Overcoming Stress Part 2: Encoding Emotions, NET & Root-Cause Stress Relief
The mind and our emotions play a significant role in our state of stress and our capacity to process it. In this article I am going to instruct two effective tools that train our ability to self-regulate and thus develop higher resilience.
Stress, its stages and the mind-body's memory index
Firstly, however, we will briefly review concepts from the previous article and introduce some additional scientific background for why the prescribed tools work.
To recap from the previous article on Understanding and Overcoming Stress – Physical, chemical and mental-emotional stressors all impact micro (cellular) and macro (body-mind) physiology. According to Hans Selye’s General Adaption Syndrome, a body system or individual finds itself in a more advanced state of decay, the longer a stressor persists in time and intensity.
The human body remembers stressful events, neurologically through the limbic system and immunologically through B and T cells.
The Limbic System - the neurology of retaining emotions and stress
An area of the brain called the amygdala, part of the limbic system, is responsible for perceiving danger. It is also responsible for archiving both real and perceived dangers and stressful events in memory and attaching emotion to them. This mechanism keeps us safe by triggering a stress response when exposed to anything associated with an amygdala storage file. This mechanism is both critical for survival, yet problematic when we develop amygdala dominant expressions.
The following discussion will tie the above concepts together to explain the following model: Emotions are in a sense physical, given their biochemical nature and are stored in the body. Additionally, emotional expression bridges neurological function together with endocrine and immune function.
We can learn to process “stuck” emotions / memories or inappropriate limbic-amygdala activity using Neuro Emotional Technique’s (NET) FAST method as well as Somatic Experiencing. The steps are outlined at the end of the article.
The mindbody as a scientific concept
The field of “mind-body” medicine became a focus of legitimate scientific research in the 1980s. Dr. Candace Pert (1946-2013), the internationally renowned neuroscientist and pharmacologist, was one of its major contributors. Today, thanks to Dr. Pert’s life work and over 250 published research articles, we can discuss the neurophysiology of stress, the biochemical aspect of emotions… relating scientifically not just philosophically to the mind and body as a continuous field.
My argument is that the three classic areas of neuroscience, endocrinology, and immunology, with their various organs – the brain (which is the key organ that the neuroscientists study), the glands, and the immune system (consisting of the spleen, the bone marrow, the lymph nodes, and of course the cells circulating throughout the body) – that these three areas are actually joined to each other in a bidirectional network of communication and that the information “carriers” are the neuropeptides.1 Dr. Candace Pert
The nervous system, endocrine and immune system – a unified field
A simplified scientific explanation goes as follows:
Brain function is modulated by numerous chemicals in addition to the classically recognized neurotransmitters. These chemicals, or Informational Substances are neuropeptides which have historically been discussed as gut peptides, hormones, growth factors etc. There are more than 50 and the majority of which alter behavior and mood states.
Informational substances (IS) have binding receptors throughout the brain, (circulating) immune cells, endocrine organs and more. IS were understood to be behaviorally and emotionally related after observing that mood modifying drugs like valium, morphine and phencyclidine (angel dust) mimic the IS interactions at their same receptor sites. The sites include the brain, spinal cord, pancreas, pituitary, testis, lymph nodes and white blood cells- throughout the body.
In short, IS neuropeptides play a physiological role in mood, emotional states and behavior. They form a biochemical network that joins communication between the brain, immune system and endocrine system (thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, reproductive organs and other glands).2
Emotions are physical
Dr. Pert believed that the Informational Substance receptor sites in essence store emotion and that the emotions have biochemical bias – with a tendency towards various emotional states. The physical nature of the Informational Substances, their function and storage sites / interaction throughout the body give basis to the notion of a single mindbody system. Learn more about Dr. Candace Pert here.
Emotions are stored and released
Since emotions run every system in the body, don’t underestimate their power to treat and heal. Dr. Candace Pert
Often, stressors trigger the mindbody to behave according to past emotional imprints. We aren’t able to act in the present moment because our body reacts as if something from the past is going on right now. Remember the amygdala?
Unprocessed emotional states and memories are stored in the mindbody. It is fascinating to note that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) relates various emotional patterns to the organ meridians. For example, the liver and anger, the gallbladder and resentment, the kidneys and fear, the lungs and grief. The use of acupuncture, herbal formulas, tai chi, qi gong and bodywork treat the mindbody relationship as an indivisible entity.
Neuro Emotional Technique and treating the neurophysiology of stress
Neuro Emotional Technique expands the TCM concept and connects the “organ meridian storage sites” together with the conscious and subconscious mind. NET names this connection as the Neuro Emotional Complex or NEC and treats it physically, mental-emotionally and biochemically.
NET research studies published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship have substantiated brain function changes with NET therapy in two different PTSD groups. Findings included, when participants were exposed to the stimuli specific to their traumatic event, lower [stress response activation and reactivation] in the parahippocampus, brainstem, anterior cingulate and insula brain regions. It demonstrates the brain’s ability to process a previously unprocessed traumatic event and not be triggered by it afterwards.3,4
The basis of NET is to experience your feelings, something central to the healing process. On that note, our friend Dr. Edith Eger has something to add:
“But as long as you’re avoiding your feelings, you’re denying reality. And if you try to shut something out and say, “I don’t want to think about it,” I guarantee that you’re going to think about it. So invite the feeling in, sit down with it, keep it company. And then decide how long you’re going to hold on to it. Because you’re not a fragile little somebody. It’s good to face every reality. To stop fighting and hiding. To remember that a feeling is just a feeling—it’s not your identity.” Edith Eger, The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life
Tool 1 - You can do a form of NET on yourself
The First Aid Stress Tool or FAST for short is a self-directed form of NET. Please click on the pdf linked below for the step by step. This can be done as often as you want. It can be especially helpful before going to sleep to clear the mind of that day’s stress or in anticipation of tomorrow’s etc.
By sitting down and taking time to experience and process, you are releasing and redirecting the informational substances Dr. Candace Pert researched. Performed frequently, you reinforce through neuroplasticity stronger neural pathways for self-regulation and resilient executive functioning.
Tool 2 – Self-directed Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing is a body focused method to release stress storage and trauma in the body. Here are 5 simple steps to follow to perform it on your own.
- Sit upright, in a comfortable position and close your eyes.
- Breath easily and comfortably.
- Bring your awareness to the stressful item of focus.
- As you focus your awareness several possibilities begin to occur – (1) Your mind starts to move along memory lane; (2) Images / feelings begin to unfold- visual memory, auditory memories, etc; (3) Body sensations – awareness of tension, tightness, sweating, cold, shivers, goosebumps, knotting, nausea, emptiness etc.
- Whichever possibility begins to occur, attune to it. Allow it to happen, it may shift, wax and wane. It may become painful, cause you to feel numb or move you to tears. Give your mind-body permission to experience and process the sensations which until this point were insufficiently processed.
- Perform for 15-20 minutes.
Start using NET’s FAST or Somatic Experiencing today with an issue that has been on your mind. It may take several times as you focus on the issue from different angles. How did you go? Was it challenging, did you encounter any obstacles? Feel free to share your comments and experience below. Process well!
