The Sigrid Grobys talk on Stress Management

I am going to continue from where I left last time about the talk by Sigrid Grobys on Stress Management techniques. The first thing that caught my attention was her age. She seemed to be in her early twenties. I won’t vouch for the accuracy of my assessment, as I often tend to get the age number wrong ;) But as soon as she started talking I remember feeling a sense of admiration for her diction. I mean not once did I hear a "ah" or any of the fillers that liberally peppers my talks. I really don’t have a word to describe her calm demeanor but there was something interesting.  Well enough of her and let me come to the point of her talk ;)

Stress & the Autonomic Nervous System

The first thing she did was to give a physiological definition of stress. She defined it as the body’s response to something that is perceived as demanding. An important component of the body’s response mechanism lies with the so called Autonomic Nervous System or the control system of the body that controls the various visceral functions while remaining below the radar of our individual consciousness. The key point that Sigrid emphasized is the need to balance between the two key response activites of the system: ie Fight or Flight Response  (Controlled by Sympathetic Nervous System) Vs Rest and Digest Activities (Controlled by Parasympathetic Nervous System).

Fight or Flight Response Vs Rest and Digest Activites

Without being too technical let me attempt a very brief description. Whenever the body perceives a difficult situation it attempts to activate the Fight or Flight Response through the production of the hormones Adrenaline and Cortisol. They aid in increasing the level of blood sugar, increased Carbohydrate, Fat and Protein Metabolism and increased heart rates. In other words that’s how our body improves our ability to handle a crisis. But if we stay in that mode for too long then there are side effects associated with the negatives of modern living.

So after a long day of work you need rest or in other words stimulate your body’s Rest and Digest Activities. It is in this mode that healing and regeneration occurs. The body further performs activities like digesting, detoxifying, eliminating and building immunity.

Balance and how to actively achieve it

What the body wants is a balance between activity and rest. But given the stressors of our modern lives that’s not quite in our hands and there are so many things that sorta perpetually forces us to remain in the so called Fight or Flight mode. So what Sigrid suggested was three conscious relaxation techniques:

1.  Deep Breathing: The first thing that she did was to make each one of the participants blow up a balloon. The correct way involved expanding your belly when inhaling and contracting it while exhaling to fill up the balloon.
   
   The key idea was that Deep Breathing and adopting of breathing exercises could help reduce the adrenaline and cortisol levels in the body. I am not sure of the scientific basis of this claim but it does seem logical that these breathing exercises increases the oxygen in the blood which in turn will have positive consequences.
   
   
2. Posture: The second point that made an impact was her point about the right posture. Having a straight back increase the quantum of breath intake vs a slouched back. And more breath is good :D
   
   
3. Visualization: Her third point was about meditation. She suggests at least 15 minutes of meditation every day. Keeping your mind free of thoughts is difficult. So she suggests visualizing some very pleasant relaxing situation and keeping that as focal point of thought during the course of the exercise. 

The mechanics of meditation and the science behind it is perhaps beyond the scope of this note. But I came out of the talk with the feeling that this is one practice worth pursuing.

Finally she talked about doing some stretch exercises. She explained a few interesting exercises that can be done easily but I didn’t catch the correct technique during the talk. Later I found quite a lot of interesting versions on youtube each with its own names and specifics.

Anyways the important thing is that I found the discussion interesting. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that that I got a theoretical foundation for the whole issue of stress. This foundation led me to google about the topic and I found a lot of other interesting tit bits. By writing this note I want to make sure that I go beyond that and implement some of these interesting ideas J