The Rest and digest is a definition for our Parasympathetic nervous system response. I am sure you can be more familiar with the Fight or Flight definition for our Sympathetic nervous system response.
Read it again. Does anybody ring a bell? The fact that we are more familiar with Fight or Flight definition says everything. How to rebalance? Well, the answer is just above. And no wonder we are exposed to many stress stimuli as society and individually. When Fight or Flight, then Rest and Digest. What does that mean on our physical level?
Stress is a toxic friend.
When Rest and Digest, the bloodstream flows to the internal organs, reduces our heart rate, and slows us down. It rebalances the Fight or Flight response after a stress stimulus. The Fight or Flight floods our body with adrenalin, increasing blood flow to our limbs, increases heart rate, narrows our focus, and keeps us alert.
Do you feel stressed or relaxed? If you feel stressed, from 1 to 10 where would you find yourself if 10 is the highest? And another important question is do you feel more often stressed or relaxed over a longer period of time?
Now, what does that mean on our mental level? The fight or flight is an actual reaction rather than a response. The body doesn't divide between actual danger and our stressing thoughts. The mind plays the main part of our stress. When there is no actual danger and the mind plays a huge factor in our current stress level, it causes the same physical reaction of our body. The body produces adrenalin, floods our limbs with blood, increases heart rate, narrows our focus to keep us alert. Imagine, that you have finished your work, you're home back from work, where you've been given with difficult task. And now you are back home and having dinner and you still think of the work task and stress yourself out. Instead, to send the blood to the internal organs and digest, you actually fight or flight while eating, which leads to poorer digestion and this may lead to other diseases, also serious.
When somebody says you "Let it go" there is the ultimate truth. Let it go in my view has many synonymous like, do what you love to do and make you happy, spend time with people you love, connection with others make us happy, help others make us happy, compassion, empathy, do sport, practice mindfulness, do yoga, meditation, choose happy thoughts, breathe, focus on the good things and forget about the rest, at least few moments a day, most importantly when you eat, when you need to sleep, then while you draw attention to something different it just increases and with that, we relax and digest well and sleep well and when we pay attention how it feels when we feel good then we ultimately can take our power back of choosing the good thoughts. It is like a muscle, it needs to be trained.
Just a few minutes a day of meaningful activity, or mindfulness itself make a huge difference in our body homeostasis. During those few minutes, you give yourself a break and it's just like drink a magic potion without any side effects. And when repeated frequently, we can reteach our body to respond rather than react. We'll feel more energy, and we'll feel like we can do always better and that we can make a change for the better and contribute against the causes of the stress stimuli and make the world better place. It's our home.
Connection with others make us happy, it make us feel we belong.
And I mean com'on...ultimately what a better reason to stay healthy is to do what you like to do and make you happy, and just for few minutes a day?
Let's say aloud "Rest and digest" on repeat, let's make it our new mantra...
