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do this will allow you to harness the energy seeping through the cracks and transform it into |
excitement and power that you can reroute to your advantage |
If you had to point to places in your body and say My anxiety exists in the pain feel |
here where would you point Do you think it is possible to rehabilitate that area think it is |
Do you think it involves muscles that can be contracted think it does As Chapter discussed |
you can heal your chakras by bringing them to fatigue Holding the muscles involved in a firm |
sustained contraction for several seconds will exhaust them If you are relaxed and breathing |
diaphragmatically muscular exhaustion leads to recuperation |
The chakralike modules are pots that are boiling over leaking everywhere People |
engaging in tension management try to put a lid on the pot but find themselves constantly |
cleaning up the spillage The exercises in this book take another route Instead of trying to |
cover up the spills or hide them they turn down the heat on the stove so that you can exhibit |
grace under pressure |
Even Sea Slugs Take on Trauma |
One of Earths simplest animals provides a great model for trauma The sea slug Aplysia |
californica is a large shellless sea snail The Aplysia has a defensive reflex to protect its |
respiratory organs from damage When the area around its gill is touched the animal retracts |
the gill up into the bulk of its body The response is so simple and reliable that neuroscientists |
have used it to study the cellular basis of protective reflexes |
Chapter Persistent Adaptation to Chronic Stress |
In neuroscientist Eric Kandel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine |
for his research on these animals He decided to use the sea slug in his experiments because it |
has very large neurons and there are only about twenty thousand of them Contrast this with |
the one million neurons in a cockroach or honeybee and the billion neurons in the human |
brain This simplicity however is no barrier to effective function The slugs are more than |
capable of learning carefully about when and how much to retract their gills and thanks to |
Kandels work we have a clear understanding of the neural mechanisms involved |
The Aplysias gill retraction reflex exhibits a phenomencn called sensitization whereby the |
reflex can be strengthened by adding a painful stimulus By shocking the animal with a small |
amount of electricity experimenters cause it to startle Pairing the shock with a touch to its gill |
can make its natural defensive response much more powerful Sea slugs trained this way are |
constantly on guard withdrawing their gills more forcefully and for up to four times as long |
when touched This change occurs because the slugs on high alert have generalized the |
negative experience of the shock to other stimuli so that even a benign light touch elicits a |
powerful withdrawal |
Illustration A Sea slug Aplysia californica B Aplysia with gill fully relaxed C Aplysia with gill fully retracted |
You could say the muscles and nerves involved in retracting the gill constitute a chakra |
This is similar to how humans come to hold tension in muscles all over their bodies overreact |
to unthreatening stimuli and generalize traumatic experiences to everyday life The Aplysias |
gill retraction reflex is analogous to the reflexes responsible for a wide range of submissive |
displays from our squinting eyes to our hoarse voices from our suppressed sexuality to our |
tense diaphragms The only real difference is that the sea slugs are traumatized by actual |
painful stimuli whereas most of our trauma comes from the way we interpret social |
competition |
The good news here is that the Aplysia can very easily be desensitized and so can we |
When the slug is touched lightly and repeatedly without being shocked there is a progressive |
decrease in how far it retracts its gill Gradually it relearns that there is no risk associated with |
light touching and it becomes able to relax Such a decreased reaction to a stimulus is known as |
desensitization or habituation Slugs cannot heal their own chakras in this way However by |
simulating an optimal environment through relaxed diaphragmatic breathing and using the |
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body |
right mindset we can Rather than researchers prodding us with electrodes we have social |
contacts prodding us with provocation This book will teach you how to desensitize your |
chakralike modules to their competitive attacks |
Stress and Competition in the Dominance Hierarchy |
Since the discovery of the pecking order among hens by SchjelderupEbbe in status |
hierarchy has been understood as the predominant form of social organization in vertebrates |
Animals that live in social communities must actively compete in the same space for resources |
When food mates or territory are disputed dominant individuals will prevail over |
subordinates Interestingly a tiered social system helps the group become stable and viable |
over the long term On average it is beneficial for each member even for those of the lowest |
ranks This is because it minimizes violent competition over resources by defining the |
relationships among members Dominance hierarchies improve reproductive fitness for all the |
animals involved by discouraging physical fighting thereby saving time and energy and reducing |
the risk of injury |
Unfortunately a stable hierarchy necessitates constant signaling Many mammals send out |
submissive signals even before any direct confrontation occurs For instance the subordinate |
dog will often whimper and place its tail between its legs in response to an immediate threat |
Even in the absence of any threat it will carry its head low tremble slightly and adopt a |
restricted tail posture all the time |
In primates being harassed or subjugated by higherranking individuals even without any |
physical contact is the major form of stress for many species But it is not just being |
dominated that is stressful It is the compensatory response Submissive displays activate the |
bodys sympathetic nervous system and create continuous strain on the muscles and organs |
responsible for them |
Chronic Submission Turns into Social Defeat |
Most animals have a nearly equal propensity to display dominant and submissive displays in |
infancy and young mammals often use both interchangeably in bouts of play However as the |
animal matures one of the two types of display becomes more frequent and more |
pronounced Their experiences with victory and defeat drive this shift The term social defeat |
refers to losing a confrontation or dispute with a member of your species This happens |
constantly in the wild The more frequently you feel defeated the stronger your submissive |
signaling becomes It is anticipatory and preemptive Animals that lose repeatedly exhibit |
chronic subordination wearing the extent of their social defeat on their sleeves to advertise |
their place in the hierarchy |
Cricket fighting is a popular pastime in China and provides a perfect example of social |
defeat A cricket loses a match if it is thrown from the ring runs away from a battle or avoids |
contact Studies have found that after just one loss a cricket can lose its fighting spirit and |
will only fight again one time out of ten Rather than engaging in actual combat the insect will |
simply flee the next time it is approached without even taking the time to size up its opponent |
Other examples are just as dramatic In experiments with mammals the resident |
intruder paradigm is often used This involves placing a subordinate rat near the cage of a |
more dominant one Inevitably the dominant rat will make a dominance display resulting in |
Chapter Persistent Adaptation to Chronic Stress |
the subordinate animal being threatened and acting defeated Sometimes the submissive rat is |
placed inside the dominant rats cage which leads to the intruder being attacked and forced |
into submission Because the cage is small and escape is impossible the intruder will lie on its |
back emitting distress calls and freezing behavior to appease the attacker In both |
experimental protocols the submitting animals physiology is significantly changed |
Social defeat is a source of chronic stress in animals capable of affecting both neuro and |
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