The Body Doesn't Lie by Vicky Vlachonis Read Free Book Online Page B

and enjoy the fruits of our labor. (Gilbert calls this the “contentment” system.)
    In a perfectly balanced system, the activity level in a person’s sympathetic and parasympathetic systems would be just about equal. But in our stressed-out world, the dominant system is the sympathetic system. In fact, the response of our PNS, the so-called relaxation response, is swamped by the overpowering charge of the SNS if the latter is engaged too often. We must consciously slow down and breathe deeply in order to support our little-engine-that-could PNS.
    Think about the overstressed executive. The multitasking mother. The recently divorced job seeker. The caretaker of aging parents. All of whom have barely enough time to tie their shoes, let alone wedge in self-care and relaxation.
    While some people can maintain a naturally placid demeanor no matter what, and take time to decompress every day, most of my patients tend toward a perpetually keyed-up state of nervousness, sickness, and inflammation. I can feel differences in the reactiveness and the chaos of their nervous systems under my hands on the treatment table. Some people’s energy nearly leaps out from their skin.
    When you consider how many factors go into the functioning of the nervous system, it’s no wonder that the potential for breakdown is so great. The strong and resilient functioning of the Adaptive Response depends on the various subsystems cooperating and communicating easily and smoothly. If you’ve been taking care of yourself and all of those subsystems speak well with one another, chances are your body will react to stress with the Adaptive Response—learning, adapting, growing stronger because of the stress. You’ll remain in Positive Feedback and be able to bounce back quickly. But if your body is in a generally weakened state of Negative Feedback, any stress will likely trigger the Maladaptive Response, 19 causing you to move further into the negative, increasing inflammation and pain, weakening muscles, releasing extra stress hormones, and increasing insulin resistance. Whether your body treats an intense challenge as a breakdown or a breakthrough depends on where you are on the Negative/Positive Feedback continuum.
    As we age, unless we’re vigilant about doing everything we can to keep our body in Positive Feedback, our brain becomes less and less resilient in the face of these SNS/PNS swings. The very thoughts and experiences that rumble through our brain impact the structure and function of the brain itself; and with repeated stresses, we start to lose the capacity to regulate the Adaptive Response. The stress hormones coursing through our body interact with the weaker aspects of our genetic material and essentially age us. And that, my friend, is the ultimate legacy of a lifetime spent in Negative Feedback: premature aging.
    Any of the conditions listed below can trigger, perpetuate, or be caused by Negative Feedback:
An acute injury that was not well managed
A deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids
Emotional eating
Environmental allergens
Fear/amygdala overdrive
Food intolerances/sensitivities
Insulin resistance
Lack of exercise/movement
Leaky gut syndrome
Obesity/toxic visceral fat
Poor diet—one high in dairy, sugars, white-flour carbs, and processed foods (especially sodas, baked goods, pasta, fast foods)
Smoking
Unchecked addictions
Unmanaged stress (both positive and negative)
Unrelenting sadness
Unresolved childhood trauma
Vitamin D deficiency (caused by lack of time in the sun)
Weak muscular or skeletal health
    The amazing truth about the strength and nature of our individual stress response: Attitude really is everything. While most of their activities are involuntary, the SNS and the PNS are heavily, continuously influenced by thoughts. Every thought that goes through your head runs through this interconnected system and interacts with your body on a cellular level. You react to this information physically, sucking in oxygen, burning up