Learn to calm your mind to help heal YOUR BODY
THERE’S no doubt these are horribly stressful times and it probably doesn’t help when I say that chronic stress has a direct and damaging effect on the immune system.
The problem is that stress can boost levels of the hormone cortisol, which worsens chronic inflammation throughout the body. It also reduces the number of white blood cell (lymphocytes) your immune system uses to help fight off infection.
Fortunately, all the lifestyle changes I’ve outlined this week from losing weight, adopting a Mediterranean-based diet and boosting your population of ‘good’ gut bacteria, to getting great sleep will help to reduce your stress levels.
But there are other great research-backed steps you can take to reduce stress, and in so doing, lift a little pressure from your embattled immune system.
Routine is really important for mental health. If you don’t have structure to your day, it’s very easy to get sucked into spending too much time listening to the news or following the latest developments online, which isn’t healthy.
Each day, my wife Clare and I follow a routine of getting up about 7am, similar to our pre-lockdown routine. We run through a series of strength-building exercises, such as press-ups and squats, and then we ease ourselves into a regular daily mindfulness meditation.
Being at home and worrying about work or health is very stressful. This is why we eat a Mediterranean-style diet (which has been shown in numerous trials to reduce anxiety and depression) and why we also spend about 15 minutes a day practising mindfulness.
Mor INDFULNESS spooky, it is just isn’t a weird question of building awareness and achieving a state of calm. This is what I do: Sit up your straight, attention close your to eyes your and breath, bring focusing on your chest rising and your lungs filling as your breath moves in and out of your body.
No need to slow it down or speed it up. If you notice that your mind has wandered, which it will, return to focus on your breathing.
Don’t dwell on the thoughts, simply notice them and let them drift away, like leaves on a stream.
The art of mindfulness is to keep doing this, but for progressively longer periods. If you can manage ten minutes daily you will be doing well. Twenty minutes is better still!
If I’m particularly stressed, or worrying too much for my brain to switch off at night, I’ll also do a bit of deep breathing.
Breathing exercises have been shown to reduce stress by activating the parasympathetic system (the rest and digest part of your autonomic nervous system) which causes your heart to slow and your blood pressure to drop.
These are my favourite exercises
1. Simple deep breathing: start by inhaling slowly and deeply through the nose — allowing the air to really fill your lungs.
Put a hand on your belly — you should feel it inflate. Hold it for a count of two, then breathe out slowly through your mouth.
The first few times you do this, it will feel unnatural, so you need to practise during the daytime.
You will notice that as you do this, your heart rate will slow
and you will start to feel more relaxed. 2. ‘4-2-4 breathing’: breathe in deeply through your nose while mentally counting to four. Hold your breath to a count of two, then breathe out through your mouth to a count of four.
3. breathe Alternate-nostril out through breathing: your mouth, then use your right thumb to close the right nostril. Breathe in deeply through your left nostril to a count of four. Really fill your belly. Now switch sides. Block your left nostril with the left thumb and breathe out fully to a count of four. Repeat ten times.
Stop worrying
IF YOUR stress levels are compounded by a neverending stream of irrational thoughts about whether you or someone you love might catch the virus and end up in hospital, the fear can be very damaging.
It’s good to be risk-aware, and try to ensure your family’s safety, but over-worrying only makes things worse.
This is a classic night-time activity, and can badly interfere with your sleep.
Sometimes it helps to tell yourself that your catastrophic predictions are not real.
If they return again and again, you could try giving your negative thoughts a name, like ‘Donald’. So when you have them you can say: ‘That is just Donald sounding off again.’
Doing this sounds crazy, but the science shows it does work.
Another way of approaching your catastrophic or negative thoughts is by imagining what a sympathetic friend would say if you were to share them. What would they say? How would they help to ground you?
It is also important to realise that at night your filters are down, and you are more vulnerable to inner demons, so any thoughts you might have at night will inevitably be less rooted in reality than the negative thoughts you have during the day.
If you get a good night’s sleep, things really will seem better in the morning.