Positive Health Online

Originally Published in

https://Indiafirstepaper.com/epaper  – 1^st September 2023, Page 42

Anxiety is as old as the hills – a part of life too. Excess, or long-term, anxiety is a contributory factor for several disorders – nay a direct cause of illness. It, likewise, albeit paradoxically, motivates us to reach our goals faster. Put simply, anxiety is related to changes that occur in the body when the mind sees a threat, or challenge. The threat can be real, or imaginary. Most changes that occur in the body, due to anxiety, or nervous disquiet, are caused by the release of catecholamines, or chemical messengers, into the blood stream and also nerve impulses. This is, in essence, the raison d’être for the famed ‘fight-or-flight’ response – a survival mechanism.

The ‘fight-or-flight’ principle has certainly served us well for thousands of years, although the form of anxiety, or stress, we encounter today is starkly different from what our ancestors faced. In earlier times, when one identified, or confronted, a deadly monster, they would be all-geared-up in a flash to fight, or flee. When the threat was over, they would return to one’s normal state – in other words, a state of balance.

The types of anxieties, also stressors, we encounter today are, unlike the past, not direct, or physical. The ‘duo’ in our age is more often related to, or caused by psychosomatic, or emotional factors.

So, you may naturally contend that the ‘fight-or-flight’ response of yore may not be quite appropriate to our times? Possibly, yes. Well, the fact also is, you cannot, for instance, admonish your boss, if you don’t agree with their line of thought on any given project, task, or situation.

What’s more, the anxieties, or uneasy pressures, we face today are continual. They are also cumulative. The best part is our body is designed to function and respond adequately to them. At the same time, it is not uncommon for most of us to stay in a continual state of ‘anxious’ readiness. The reason being – many of us are not fully relaxed, or physiologically active to liberate our anxiety levels. This is unlike what used to happen to our ancestors who would release their physical response for a definitive outcome – the end of a battle, or escape from a dangerous creature. On the contrary, the long-term, stressful anxieties that we wrestle with today can trigger high blood pressure, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, muscular disorders, psychological and emotional problems, including immune malfunction.

All of this and more calls not so much for ‘medicated’ action, but mindful meditation, or mindfulness – the other side of the safe, ‘low-or-no-cost’ therapeutic spectrum. The practice, which is primarily based on the relaxation response, reflects the ‘normal’ state to which our forebears would return, soon after overcoming a known hazard. They also achieved calm quickly, because the anxiety of their ‘fight-or-flight’ response with peril was offset by their physical, or bodily, action.

The situation is complex today, although, as the adage goes, you can do your best only when you are relaxed.

Not when you are tense. It is also another thing that most people find it difficult to get the time, or interest, for regular ‘anxiety-reducing,’ or ‘de-stress,’ sessions. Well, the point is– if you don’t ‘fix’ it now, you may have to spare time for illness later.

A recent study published in Journal of the American Medical Association-Psychiatry showed that people who received eight weeks of mindfulness-based interventions experienced a decline in anxiety that matched subjects who were given escitalopram, a common anti-anxiety medication – prescribed under the brand name, Lexapro. A seven-point scale was used to measure anxiety among 208 participants, with a score of 7 representing ‘extreme anxiety,’ and a score of 1 being ‘normal’. The results suggested that the average score after treatment dropped from a moderate-level to a mild-level of anxiety in both the medication and mindfulness groups. The bottom line – when the mind is calm, the body is relaxed and vice versa. This, in turn, powers the immune system and helps repair damaged tissue that emerges in the wake of anxiety.

Mindfulness is a ‘must-do’ practice to dealing with psychological anxiety as much as physical anxieties of everyday life.  When the mind is relaxed, the heart and respiratory rates are slowed down to the point of being ‘steady.’ Our blood pressure is healthy; our muscles are relaxed; our internal organs have adequate supply of blood and nutrients. Our ‘feel-good’ chemicals, or endorphins, which are our natural pain-killers flow with ease when we are relaxed. This gives us a sense of calm and also well-being.

Credit Acknowledgement

Originally Published in

https://Indiafirstepaper.com/epaper  – 1^st September 2023 Page 42,