NERVES // EMOTIONS // STRESS

6min read.

As a physiologist my work has shifted and changed over the years. My experiences landed me in a place where I am well adapted to holding space in a challenging clinical setting. I was aware of the mental toll this kind of work had on practitioners. When you work with war veterans exclusively for 2 years, seeing up-wards of 10 clients before 1pm, it becomes taxing. It fries your nerves. It drains your emotions. Its stressful.

This can be made worse if you’re a highly outcome driven health practitioner (as opposed income driven – very important differentiation) as this population is statistically the 2nd hardest in the nation to achieve positive health outcomes with. This translates to ‘hard work, small victories.’ Their medical history, at a baseline, involves PTSD, some form of complex pain/injury history and being intrenched in a system that essentially incentivises remaining ‘broken.’ Then we add everything else.

To add another layer on an already daunting challenge, being a physiologist at its essence aims to ‘improve health outcomes via lifestyle intervention.’ Do you know how hard it is to try get someone to change their behaviour in a positive way? I mean think about how hard it is for the average person, without the complexity of exposure to a warzone, to lose weight. It’s simple on the surface: EAT BETTER + MOVE MORE = WEIGHT LOSS. The problem is simple, people are not.

I found the only way I was going to be able to thrive in this environment, which I defined as educating and empowering my clients to improve the quality of their lives, was to ensure I kept my nervous system/emotions/stress regulated and in check (remain physiologically balanced). This would allow me the best opportunity to focus my attention on the task at hand and execute.

For me to find my balance that meant I had to incorporate breath-work/yoga (down shift//relax) and submission grappling (outlet//release). Fairly extreme ends of the spectrum, but that suits my personality and the environments I wish to put myself in.

One thing you learn perusing these two endeavours is how to differentiate physical (muscular) and mental (CNS) fatigue far more effectively. Once you break a problem down to its essential components, it becomes easier to solve. Muscular recovery has been researched for decades and relatively straight forward. Mental/CNS fatigue is a bit more complicated, maybe because everyone is affected so differently.

Think about ‘chronic fatigue syndrome.’ I see this as long-term CNS neglect. Interestingly, a lot of people who end up in this state are very good at appearing ‘okay’ or ‘fine’ on the surface. What these individuals forget is you cannot trick your physiology. This same person who is ‘fine’ has things happening under the hood that are screaming ‘not okay.’ The more you ignore this, the better you might get at this façade, but you’re going into debit with your physiology. I promise that’s a bad idea, your body will always collect on its debits.

In my humble opinion, having the capacity to utilise your breath to ACCURATELY ‘check-in’ with where you’re at with regards to mental/CNS fatigue is the key to recovery. This transfers over into muscular recovery also. It is THE key. But it takes consistency, discipline, and humility to find it. Its fucking difficult, you have to sift through your own emotions and nonsense to get there. That’s only if you can sit with yourself for long enough of course.

By now I’m hoping it is clear how much stress influences our physical and mental output/performance. Given the nature of my job and chosen sport, mental output/focus was the priority. This led me down the path to reverse engineer physiological and emotional connections with the guidance of brilliant clinical psychologists.

The key through line I’ve discovered. SLOW DOWN. THEN DECIDE.

When our emotion/stress become heightened our physiology elevates in response to the perceived challenge or threat that’s causing this reaction. Our heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, alertness, arousal increase. All driven by our NERVOUS SYSTEM. But what if it’s the grocery store that is causing this response? (This is a real example from my clinical practice. This person felt right at home in a high stake 4hr board meeting but needed Prozac to get the bread and milk). Also, which of those five elements can we clearly exert some conscious control over?

Let’s look at our focus in this dysregulated state. It is heightened yes, but poor in the sense that it can easily become trapped on the wrong thing.  Then it can become very difficult to shift away from that thing. This is common in those suffering from PTSD. Oh, and due to changes in brain function that occur in these moments, we become a stupider version of ourselves the further down we slide.

The right thing to try to shift your focus to is your breath. It has a DIRECT LINK to your nervous system. We can also exert an immense level of control with our breath, beyond what many believe they are capable of. This control is what our body is CRAVING when we become disconnected from our situation (stressed/upset).

However, to be able to utilise this physiological connection you need to PRACTICE. You need to establish this control and connection when you’re calm if you are ever to use it as a tool in the face of stress. This requires, as I’ve mentioned once already, some semblance of discipline and routine, two things greatly lacking in 2021 society. And the taming of your emotions required at first is hard. Hard in a way many are not used too.

Your emotions are driven in part, by your internal dialogue. So, if your saying ‘this breathing shit isn’t/doesn’t work for me’ – no wonder (also unless you’re an alien of some sort, this will work for you if you persist with it appropriately). If you begin to put yourself down and say things in your head that you would never say to a friend, nor would accept a friend saying it to you, no wonder you’re upset and it’s not going away. This is a deep, dark rabbit hole that leads nowhere productive.

If you’re on the other end of spectrum and struggle to feel any kind of emotion whatsoever, tap into the physical sensations of your breath. A much more ‘real’ thing to feel in your mind perhaps.

At the end of the day if you’ve lost your shit, slowing your breath down will help without a doubt. A good starting place is inhaling twice and exhaling once (physiological sigh) 5-10 times and slowing your breath down from there. Inhaling: exhaling for a 3 count [3:3] is a good start, then slow it down further if you can. The waves (of emotion/nerves/stress) will pass, they ALWAYS do, this simply speeds up the process.

Once this has occurred, you’re much more likely to have access to some rational thought and can make a better decision in the face of whatever has got you here to begin with.