Wanderingyogilee explores the biological benefits of courage, and decides we could all do with a little more…..

Courage and stress are curious yet regular bedfellows.  I am pondering this, having made one of the toughest personal decisions in my life.  So far.  I sincerely hope there are no more like this waiting down the track.

My difficult decision which required significant personal courage was leaving an ego centric non caring husband (the term narcissist would be appropriate).

I procrastinated.  And kept making excuses for himself. And me. While I was not making any decision, my stress was increasing.  I was now stressing about the situation, and beginning to stress about my stress.

That stress that increases your heart beat, out of nowhere. You break into a sweat or feel faint. You know these responses mean you’re not coping well with pressure, and become more anxious about the fact you are not coping.  Your stress response to not making a decision leads you to think you are having a mini heart attack (at least at its peak, that’s how I felt).

One of the ways I manage my stress is do some research on it. Mr. Google and I found a 2011 US study which tracked 30,000 adults over 8 years, showing that the act of thinking about the subject of my stress, impacted my health significantly, and was likely to result in my early demise (my risk of a heart attack increased by 43%!!).

Leaving my husband wasn’t going to kill me, the way I thought about it might though. WYogiLee

The gateway to courage

Could I rewire my view of my stress response to helpful — my body’s way of energizing me to meet my challenge?  What if I saw this stress as a gateway to my heart, to building courage?

A prominent health psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, suggests this is exactly what you need to do, if you wish to build your courage and rise above and beyond the challenges in life.  You can check her out on Youtube

Here are my tips for seeing stress as that gateway for courage:

1. Challenge yourself – be daring

The physical stress response of constricting blood vessels is associated with cardiovascular disease.  This response happens when you think something bad is about to occur.  The opposite happens when something bad does happen.  A 2012 Harvard University study, where participants were asked to participate in a ‘social stress test’ (a psychological test for measuring our resilience), found that when we open ourselves to challenges, blood vessels did not constrict but stayed relaxed, as in moments of joy and courage.  Strangely, taking a leap on something real that is difficult might actually improve your stress response to those imagined problems.

2. Leverage the unfettered access to your heart – meditate

Oxytocin (aka ‘cuddle’ hormone), is produced when you are under stress, which helps your heart cells regenerate and heal.  Stress builds my heart strength – the base of all courage.  Too much stress and then of course, all the other chemicals, like cortisol kick in and there go my adrenals.  So, meditation can help your body and mind manage these negative side affects of stress and also yield insights that have been triggered by that stress.

3. Connect and care for others

Oxytocin is our body’s ‘hug drug’ –  heightens your levels of empathy, causing you to seek support from others.   This stress-driven need to connect improves your decision-making and confidence, because you are ground testing what your next steps are as you hug and cuddle.  Which in turns builds your psychological resilience to ongoing stress.  But the ‘hug’ has to be reciprocated for the benefits.  Don’t think you can do this with a psychopath or narcissist, and get the same results.  I know, I tried.

This science helps me explain my world view of why having a belief and commitment to something makes you live longer and healthier.  Why chasing meaning is better for you than avoiding discomfort.

Energy Balancing and Healing

Energy healing practices activate the body’s subtle energy systems to remove blocks, increase energy or decrease inner tension.

We are emotional, physical, mental and spiritual beings.  That’s a lot of layers for things to get mixed up. For many of us, in fact, most of us, we have ongoing energy ‘issues in the tissues’ as I like to term it.

 How do we find courage when we feel all spent?

My energy healing tools are blended from the Wu-Xing (Five Elements), yoga, meditation quantum physics and the Huna.  I work with you, not on you.  You have all you need – it simply needs to be unlocked.  You will see results from one session.