sweat response. Click here for Vagus Nerve work.
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Increased Body Temperature: Your body's temperature increases when the fight or flight response is activated. This can lead to an increase in body temperature as your body generates more energy to prepare for action. Additionally, increased blood flow to the muscles and dilated blood vessels can contribute to a feeling of warmth or flushing. Return to Body Skills
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While these responses are normal reactions to stress or danger, they can sometimes become heightened during a panic attack. It's important to remember that panic attacks are driven by a perceived threat rather than an actual physical danger. Understanding the physiological basis of these responses can help you manage them better and differentiate between the physical sensations caused by anxiety and actual medical issues
DECREASED COORDINATION
Scroll down for Poor Memory and Nervous Stomach
When living with increased anxiety and stress one can frequently feel clumsy as if having difficulty with coordination in writing, grabbing or holding objects and with other fine motor skills. This may extend to tripping, running into coffee tables or hitting door frames. Remember the old movies when someone was being chased by the bad guys and they would fumble to get their keys and then be unable to put them in the car doors. Even though we normally don’t need to grab our keys any longer, the physiological response is still there when we are having anxiety responses.
Our body floods our system with excessive excitatory hormones in times of anxiety or trauma. These hormones give us an extra boost to fight or flee. However, they interfere with fine motor skills. Let’s face it, rarely are we asked to conduct needle point in a life and death situation so our bodies have not adapted the need for fine motor skills when fight and flight are activated.
Another reason for decreased coordination is that your mind is not paying attention to smaller details that do not register for safety. Remember that during stress the mind is sorting out what is considered to be paramount to safety and minimizing the attention to other matters. Therefore, we will not attend to ‘less important’ matters. Unfortunately, what the mind deems as less important and what society deems as less important do not always match.
Additionally, our body has redirected blood flow to more important parts, such as the heart and lungs. This means that some blood will be diverted from your hands and feet, making them less agile in their ability to manipulate objects. This will lead to increased dropping, fumbling and poor penmanship. Return to top
CLUMSINESS
Problems with coordination often occur during stress, worry and anxiety, which in turn often exacerbate anxiety and add to social awkwardness.
POOR MEMORY
Memory and Anxiety – You’re not getting dumb
Memory can be greatly impacted by anxiety, stress and trauma. Before we dive into how anxiety impacts it, lets peek at trauma.
When we have been through something that makes us feel unsafe, betrayed or violated, our brain focuses more on things that will give us a perceived sense of safety and spends more time assessing the environment for threats.
This means that our mind is not going to be focusing on learning someone’s name, following instructions or paying attention to details that don’t have anything to do with our safety.
Many times, people who have experienced significant stress or trauma complain about poor memory or memory recall. It is not that you are losing your ability to have good memory, it is just that at this time in your life, your mind/brain are placing assessing your environment for threats as more important than learning other things.
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Your brain is prioritizing remembering the snake is dangerous over remembering that a butterfly is pretty.
NERVOUS STOMACH
As you may know by now, the vagus nerve has a lot to do with your stomach. Nervous stomach issues evidence in various ways, sometimes diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps and even constipation.
The stomach is supposed to reflect our emotions and this is where we actually ‘feel’ a lot, so it is no wonder that when our emotions go into overdrive, our stomach can take the brunt of that.
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One element of the panic and anxiety system that the vagus nerve influences is the stomachs response to anxiety. It is essential for blood flow to change during panic and food digestion to discontinue. Voiding the bowels is also essential for fleeing and throwing off a predator.
What this means, is that emptying our bowels and bladder, is part of our body’s way of coping with anxiety. Take a moment to recognize when your stomach becomes anxious.
Some people calm when they know where bathrooms are located, or after they use a bathroom after entering a new environment. Others must use a bathroom prior to leaving their house, even if they just relieved themselves.
Having a nervous stomach can be a mild indicator that you are anxious to an interference on daily functioning. Understanding how to calm your body’s reaction to anxiety and calm the ‘jitter poops’ can help you gain control over daily activities is this is one of your anxiety symptoms that has caused you distress.
THE AMYGDALA
Amygdala's Role:
The amygdala, located in the brain's limbic system, is responsible for processing emotions, especially fear, rage and anxiety. It helps identify potential threats and triggers the body's fight-or-flight response to prepare for danger. When the amygdala perceives a threat, it sends signals to other parts of the brain and the body, leading to various stress responses, such as increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and muscle tension.
The Amygdala triggers anxiety, while the Vagus nerve system acts as a relaxing button. Strengthening your control over the vagus nerve can help you slow down panic, leading your body into a more relaxed state. This can significantly shorten the time your body reacts to panic and worry.
Think of it as reciprocal inhibition, but on a psychological level instead of a physical one. Just as opposing muscles relax when one contracts to allow movement, when the vagus nerve triggers relaxation, the anxious response disengage. Return to top
THE AMYGDALA AND ANGER
When it comes to anger, the amygdala is involved in detecting and responding to potential threats or challenges. It can trigger the "fight or flight" response, which prepares the body to either confront a threat or flee from it.
In situations where we feel provoked, wronged, or frustrated, the amygdala can activate the release of stress hormones like adrenaline, leading to increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and muscle tension. This can result in the feeling of anger. Return to top
THE AMYGDALA AND ANXIETY
Anxiety is closely linked to the amygdala as well. When we encounter a potentially threatening situation or a source of worry, the amygdala can become activated. It initiates a cascade of responses that prepare us to deal with the threat. This can include heightened alertness, racing thoughts, and increased heart rate. Sometimes, the amygdala's response can be disproportionate to the actual threat, leading to excessive anxiety. This is often seen in anxiety disorders where everyday situations trigger intense anxiety. return to top
THE AMYGDALA AND ADAPTING
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In both cases, the amygdala's responses are part of our evolutionary survival mechanisms. However, in modern life, they can sometimes lead to overwhelming emotions. Understanding how the amygdala works and developing strategies to manage its responses can be beneficial in managing anger and anxiety. Techniques such as deep breathing, mindfulness, and cognitive reframing can help regulate the amygdala's reactions and bring about a more balanced emotional state. This website offers instructions in all of these techniques. Navigate through the website to gain the information needed to calm the creature of anxiety, anger and stress inside us. Return to top
VAGUS NERVE SYSTEM
Vagus Nerve's Role:
The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve and plays a crucial role in regulating the body's parasympathetic nervous system, often referred to as the "rest and digest" system. It helps counteract the fight-or-flight response triggered by the amygdala. The vagus nerve promotes relaxation and helps bring the body back to a calmer state by slowing down the heart rate, promoting digestion, and reducing stress hormones.
INTERVENTIONS
The interactions between the amygdala and the vagus nerve are complex. While the amygdala can activate the fight-or-flight response, the vagus nerve works to bring the body back to a state of balance and relaxation. The vagus nerve can dampen the amygdala's responses and help regulate the intensity of emotions triggered by the amygdala.
Practices such as deep breathing, meditation, and mindfulness can help stimulate the vagus nerve's activity and promote a calming effect, counteracting the heightened responses triggered by the amygdala. By strengthening the vagus nerve's influence, individuals can enhance their ability to manage emotional responses, reduce anxiety, and improve overall well-being.
VAGUS NERVE WORK
There are many ways to work on the Vagal System. Click here to go to the link to gain insight into a few ways to work on improving your vagal system. Click here to go to the Calmer Creature app download. Return to top
Heart Rate Variability
Understanding Heart Rate variability, Anxiety and Trauma
Heart rate variability (HRV) is the normal fluctuation between your heartbeats. It is normal to have fluctuations between the time of beats. Different things can add to this fluctuation. The above mentioned ‘state’ such as rest versus exercise, relaxation versus stress are understandable factors that will influence your heart rate variability. However, other conditions will impact this as well.
The most evident is medications that are designed to control your heart rate, such as propranolol and devices such as a pacemaker. Other physiological conditions impact your heart rate variability as well. Such as exposure to prolonged stress or trauma.
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In short, when exposed to prolonged trauma or stress, the heart rate loses some variability and remains at a more constant and typically elevated state. This is due to ‘sympathetic dominance’, or being stuck in survival mode. When a person is able to gain ‘parasympathetic dominance’ again and begin to engage the inhibitory function of the vagus nerve then the heart rate can slow, safety can be felt and social connections can be reestablished (Lidell et al, 2016).
It is important to note, that for those who have lived in conflictual environments for extended periods of time, the switching from sympathetic to parasympathetic systems may become more difficult. Think of it as the alert system is reluctant to shut off, since it has gotten used to being reactivated so frequently. It becomes reluctant or unwilling to relax and turn control over to the ‘rest and restore’ system.
However, overtime not turning off leads to a malfunction in the protection system of fight and flight and instead of sharpening this system, it actually dulls it, causing us to react disproportionately, or at the wrong person or event. Over time, missing the mark can lead to disastrous results socially and within our families.
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So as you watch your heart rate, a greater difference between your heart rate when you are stressed, anxious, angry or frightened compared to your heart rate when you are relaxed or resting is a good sign. It means that you are gaining a good amount of control over the vagal system and restoring balance. Explore Vagus nerve exercises for more control methods as well as meditation, and utilize the biofeedback of this app consistently for fast recovery.
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For more information on the value of heart rate variability and biofeedback you can read the article about its benefits in Neuromodulation of Applied Diseases: HRV and Biofeedback by Gitler et al. 8 October 2022 The Emerging Role of the Vagal Nerve in Cardiac, Cerebrovascular and Oncological Diseases) Or Heart rate variability and the relationship between trauma exposure age, and psychopathology in a post-conflict setting by Lidell, B. et al (2016).