MMG Session 3: Reactivity to Stress - Our Patterns of Reactivity,

Responding v Reacting
Difficulties and stress are part of everyday life for all. How we respond to these
difficulties makes the difference between whether they control our lives or whether
we can give them less emphasis.

What is Stress?

Most people consider the definition of stress to be something that causes distress.
However, stress is not always harmful since increased stress results in increased
productivity

Acute Stress: Fight or flight - an automatic reaction that happens in your body when
there is a perceived threat. The release of chemicals (such as the hormone
adrenalin) sharpens your senses, focuses attention, quickens breathing, dilates
blood vessels, increases heart rate and tenses your muscles. This is the “fight or
flight” response that prepares us to act quickly to tackle or avoid danger.

Chronic Stress: This is the stress we tend to ignore or push down, day-to-day
stresses of modern life, such as never-ending deadlines, nagging traffic jams,
financial worries or seemingly endless family responsibilities. Excessive, negative or
low-grade stress that extends over a long period of time can have a detrimental
impact on your physical and mental health, relationships and general enjoyment of
life.

Eustress: Stress in daily life that has positive connotations such as marriage,
promotion, having a new baby, winning money etc.

Distress: Stress in daily life that has negative connotations such as divorce, pain,
negative feelings, financial problems, work difficulties etc.

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Stress Reaction Cycle from Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living, Ch 19

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Distressing events tend to generate two levels of stressors (See diagram above)

First level: An external stress event followed by internal stress responses:

cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, nervous system and immune system

Second level: The follow on reactions to the first level. We tend to react in one of
three ways:

• Indifference: we switch out from the present moment and go off somewhere
else ‘’in our heads’’
• Attachment: Wanting to hold on to things – usually the pleasant or
comfortable
• Aversion: we want things to go away or become angry with them – usually
wanting to avoid the unpleasant or uncomfortable

All of these reactions are ultimately unhelpful. Grasping, blanking, getting angry and
so on all produce their own kinds of pain and so a vicious cycle comes into being.

Our exploration of the stress cycle and our practice of observing what is happening
in the mind and body in meditation helps us to become more aware of our
experience, so that we can respond mindfully rather than react automatically.

Regularly practicing sitting meditation gives us opportunities to notice when we have

drifted away from awareness of the moment , to note with friendly awareness
whatever it was that took our attention away and then gently guide the attention back
to the focus of attention on a moment to moment basis.

At other times of the day, using the breathing space whenever we notice any sense
of ‘tightening’ or ‘holding’ in the body, taking this opportunity to gently challenge the
habitual automatic reactions to stress and consider responding rather than reacting.

The Three-Minute Breathing Space Practice

There are three steps to the practice:

1. Attend to what is. The first step invites attending broadly to one’s
experience, noting it, but without the need to change what is being observed.

2. Focus on the breath. The second step narrows the field of attention to a
single, pointed focus on the breath in the body.

3. Attend to the body. The third step widens attention again to include the body
as a whole and any sensations that are present.

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The Stress Reaction Cycle
(adapted from Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living, Chapter 19)

Human beings are remarkably resilient to stress, but our usually stable balance can
be pushed over the edge if it is taxed beyond its capacity to respond and adapt.

Like the person depicted in the figure on page 31, we all experience EXTERNAL
STRESSORS (shown as small arrows above the head) from biological, physical,
social economic and political forces that bear on us. Our thoughts and emotions are
strongly affected by our perception of these outside forces and generate their own
stressful reactions, producing another whole set of pressures and demands,
the INTERNAL STRESSORS, shown as arrows inside the box.

Chronic stressors are those that affect us over extended periods of time, such as
taking care of a disabled family member. Acute stressors are those that come and
go over relatively short periods of time, such as working to meet a deadline.

People, like animals, have a physiological reaction when feeling under threat, called
the fight-or-flight reaction. This leads to a state hyperarousal, characterised by
muscle tension, strong emotions, and release of stress hormones such as
adrenaline. We become alert and attentive. The heart beats faster raising the blood
pressure, and blood is redirected from digestion (causing feelings of ‘butterflies in the
stomach’) to the large muscles of the arms and legs. This activity is regulated by
the autonomic nervous system.

The fight-or-flight reaction helps us survive life-threatening situations. But much of our
stress these days comes from threats, real or imagined, to our social status, rather
than to our lives. The fight-or-flight reaction kicks in even when there is no life-
threatening situation facing use. It is enough for us just to feel threatened. If this
becomes a way of life and we have no healthy way of releasing the built-up tension,
we can drift into a state of CHRONIC HYPERAROUSAL. This can lead to long-term
physiological and psychological disregulation, with problems such as high blood
pressure, digestive problems, chronic headaches, back aches, sleep disorders, and
chronic anxiety.

Many of us cope with stress in ways that are actually self-destructive. These attempts
at control are labelled ‘MALADAPTIVE COPING’ in the Figure, because although
they do help us tolerate stress and give us some sense of control, in the long run they
create problems and make our lives more stressful. Such strategies include denial of
what is happening, workaholism, overeating, substance dependency. When these
become habitual methods of coping, they put yet more stress into our
system. Ultimately all maladaptive coping can be addictive.

Sooner or later the accumulated effects of stress reactivity, compounded by unhelpful

way of dealing with it, lead to BREAKDOWN – exhaustion, burnout, physical illness
or recurrent depression, all of which become stressors themselves.

The first step on the road to recovery is to use mindfulness to become aware of
what our own patterns are.

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Physical Barometer:

Our bodies are constantly sending us signals, a steady stream of feedback on our
lives. This feedback is sometimes described as intuition, having an inkling, a gut
reaction, or funny feeling, It may get dismissed as irrational, but there’s nothing very
strange about it – it’s just information that tells us physically how we’re doing.

Our body acts like a physical barometer, reflecting the weather of our internal world.
If we have an infection, our body lets us know with discomfort and fever; if we feel
threatened, it lets us know through sweaty palms, dry mouth and stomach churning;
and if we have been over-exerting ourselves, the body lets us know through
exhaustion, a call to rest. We now know that there are neural networks all over our
bodies, sending electrical signals to our brain – whether we choose to listen or not,
our body is constantly communicating

We are less likely to notice cues from our bodies when we are stuck in our thoughts,
rushing around like brains on sticks. We don’t hear when our bodies tell us it’s time
to slow down, eat healthily or take exercise. If this is the habitual way we relate with
our bodies, distant and unresponsive, drowning out their messages with activity and
thinking, is it any wonder that medical practices and hospital clinics are flooded with
patients reporting “unexplained” aches, pains, and fatigue? When we don’t listen to
them, eventually our bodies protest in the only way they can, beckoning for attention
with symptoms of disease.

Where is your barometer?

• Determine where your body expresses its distress pattern. Common sites:
chest, stomach, back of head / neck, shoulder area below the neck etc.

• Once you have located your place it becomes your physical barometer. You
can tune into it at any time, paying attention to sensations there. If you are
under pressure or stressed or anxious, you may notice sensations of tension
or discomfort. If you are having a pleasant experience, then when you tune in,
you may notice open, warm or light sensations.

• As you become more practiced at reading sensations in your barometer, you

may find that you start to notice subtle variations. These can offer you detailed
early information about how you are, long before you become aware of what
is happening in your mind.

• In this way, anytime you tune in to your physical barometer, you can chose to
respond to what you find by practicing the 3 minute breathing space, to help
you turn towards and open to what is arising. Monitoring the sensations and
allow them to be as they are moment by moment.
Adapted from Trish Bartley, Instructor CMRP, Bangor University.

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Staying Present:

Remember to use your body as a way to awareness. It can be as simple as staying

mindful of your posture. You are probably sitting as you read this. What are the
sensations in your body at this moment? When you finish reading and stand, feel the
movements of standing, of walking to the next activity, of how you lie down at the
end of the day. Be in your body as you move, as you reach for something, as you
turn. It is as simple as that.

Just patiently practise feeling what is there - and the body is always there - until it
becomes second nature to know even the small movements you make. If you are
reaching for something, you are doing it anyway; there is nothing extra you have to
do. Simply notice the reaching. You are moving. Can you train yourself to be there,
to feel it?

It is very simple. Practise again and again bringing your attention back to your body.
This basic effort, which paradoxically is a relaxing back into the moment, gives us
the key to expanding our awareness from times of formal meditation to living
mindfully in the world. Do not underestimate the power that comes to you from
feeling the simple movements of your body throughout the day.

Adapted from: Joseph Goldstein Insight Meditation (1993)

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 Home Practice for the week following session 3:

On alternate days practice:

• Sitting mindfulness of breath meditation

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness/audio/cd1/01Track01.mp3

• Practice the guided body scan

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness/audio/cd1/02Track02.mp3

• mindful movement
https://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness/audio/cd1/03Track03.mp3

• 3 Step Breathing Space – Regular practice, at least three times during the
day, to reconnect with the moment. Note comments / difficulties on your
record form.

• Try to Stop and Pause during the day.

• Tune in to your physical barometer during the day and see what is present.

• Be aware of your stress reactions during the week without trying to change
them. Notice if you are blocking, numbing or shutting off from the moment,
when it happens and how this feels in the body. When do you notice yourself
refusing or resisting what is happening at the time? When do you find yourself
willing to ‘embrace the moment’?

• Fill in the half way review sheet.

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Halfway Review

This course is about taking active steps in participating in your own health and
wellbeing

Weeks 1-3 have been focused on becoming aware of the wanderings of our minds,
using awareness to come back to the present and developing skills in moving our
attentiveness to different areas.

We are now halfway through the course. The emphasis in the second half of the
programme is on cultivating a different relationship with our internal and external
experiences in our day to day lives.

Take time to reflect on:

What am I learning through this process?

How am I changing?

What do I need to do to make the best use of the rest of the course?

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Homework practice sheet – Session 4

Day / Date Mindfulness Comments

Practice / Stress
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