How are you coping with living through a global pandemic? How are you caring for yourself and those around you?
If you’re scared- that’s normal. It’s normal to be scared in a time when nothing is normal!
If you’re worried about money, health, and not having your routine in all of this uncertainty– that’s normal too!
It’s normal to be scared in a global pandemic.
But stress impacts our nervous system and our immune system.
So we need to boost our immune system!
We have two parts to our autonomic nervous system: Sympathetic and Para-Sympathetic.
The sympathetic AKA our fight-or-flight nervous system, is for primal survival, equipping our mind/body to react to danger.
When we are in fight or flight we are flooded with stress hormones.
Our digestion shuts down, and we increase blood and oxygen to the heart, brain, and lungs to flee.
Blood pressure rises and breathing becomes shallow.
Fear suppresses the immune system.
Stress over time can begin shutting down other systems of the body.
Thankfully, we also have the para-sympathetic, AKA the rest-and-digest response.
The largest cranial nerve of the body, the vagus nerve, innervates from the brain stem to the chest and abdomen.
When we stimulate the vagus nerve, we tap into the rest-and-digest response.
The heart rate decreases, blood pressure normalizes, breathing is deeper, stress hormones are reduced, and happy hormone production is initiated (promoting sleep, focus, and happier emotions).
There are simple methods and lifestyle choices we can make to support our own immunity.
We can consciously pull ourselves out of a state of reaction, take back our own power, and ask ourselves what does my mind/body need in this moment to support rest-and-digest?
Here are 7 things you can do to activate your rest and digest response and stay healthy.
– Breathe- Take in a deep breath from the belly, in through the nose while expanding the belly and bringing oxygen up to the lungs. Then gently exhale through the mouth.
-Meditate- Take time to sit and be still. Be a human being. Not a human doing. Here’s a 25 minute video I made for you to help relax and meditate.
and check out the offering for Mid-Day Meditation for only $10 a week below.
-Exercise – find a way to get 30 minutes of exercise every day. I’m taking masked walks in my neighborhood. Not like the ones I took in Venice with the cool Mardi Gras masks, but hey we’re in Corona Times and you gotta do what ya gotta do. I’m also dancing in my living room alone or on zoom with friends.
-Sleep – Go to sleep. We need sleep to rest and re-set. So watch your caffeine and screen intake. Drink less caffeine and start winding down from screens an hour before bed. Try reading an old-fashioned book to help you fall asleep. And please, do not read the news before bed. Do that in the early part of the day if you must.
–Eat more plants- Stay green and clean. Eat live foods. You will feel better and stay healthy and that’s what this is all about.
-Connect with your senses- Listen to the birds. Join the sound bath on Sunday. Take a bath. Spray some essential oils. Smell the flowers. You can still smell them through your mask. 🙂 Stay grounded in your body.
-Hydrate- Drink lots of water . I’m drinking tea and warm water constantly. Reusing those tea bags in corona times saves money and means I don’t have to go to the store for more.
Mid-Day Meditation with Dr. Davina
(12:00 PM PST/1:00 PM MT/2:00 PM CST/3:00 PM EST)
We do a brief check in, followed by a centering, then meditate together, and close out with an affirmative grounding prayer.
- all levels welcome
- from the comfort of your home
- develop self-soothing skills
- relieve stress & anxiety
- regain clarity & perspective
$10 per week | join as a family or group
Register now and receive a link you can click from your computer or phone.