Fun With Stress 1.1
Introduction
&
Memory, Labeling and Buttonization
Reading time: 7 minutes
Owl image & Mandala image: GDJ. Composition: Erik Stout.
“A human being is part of the whole we call ‘Universe,’ and part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical illusion of our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein
“Simple in thinking and doing,
We return to the ground of being.
Patience with both friends and enemies,
We accord with the way things are.
Compassion with ourselves,
We unite every being in the world.”
Lao Tzu
Introduction
‘Fun With Stress’ means that we’re going to play with the concept of stress as if it’s the most enchanting object of study we’ve ever run into. Our starting point is the hypothesis that as soon as understanding grows about an object with such a big daily impact on so many of us, it’s grip diminishes which opens the door to relaxation, restoring equilibrium and change our basic state of being from anxious to joyful. Because the more we can form ideas on how something works, the less frightening it becomes.
The birth of our settled, agricultural, (and later industrial and technological) societies came with an unexpected afterbirth in the form of social anxiety; a state in which most of us still dwell, albeit mostly unconscious. Yet this constant undercurrent of fear determines a big part of our thinking, feeling and behaving, and harbours the potential of chronic stress, which harbours the potential of developing into mental and/or physical illnesses.[1]
Moreover a basic undercurrent of anxiety diminishes our experience of life dramatically. When we get into a desired situation, we want it to go on forever and worry about when it will end, and if we get into an undesired situation we want it to be over as soon as possible and blame someone or other for putting us there in the first place. In both cases part of our available energy is wasted on worrying and/or blaming; features which by nature have to do with future or past instead of dealing with that moment where our lives actually play out: the present.
With joyfulness as a basic undercurrent we still get into desired and undesired situations, but the big difference lies in its nature of having to do with the present moment, and hence there is absence of worry and blame. When desired situations happen while our basic state of being is joyful, all our energy is used for the enjoyment of whatever is happening now. Subsequently when undesired situations happen, all our energy is used for their acceptance without energy wastage on worry, blame or shame. This series of blogposts is meant for those who are interested in such a change of perception and basic state of being.
As a means we’re going to put ourselves smack in the middle as the vehicle through which our object of investigation can be studied, since most of us know what it’s like to feel stressed through personal experience (which, to this day, is the most effective learning method available to us). We get triggered into a stress response when our buttons are pushed – which is done by anything we call input. The stress response will then cause changes to occur in our thinking, feeling, and behaviour, which in this study we call output.
The first part of this study will concentrate on the different forms of input and how strongly they can push our buttons. We’re going to elaborate on the development of memory, buttons, and personal meaning; distinguish between physical and mental input; and close off with creating different input levels.
The second part will concentrate on various physiological effects (output) of the stress response, particularly in cases of chronic stress.[2] Because what happens inside our bodies after our buttons have been pushed? We will investigate, among other things, the power plant function of our digestive system; the repair, army and secret service functions of our immune system; the information processing and ‘orchestra conductor’ functions of our brain; and the burglar alarm function of our nervous system.
The goal is that we obtain knowledge of what happens inside our body every time our buttons are pushed, which triggers our stress response. We will see that this response is a highly skilled defence mechanism with the potential of getting us out of harm’s way. However, if the system gets overworked due to continuous pushing of our buttons, it begins to falter. Moreover, particularly the systems we need for replenishment and recovery then also begin to falter. We’re going to investigate how that works, how we can perceive that in our body and how the tide can be turned.
In order to paint easy understandable pictures of how stress manifests itself in us, we will make use of relatable, everyday occurrences. Furthermore for the purpose of communication it’s necessary to distinguish mind from body, brain from heart and input from output. However I’d like to stress (pun intended) to stay aware that even though we distinguish brain from heart for instance, they are mutually interdependent; they need each other in order to exist. They arise, grow and develop together as we grow in moms belly, and in that sense they are a part of our whole being, just as we are part of the planet earth as a whole being, just as the earth is a part of the universe as a whole being. May this be a small step in the broadening of our understanding, perception and awareness.
I wish you jolly studying, may it shine some light on hitherto dark places of our selves.
Erik Stout
Image: Placidplace
Memory, Labeling and Buttonization
Every time an experience is being stored in our memory, it is instantaneously labelled. Depending on the experience, labels can say “Great, let’s do that again!” or “Terrible, never again!” and this labelling happens for the most part without us being consciously aware of it. The following remarkable story was told by a client who was then living in Amsterdam for a little over two years (for privacy purposes the name has been changed).
Farid was a young man from Syria, who had left the war and his family in search of a better life. In Syria he encountered lots of war casualties laying on the side of the road, which ultimately affected him in ways he couldn’t have imagined. When he came to see me he lived in Amsterdam, where dead people hadn’t been part of the public space for a long time. However, he was oftentimes still reminded of the war situation in a less obvious way.
Next to the entrance of his apartment building stood a garbage container from a restaurant. Many times as he walked by, the waste smelled almost exactly as the familiar odour of corpses, but he didn’t realize this until we spoke about the pathways that are being created in the brain during traumatic experiences – i.e. the creation of memory and, more particularly, of buttons.
Just like an encounter with a predator would push our anxiety buttons and start a stress response in order to protect ourselves, so do encounters with war situations and casualties. It’s quite obvious that when bullets are flying around everywhere and the proof of their effectiveness is being seen and smelled at every street corner, our brain with its innate tendency to protect will store all possible sensory information as big buttons in memory. Every time a sight, sound, or smell is being perceived that even slightly resembles those from the war situation, Farid’s buttons will be pushed to start the stress response in order to find shelter.
Ultimately what happened was that every time the particular odour entered his nose, that button was being pushed. The inevitable stress response then caused his heartrate to increase dramatically and he tensed up completely due to heavy contraction of his skeletal muscles, basically ‘bracing him for impact’. Both these physiological changes he felt quite clearly, but consciously he had no idea why they occurred. That was because the smell was experienced in a completely different context than when it was stored as memory and made into a button.
Information from the outside world enters through our senses. Every sight, sound, touch, smell and taste that Farid experienced in the war situation was stored and ‘buttonized’ in his memory and provided with labels such as “Avoid at all cost!” In this way we could say that he was being programmed to either avoid warlike environments or seek shelter if he were to ever encounter one again.
When in Amsterdam an odour similar to that of the corpses back home entered his nose, he physically tensed up but consciously didn’t make the connection between the smell and the war, because he was in an environment where no public fighting was taking place. Yet if the smell would have entered his nose while at the same time a helicopter flew over and some loud bangs from fireworks were heard, chances were good that his upcoming thoughts would have been something along the lines of, “Holy crap, where’s the bombs?!” Subsequently he might have collapsed and be looking for a place to hide. Only when he realizes again he’s in Amsterdam will his tension drop, and he’ll probably laugh at himself for acting silly.
Now imagine that Farid invites David over to his house for dinner. They are about to enter the apartment building when a helicopter flies over and loud bangs from fireworks are heard. All of a sudden David sees a hole in the air next to him where Farid had been standing. Then he sees him collapsed on the floor and looking anxiously. Assuming that David has never been in a hostile or warlike environment before, his brain will label the smell from the garbage container and sounds from the helicopter and fireworks much different than Farid’s. To David the smell might just represent everyday waste, the helicopter sound might remind him of a helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon, and the bangs of an awesome new year’s celebration. The input is the same, but their brains label it differently, creating a completely different meaning.
In the next blogpost of this series we are going to investigate how personal meaning is created out of the infinite amounts of input we absorb every single moment. For now,
Jolly greetings,
Erik Stout
[1] See Robert M. Sapolsky - Why Zebras Don’t Have Ulcers; Gabor Maté - When The Body Says No; Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps The Score.
[2] We cannot avoid also discussing certain psychological effects of the stress response, but the focus in this study is particularly on physiology – the effects of the stress response in our body.