Managing stress and tension to heal gut and brain from chronic Lyme
One thing Lyme disease teaches us relentlessly is where we hold stress and tension in our bodies. There’s always something legitimate to feel stressed about – especially for those of us in the long process of healing from chronic Lyme.
(Bio weapons, anyone? I haven’t yet read the book Bitten, about the possibility of tick-borne pathogens being developed by the Pentagon, because I don’t want to freak out! I need more practice managing my stress first.)
Where we grip in our bodies is where we’re more likely to experience symptoms. Tight tissue restricts circulation of blood and lymph. Bacteria, mold, viruses, fungi, toxins and other evils hide out in tight tissue, where our immune systems can’t wash them away as easily. Wherever our bugs are living, we feel unwell.
Noticing tension
We can’t eliminate stress from our lives, and we can’t do away with our human tendency to tighten when stressed. What we can do is begin to notice how and where we hold tension, and consciously release. With practice, we can notice tension and release it sooner – preventing chronic buildup of tight muscles, organs and tissue.
For me, Lyme continues to be a world-class education in self-awareness. Thanks to Lyme, I know I unconsciously carry stress in my belly. If something stressful happens to me (if I read a scary book, or even if my kids are too loud at the dinner table) I can check in. Sure enough, I am usually squeezing my stomach tight.
It has become a sort of daily meditation for me to keep checking in, and keep releasing my habitual holding patterns, no matter what is happening around me. It’s always a surprise how this practice of releasing can lessen symptoms for me in the moment.
Tension in the stomach can lead to digestive problems and anxiety
It’s well known that the gut and the brain are pretty much inseparable. They are directly linked through the vagus nerve. Both have gazillions of neurons, and are exquisitely tuned to stress and to each other. Functional medicine doctors even believe many forms of mental illness have a pathogenic component.
Since I was little, digestion has been an issue for me, and so has anxiety. Pathogens I picked up in India as a baby contribute, and so does my habit of holding tension in my stomach. After a tick bit me on the belly in 2014, digestion became impossible, and my anxiety went through the roof. I was forced to take a more conscious approach to stress to help myself heal.
Many people share my tendency to hold the belly tight. It’s a common “fight or flight” response to tighten around the solar plexus under stress. This central area of the body is where the long iliopsoas muscle (used in running) attaches to the diaphragm (used for deep breathing).
If we were about to flee or kick rump, both actions would need strength. Since most of us don’t have a regular practice of releasing trauma or even everyday stress, our tight belly tends to stay tight long term, This makes the gut an easier spot for pathogens to hide, and contributes to all sorts of issues with digestion, elimination, and mental health.
Keeping our nervous systems in the “rest, digest, and heal” parasympathetic state–the opposite of “fight or flight”–requires relaxing around the solar plexus and belly.
When we breathe deeply, our bodies relax. Deep breathing tells our whole nervous system that it’s safe to spend energy on digestion and healing. It also keeps food, toxins and pathogens moving through our digestive tract – down, out and away! And we all know this is essential to healing Lyme.
More at this link:
https://www.lymedisease.org/stress-tension-lyme-curley/
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Dear RM Agents and Readers,
Just a couple things, first during meditation is is better to apply mantra's as in the moment for example. Instead of saying I am capable of healing 100%; one could say I am healed 100%.
One other thing I have learned (although sometimes I do backslide for but a moment and that is unless someone or a some living creature has died, don't stress.
Lyme/Morgellons taught me it isn't worth the pain and secondary hill you will have to climb if you allow your emotions to become to strong about something that when worked over or better stated, examined closely, is insignificant.
So much of what I've learned through this process/illness of Lyme/Morgellons has taught me to live in a different fashion and in many ways it is much easier to deal with life in this way.
Personal choice is very important to understand as is something that heals one person may not be what the next person needs or the best way for another.
Many Blessings,
CrystalRiver
