WHAT IS A STRESSOR?
A stressor is an internal or external threat to homeostasis. According to the Oxford dictionary "A stressor can be defined as anything that disturbs allostatic balance, and the stress response is the body's attempt to reestablish allostasis." Our bodymind has an innate capability of keeping us alive and thriving. Listening to the cues our bodies give us is a missing part of health and happiness. This is where meditation, relaxation, self awareness and self care and the TRAGER APPROACH come in.
Shining the light on the central nervous system helps us understand both the physiological and biological processes of the stress response. Taking into consideration what is happening to our clients in the present moment, addressing good sleep hygiene and stress management are rightfully the first places I assess to find a path toward greater health and well being for my coaching clients. Without adequate sleep and relaxation, our hormonal balance of cortisol and melatonin will be reversed, and our bodies will not recover easily when these are out of balance. Cortisol levels should be a normal high during the day, and melatonin levels high at night. Long term, abnormally high levels of cortisol can be life threatening in the form of chronic illnesses including depression and suicide, cardiac problems, cancer, addictions… you name it, it relates. Chronic illness is tough to beat, but not impossible.
This is relative to a number of my clients at this point who want to lose weight or quit smoking or get off medications, and cannot. Even though they report "I am doing everything right!", there are some unconscious missing pieces. Their frustration is heartbreaking, and my job as a coach is to help them discover these roots that tie them to the past. The key to this is from our early experiences.
Conception, fetal and adverse childhood experiences (ACES) are factors we cannot ignore. Research has shown a direct relationship between chronic disease and early experiences. Watch this Ted Talk to find out more. https://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk .
Together in the coaching session, the client and I discover many underlying mysteries of why a person does not heal when they are seemingly doing "all the right things." The unconscious holding patterns in the bodymind may be revealed when we discover the original relationship between mother/father. The fetus is exposed to all sorts of vibes, from Mozart to violence. In one article I easily found online, the authors reported that "both physical and emotional intermate partner violence (IPV) had negative impacts on the woman and child at one-year after birth, including worse overall health and increased likelihood of depression." “The Impact of Emotional and Physical Violence During Pregnancy on Maternal and Child Health at One Year Post-partum” (2011), by Sarah McMahon, Chien-Chung Huang, Paul Boxer, Judy L. Postmus.
These mysteries are not just psychological, they become physical. Deep psychotherapy is often not enough to ferret out what is real and not real. Using touch and movement, in real time, the present will help the client have a positive safe experience of themselves. This is very healing. If sleep improves, that is very healing, if we encourage better nutrition and support, and they move in these directions, healing will occur. If trauma is buried deep within the unconscious mind, resilience to stressors fails. Hormonal imbalances may turn into medical problems like chronic pain and illness. The key lies deep in the unconscious mind, and the buried experiences are what the client lives with daily, and has adapted to. Changing these patterns is possible with love and support, and sometimes a nurse coach!
Take a moment to breathe deeply and imagine yourself here!
