Our First Mind and My First Post
[TW: This article discusses the need for personal and social media consent-based practices through the use of content and trigger warnings in discussing coronavirus, COVID19, the neuroscience of fear, anxiety, panic and the pandemonium of pandemics.]
Hello. You’ve made it. Welcome. Something in my trigger warnings above spoke to a deep awareness inside of you. Some inner knowing at the marrow of you that has not been lost. Deep down, you’ve known something is off and this is a good, good thing. So, here we are down in our guts. It’s warmer down here than I imagined. They’re now calling our guts our second brain but really it’s the home of our first mind. We have evidence that our guts are part of an intestinal brain network called the enteric nervous system (ENS) and may actually have been developed before the brains in our heads. The ENS also functions somewhat separately from our central nervous and peripheral nervous systems.
Idiomatically, we’ve always been summoned to trust our gut (the seat of our intuition), which is another way of saying ‘Go With Your Gut.’ My mother, a retired high school biology teacher in all of her knowledge and wisdom, always tells me to follow my first mind. She knew all this time. She turned 70 this year.
Our Old First Mind
Housed in the limbic or autonomic nervous system, the amygdala is a brain structure that holds our emotions. It stores memories, learning and is home to what we know as the fright-fight-flight-freeze (or fawn) response. Scientists used to think the amygdala, the reptilian emotional center, was the oldest part of the brain. Stay with me. Take a breath. When humans perceive a threat our autonomic nervous system and the amygdala gets activated. Because of the sophistication of this primal system, we are the evolutionary predecessors of the humans who outran lions. Certain physiological processes are activated when our sensory awareness is heightened and we think we are going to die or are in serious danger. We experience enhanced pupil dilation to improve vision and corresponding appropriate emotions like fear and panic. Other larger biological functioning, like resting and digesting fade into the background. Every process is truncated for maximum performance and efficiency and all bodily functions that promote immediate survival are instantly prioritized.
A Good Friend Tells You To Rest
Right now, more than ever we need one of those biological functions that faded into the background — immune responsiveness. Your body doesn’t need to fight a cold or virus if it’s running from an imminent feline threat, so stress and panic prohibit you from making a counter viral defense, should you incur symptoms.
Remember, at rest, the amygdala stores memories and is actively part of mounting effective immune responses. The amygdala stores memories of survival, too; it helps you to recall what you did the last time you were sick and didn’t die. It stimulates illness anorexic behaviors — slowing you down when you don’t feel well, reducing your caloric intake and expenditure and helps you imagine leaving your desk at work. It supports you in remembering to stop by the grocery store for facial tissue and Vitamin C. You are able to recall if you have lozenges at home or not. Like an old friend, your amygdala beckons you to slow down, hauling you to the couch when you’ve arrived and lulls your body to rest.
Frenetic and constant media availability and engagement perpetuates fear, panic and an over identification with the perception of threat. My university has no active cases of the virus and yet my classes are canceled indefinitely. My daughter’s entire school district is closed for a minimum of six weeks; no active cases in her school, either. My email inbox is bombarded by all of my social and business affiliates being socially and administratively responsive or reactive to the threat. Watchfully in step with local and state governments; it has truly run the gamut here in Seattle. Use of the word emergency permeates our visual and audible landscapes. We become product-hoarding and news-seeking automatons. Crashing stock market performances and work ambiguity heightens our fears of insecurity. When we are in panic mode, we humans adapt with the ability to retain and recite vast amounts of news, information, statistics and tidbits our healthcare working friends offer with high degrees accuracy whether the information is true or not. Information becomes contagious with startlingly high degrees of learnability because our brain accurately associates information retention with survival.
We take and run with the C D C’s recommendations giving us the same precautions we take every year to avoid the flu virus (save for social isolation) and it sounds like brand new information when we’ve just been advised to wash our hands!
This is Your Mind on Wellness
During amygdalin activation, you don’t have access to those memories that connect you to your old and faithful care strategies. You forget how you’ve come to keep yourself well all these years. You can’t recall the voices of your grandmothers and aunties talking about the foods, herbs and roots that kept your people well or those home remedies used treat all manner of illness and dis-ease. You know the ones. You’ve forgotten the smell of their kitchens. You also can’t remember that it’s spring and the pollen count is high. You forget that you cough with your seasonal allergies and normally take an antihistamine. Every year, you typically try to stay hydrated but often feel wiped out and head achey from the sinus pressure. And in your low grade panic, you forgot you wanted to try a tincture of nettles and the netty pot this year, because you read somewhere those may be supportive during allergy season, too. Hopefully, we’re jogging some of those memories. What do we do now?
No Really, Follow Your Gut
The newest iteration of brain science is something called the polyvagal theory. The polyvagal theory is the answer to how we get back to homeostasis after a panic response. It speaks to the time after we’ve climbed up and down the tree, escaped the lion and are walking home. This theory has really become popular through the study of psychosomatics and trauma responses, which are another way that the fright-fight-flight-freeze (fawn) response is activated. The polyvagal theory is rooted in a cranial nerve called the vagus. To sum up the theory, there are chemicals and peripheral vagal nerves that can be stimulated in the body to flow back to the brain through the autonomic system. Stimulation of these chemicals and nerves will actually change and reset the brain’s chemistry and most importantly curtail the perception of threat. This internal set of nerves originate in the medulla of the autonomic nervous system and ends where? Right — your gut. Take another breath here. We have a few places in the body to stimulate this internally-situated nerve system easily — your throat, your chest and your abdomen. Singing, chanting and even gargling are great ways to stimulate this nerve; so keep singing, dancing and making up songs. Deep, slow and sustained exhales support the relaxation response, as well. Dr. Andrew Weil’s 4-7-8 breath exercise works well to slow the exhaled breath to aid this process. More than ever, we need to soothe our nervous systems during this time.
I’m not fashioning a public goodbye announcement from all social media engagement. However, I am going to do more scanning and skipping of unnecessary information and news stories. I am going to turn down the volume (hide posts) of folks who are in complete hysterics. I am going to ask that folks consider using content and trigger warnings on social media so that we may all engage in choice about the information we take in.
In person, I am going to ask people to use a consent-based practice in talking about the virus. I will be saying something like, would you like to hear some new information I have the concerning the current issue? I will ask my friends and family to do the same. I will likely stop people from starting in on the topic with something like, Pardon my interruption; I really appreciate your desire to share knowledge with me, I know it comes from a good place. Do I need this information to prevent my impending or immediate death during our time together? If not, I would ask that you hold onto that information and reflect on how we can best spend our time together. I don’t want all of our time to be infected with this line of conversation. I’ve had my limit for today and I have access to reliable news sources. Thank you. You can decide how best to set this boundary in your own words in a way that works for you.
I am using all of these strategies and more to follow for my liberation. I hope to increase our mental, spiritual, emotional and physical wellness during this time. I sincerely hope you found something useful here, if nothing more than remembering your own trusty but forgotten wellness practices.
May you be deeply well.
Michelle Phillips
Liberation Strategist
Mental & Spiritual Wellness Practitioner
Seattle, WA
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