Experts for WomanSage

By Kathy Laurenhue
www.wisernow.com

A couple of years ago, I came across a brief article by Tom Staverosky which suggested the body has two brains – the one in our heads and the hidden one in our stomachs. When you have butterflies in your stomach or acid rising in your esophagus, it is often related to thoughts or fears your head brain is trying to suppress. There are scientific explanations for the physiological reactions to stress, but the author’s point was that what we feel in our gut is an accurate assessment of the things we need to be paying attention to.

As caregivers, we know this intellectually – in our head brain – but can’t figure out how to actually find time for exercises to soothe the gut brain. Furthermore, many of us have heard frightening admonishments about the need to keep our minds active in order to keep them from deteriorating as we age. Brain exercise systems abound, but for many the idea of constantly testing their brain age seems only to add more acid to their gut brains.

There is no doubt that current life presents innumerable causes for stress. If you are a caregiver, you have responsibilities you hadn’t anticipated, wish you didn’t have to face and aren’t sure you have the stamina to overcome. Can you really reduce your anxiety when you have good cause for it? Yes, actually.

It IS important to keep your mind active, but you can both stimulate your head brain and soothe your gut brain, if you take time each day for an activity you love. Is gardening your thing? Getting outdoors even for an odious task like pulling weeds is a proven stress-reliever for people who love gardening. If you can’t get outdoors because you’re spending hours in a doctor’s waiting room, bring along a gardening magazine. When you read about something you enjoy, you are expanding your brain knowledge and time flows. When time flows, you are relaxed, and relaxed learners learn more.

But notice that the key here is to do something you love. If gardening is NOT your thing, chances are great that it won’t be soothing. Think about what makes time fly for you – playing an instrument, listening to music, a game of tennis, genealogy, stamp collecting, knitting – anything you love presents opportunities for you to stretch your mind and learn more, while also calming those butterflies in your stomach. Interestingly, you don’t have to spend hours doing something you love to feel the stress relief. Often a five or 10-minute break is enough to help us return refreshed to more difficult tasks. It’s like putting more air into a depleted balloon. (And adding more oxygen to our brains – through a soothing break, physical exercise, singing or laughing –helps us think more clearly.)

Exercise systems that test your brain knowledge and attempt to decrease your response time have their place, but for people whose egos are fragile, time is precious and stress levels are already high, such systems can further threaten self-esteem that is already deflated. Don’t buy into that “ought to.” If doing a daily crossword puzzle is something you love, by all means do it. If the very thought of attempting it makes your palms sweat, choose another activity.

Doing what you love is about using your unique talents. If you love gardening, chances are you have a natural affinity for it. To substitute something that is a chore – like crossword puzzles – would be like sending someone like Placido Domingo to college to study chemistry. A travesty. And if you love something and aren’t good at it, don’t worry. The woods would be silent if only the birds who sang best sang at all.

What do you think?
• What is your gut brain telling you to pay attention to?
• What would refresh you?
• What do you love to do?
• How does doing what you love boost your self-esteem? How does doing what you dislike threaten it?
• How can you incorporate bits of what you love into full days?