A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.
Credit: Michel de Montaigne
There are real dangers in the world. But you have a choice about how you respond to them. To stop being prey, you need to let go of beliefs that reinforce your view of the world as predatory. Once you understand that it is your beliefs that cause stress and not people or situations “out there,” you will be able to live in harmony with the world around you instead of feeling as if you’re trapped forever in a combat zone. The emotional stress we experience in everyday life is often the result of our limiting beliefs and an overactive fight-or-flight response.
LIMITING BELIEFS
Our assumptions about the world can cause emotional stress in ways we aren’t aware of. Limiting beliefs have nothing to do with IQ or education and everything to do with early life experiences that shape our worldview, which the brain’s ever-efficient yet unconscious neural networks interpret as reality. It sometimes seems as if the more knowledgeable experts are, the more likely they are to be blinded by their beliefs.
In forming an opinion, we give weight to facts that fit with our beliefs and readily dismiss those that don’t.
From television and the Internet alone, we’re exposed to more stimuli in a week than our Paleolithic ancestors were exposed to in a lifetime. And we’re continually running to keep up with new information, to the point that we’re chronically exhausted. I can’t count how many times I have heard someone say, “If it weren’t for caffeine, I wouldn’t get anything done!” Nature designed the brain to deal with only one lion roaring at us at a time, not the entire jungle turning against us. Now, however, our brain is too overtaxed to spend time sorting through all the data, much less looking at it with fresh eyes and deciding what is or is not a crisis, and what, if anything, needs to be done about it.
The more damaged the hippocampus is by stress and toxins, the closer and more threatening the danger seems to be.
the HPA axis doesn’t just control our responses to danger; it’s also involved in regulating digestion, mood, sexuality, energy storage, and the immune system—which makes compromising it all the more life threatening.
The hippocampus is rich in cortisol receptors, and when the adrenal gland floods the system with cortisol in response to stress, it can damage the hippocampus. But by nourishing the brain with omega-3 fatty acids, you can repair the hippocampus and reset the fight-or-flight response. In as little as six weeks of taking omega-3s, you can begin to see beauty where you saw only ugliness and sense opportunity where you perceived only danger. The hippocampus repairs quickly, and when you stop feeding your brain adrenaline and caffeine, you start to free yourself from the negative effects of stress.
When the fight-or-flight system is quiet, the alchemical laboratory in the pineal gland begins to assemble endogenous psychedelics that flood the brain, creating states of joy, bliss, and communion. The brain cannot manufacture the molecules for fear and stress and produce the psychedelics for bliss at the same time. It’s either one or the other.
It’s essential to stop taking in so much stimulation and consciously build in downtime—minutes, hours, even days free of mental and emotional drama. Meditating, immersing yourself fully in a pleasurable activity, or simply spending time in nature can be great stress relievers. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, you can stop and take a few deep breaths.
In the West we’re clever at managing information by specializing. A physician may know about the gastrointestinal tract in exhaustive detail but be clueless when it comes to human emotions. Psychologists treating patients for depression or anxiety almost never think to ask about GI problems, even though many mood disorders originate in the gut. We practice medicine by geography, with doctors specializing in hearts or brains or bones or colons but seldom putting it all together into a holistic view of the patient’s wellness.
Damaged mitochondria reproduce more quickly than healthy ones and feed only on sugars, unlike healthy mitochondria, which are also able to feed on fats. Because cancer cells, with their deficient mitochondria, feed on sugars, scientists see reducing or eliminating dietary carbs as an effective means of fighting and preventing cancer.
When mitochondria are damaged, your metabolism slows. Your body no longer remembers how to burn fat, and you can’t lose weight. The fat stores in your body become repositories for toxins. You’re likely to feel moody, fatigued, and generally unwell. With big dips in energy, you’re more likely to reach for a quick fix like a power bar, which only exacerbates the problem by feeding the sugar-hungry bacteria in your gut and raising your blood-sugar levels. Inflammation results, oxidative stress worsens, and more mitochondria are damaged. As programmed cell death stops working properly, defective mitochondria accumulate inside the cells, accelerating aging. Damaged cells grow uncontrollably, forming tumors. Brain cells begin to age or die off, damaging regions of the brain. When the apoptosis death clock isn’t functioning properly, you compromise your health span and shorten your life span.
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