STORY BYThe man in the leotard and ballet slippers confidently grasps the flexible pole with both hands and steps out onto the high wire. Far below, we crane our necks and hold our breaths as the tight-wire artist walks the distance, turns, jumps even, and finally, climbs back on the platform and down to safety. We sigh collectively and spontaneously applaud.
The feat of balancing with such precision seems unimaginable. What we astonished onlookers might not realize is that all of us are doing much more amazing demonstrations of balance every microsecond of our lives.
All the biological systems of the body work continuously to right imbalances—too much, too little, too fast, too slow. The body gives us prompts as to what we need to do to correct the situation. Thirst alerts us to too much salt in the system. Hunger signals a need for food. Fatigue invites us to rest, tight muscles to exercise. How appropriately we respond to those prompts makes an enormous difference in whether or not we fall off the tight wire of health or safely make it to the other side.
One of the body’s more fascinating balancing acts is the autonomic nervous system. That’s the part of the brain and body that responds automatically to what we experience physically, sensorially, or cognitively. Autonomic balancing refers to the relative dominance of either the sympathetic or parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The sympathetic response is one of arousal and produces the well-known fight-flight response. Too much sympathetic activity can lead to illness and damage to tissues and organ systems.
As humans, we live in our heads more than we live anywhere else. We can activate our sympathetic system by just thinking about stressful events. Whether it’s a real 18-wheeler careening toward you or an imaginary one, your sympathetic alarm sounds and responds.
For instance, most people raise their shoulders the moment they sit in front of a computer and about 30 percent begin to breathe more shallowly, according to Dr. Erik Peper, professor of holistic health at San Francisco State University. He theorizes that computers invoke a low-level fight-or- flight response in many people, triggering an adrenaline rush. This occurs even before the arrival of annoying email or the mysterious crash of a hard drive.
The parasympathetic branch of the ANS is the calming, non-excitatory part. When we feel peaceful, the parasympathetic branch is dominant. Most methods of mind-body medicine that contribute to stress reduction (hypnosis, meditation, biofeedback, yoga, prayer) share a common path of action within the ANS, in that they each foster activity within the parasympathetic branch.
Both the branches of the ANS are always firing. Whether or not we feel relaxed or stressed depends on the dominance of each branch. Stimulation of parasympathetic activity and restoration of parasympathetic dominance can reverse discomfort and symptomatology. When we do those things that help us relax, we are literally shifting the balance of the ANS to ratios that are healing.
Psychologist Reginald Humphreys, after reviewing 6000 of the best articles on the ANS, stress, and mind-body healing has proposed “the autonomic model of consciousness and mind-body medicine” as a new paradigm for conceptualizing physical and emotional/psychological disorders.
As an experienced hypnotherapist, Dr. Humphreys believes that we all have an instinct to alter our consciousness. We know we need to calm down when we get too excited and that we are ready for activity when we’ve been relaxed long enough.
With his co-researcher and author, Kathleen P. Eagan, M.S., Dr. Humphreys has proposed a list of “stimulation/excitement” versus “healing/restoring” trances. (For a complete chart and detailed discussion of the trances, see www.DailyTrances.com). An example from their chart is the “excitement trance” of anger, aggression, competition, conflict, and fear being balanced by love, healing, reconciliation or sympathy. The scientific literature, religious teachings, and folk wisdom all tell us that the latter trance is the antidote for the former. But what Humphreys and Eagan propose is looking at what actually is happening in the ANS to restore balance and a parasympathetic response when we turn anger into forgiveness.
One barrier to establishing autonomic balance is that people get addicted to feeling a certain way. There are sympathophiles and parasympathophobes who simply don’t like how it feels to slow down. They may be uncomfortable with the consequences of the sympathetic dominance (tight muscles, hypertension, irritability or anxiety) but feel bored, useless, “not on the edge” with parasympathetic dominance (calm, non-motoric, peaceful.) Just sitting still, gazing at the mountains or ocean, produces restlessness—not relaxation—for these folks.
Adrenaline is addictive. In breaking any type of addiction, motivation is the first requirement. High-achieving, hard-driving performers may be motivated only when something in the body fails, like the heart. (Staying alive is a rather powerful motivator for most people.)
Like it or not, patients recovering from heart attacks or by-pass surgery undertake lifestyle and cognitive changes that increase the parasympathetic dominance in their ANS. If not, they risk shortening their life expectancy.
The good news is that balancing the ANS doesn’t require major life changes.
All these micro-adjustments help the parasympathetic branch take dominance. But these tiny shifts in balance must be done regularly. A day at the spa may be fun as well as relaxing, but compartmentalizing relaxation into blocks of time—a binge-and-purge approach to stress management—doesn’t allow the continuous rebalancing our ANS requires for optimal functioning.
Researchers have pegged stress resistance to a single quality: resilience. People who handle stress well recover quickly—physically and mentally—when confronted by it. They shift easily in and out of the “stress mode” throughout the day. In other words, they keep readjusting their minds and bodies so that the parasympathetic branch is dominant.
Actually, research on the ANS supports this style of resilience. The higher the activity in the parasympathetic branch, the higher the levels of the sympathetic response can be tolerated. In other words, the more relaxed you are, the more you can tolerate high levels of stress.
For some people, stress recovery is easy. They probably watched their parents handle stress with optimism and resilience that they modeled. Some people just come into the world that way. Others are more serious, even as babies and toddlers. But we all come equipped with the ability to balance our autonomic nervous systems and the need to keep the balance in the right proportions for health and joy.
Being as focused on the moment as the high-wire walker will allow you to shift the ANS and use the autonomic model of consciousness and mind-body medicine to give you balance in even the most challenging walks of your life.
UPDATED: 7-26-2005
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Dr. Blair Justice is professor emeritus of psychology at UT School of Public Health and the author of several books. His wife, Dr. Rita Justice is a psychologist in private practice in Houston.
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Microwaves and 'Erupted Hot Water Phenomena'
Hot-water eruption can occur if you use a microwave oven to super-heat water in a clean cup. ("Super-heated" means the water is hot beyond boiling temperature, although it shows no signs of boiling.)
A slight disturbance or movement may cause the water to violently explode out of the cup. There have been reports of serious skin burns or scalding injuries around people's hands and faces as a result of this phenomenon.
Adding materials such as instant coffee or sugar to the water before heating greatly reduces the risk of hot-water eruption. Also, follow the precautions and recommendations found in microwave oven instruction manuals; specifically the heating time.
