Fear, Stress, and Mindfulness

These kinds of short-term stresses are our physical and emotional tigers and have stayed with us through evolution. We release these stress chemicals when someone cuts us off on the highway and when our Type A personality kicks into overdrive. When the threat disappears, we can relax. Our brain calls off its red alert. Our sympathetic nervous system slows. Our parasympathetic nervous system resumes its maintenance functions. 

But there are also long-term stresses that may damage the brain and the immune system over time. This happens when our brains remain on orange alert, when we feel helpless, perhaps when we have been ill and when worry and grief consume us. When that happens, we release another set of hormones, the best studied of which is called cortisol. We release this hormone from the cortical (outer shell portion) of our adrenal glands and pump it into our bloodstream. 

As mentioned above, just as stress is associated with one set of physical reactions, relaxation is associated with another. The systems in our body affected by stress return to their normal state. If you feel chronically stressed or anxious or fearful, it is especially important that you use well-established methods to induce the relaxation response. There are a number of techniques available, as you will see. In Marlene s case, she had to first realize how deeply she was hurting. 

The facilitator looked at the emaciated young woman, her bald head wrapped in a yellow bandana. You can do this, I know you can. Look at what you ve been through already, he said. It was true. Marlene had undergone surgery for a particularly aggressive form of cancer, endured chemotherapy, and soon faced weeks of radiation treatments. 

But this was different. Here she was on a chilly morning, literally walking a plank, the tip of which hung over a mountain cliff high above the mist-capped evergreens of Malibu, California. Were she to fall, she would tumble hundreds of feetto her death. Marlene sobbed, scared out of her wits. 

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Panic attack— An extreme physical response to stress and fear. Symptoms include shortness of breath, increased heart rate, chest pain, dizziness, choking sensations, numbness or tingling, hot/cold flashes, sweating, trembling, and nausea. Victims of these episodes feel an intense fear that can be better characterized as terror, often of losing control of their body and/or mind, and thoughts of death. 

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