Nikita Singhal and Suken Vakil
March 5, 2012
The Independent Newspaper of Harvard Business School Community
Meditation @ HBS, Photo by Reena Gautam
What do Steve Jobs, Ray Dalio, Bill George, Marc Beinoff and Phil Jackson have in common? They are visionaries, have been known to lead and inspire teams, and have achieved significant success in their professional lives. They have one more thing in common – meditation. Could their focus on contemplative practices have something to do with their huge successes?
Suken Vakil & I (Nikita Singhal), both OG, are looking to answer that exact question, and we’ve designed an independent study under the guidance of Prof. Sandra Sucher, titled Meditation & Business Leadership.
How did we get interested? This past summer, I was fortunate to take a meditation workshop with the Art of Living Foundation in New York City. I have been meditating every day since, and have found that 25mins of meditation makes me think more proactively about my priorities, focus better, see issues from a new vantage point i.e. more objectively, and not get stressed about inconsequential events. Suken learned about contemplative practices through traveling in India with family.
We began to share our thoughts with friends and faculty on campus, and were surprised by the openness and interest amongst all. There seems to be an increasing awareness for contemplative studies at Harvard.
A study led by psychologist Sara Lazar at Harvard Medical School, was the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain’s gray matter, in areas associated with attention and emotional integration[1].
At Harvard Law School, The Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative, founded by Erica Fox, teaches mindfulness practices as essential to the art of conflict resolution. Meditation, Fox asserts, is central to achieving the Initiative’s mission, “…but is also enabling negotiators to be more successful in getting to yes.” [2]
HBS Professor Sandra Sucher is part of a cross-university study that looks at contemplative dimensions of leadership and leadership education, and they have invited guests such as Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn, author of several scientific papers on mindfulness and co-author of The Mind’s Own Physician.
In A Powerful Silence, author Maia Duerr suggests that we are “in the midst of a massive demystification and democratization of contemplative practices”. At least 135 companies offer employees some form of meditation and/or yoga and the number of hospitals/clinics that provided mindfulness based stress reduction training for patients increased from 80 in 1993 to 250 in 2003.
So what does this mean for HBS? Suken and I aim to look into whether meditation can help business leaders increase self-awareness, mental clarity, focus and emotional intelligence. It is often also claimed that meditation helps a leader develop more authenticity, tolerance and empathy, which leads to a greater sense of belongingness and responsibility for the communities they live and work in.
We hope to gain some insights via a review of academic and popular literature, interviews with business leaders who practice meditation, and by meditating ourselves over the course of the semester to examine any impact.
ScienceDaily
Apr. 5, 2011
Meditation produces powerful pain-relieving effects in the brain, according to new research published in the April 6 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
“This is the first study to show that only a little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation,” said Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., lead author of the study and post-doctoral research fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“We found a big effect — about a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness. Meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other pain-relieving drugs, which typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 percent.”
For the study, 15 healthy volunteers who had never meditated attended four, 20-minute classes to learn a meditation technique known as focused attention. Focused attention is a form of mindfulness meditation where people are taught to attend to the breath and let go of distracting thoughts and emotions.
Both before and after meditation training, study participants’ brain activity was examined using a special type of imaging — arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI) — that captures longer duration brain processes, such as meditation, better than a standard MRI scan of brain function. During these scans, a pain-inducing heat device was placed on the participants’ right legs. This device heated a small area of their skin to 120° Fahrenheit, a temperature that most people find painful, over a 5-minute period.
The scans taken after meditation training showed that every participant’s pain ratings were reduced, with decreases ranging from 11 to 93 percent, Zeidan said.
At the same time, meditation significantly reduced brain activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, an area that is crucially involved in creating the feeling of where and how intense a painful stimulus is. The scans taken before meditation training showed activity in this area was very high. However, when participants were meditating during the scans, activity in this important pain-processing region could not be detected.
The research also showed that meditation increased brain activity in areas including the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and the orbito-frontal cortex. “These areas all shape how the brain builds an experience of pain from nerve signals that are coming in from the body,” said Robert C. Coghill, Ph.D., senior author of the study and associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist.
“Consistent with this function, the more that these areas were activated by meditation the more that pain was reduced. One of the reasons that meditation may have been so effective in blocking pain was that it did not work at just one place in the brain, but instead reduced pain at multiple levels of processing.”
Zeidan and colleagues believe that meditation has great potential for clinical use because so little training was required to produce such dramatic pain-relieving effects. “This study shows that meditation produces real effects in the brain and can provide an effective way for people to substantially reduce their pain without medications,” Zeidan said.
Funding for the study was provided by the Mind and Life Institute in Boulder, Colo., and the Center for Biomolecular Imaging at Wake Forest Baptist.
Feb 19, 2012
ANI
Mediation, an eastern philosophy which was once dismissed as pretentious, can be effective in treating mental illness, brain scans have proved.
The buzzword is mindfulness. Meditation, which is practised a lot in India and in parts of Islington, is an NHS-approved treatment that combines conventional psychotherapy with meditation techniques, breathing and yoga.
It is sitting around trying to think about nothing and letting out the occasional “ommmm”.
Meditation has been around since the Seventies, but in the past decade there has been growing evidence that it is highly effective. Researchers at Britain’s most respected medical centres have found that it can halve the risk of relapse for those with depression.
”Psychotherapy involves patients analysing thoughts and feelings, with the hope that by understanding them some kind of change can be made. Mindfulness has some of this but it also involves meditation,” the Daily Mail quoted Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry and co-developer of one of the many variants, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), said.
“Meditation, which is an ancient practice and part of Eastern spiritual philosophy, involves sitting, usually in silence, and focusing on one thing, such as the sensations of breathing in and out.
“The mind wanders, so you invite your attention to come back to the thing you are focusing on. People who do this regularly feel very calm. And due to modern scanning techniques that measure activity in the brain, we are beginning to understand why,” he said.
Williams’s colleagues in the US and Canada have been able to pinpoint the parts of the brain that undergo changes during meditation, and the results are astonishing.
“Meditation helps to reduce the activity of part of the brain called the amygdala, which governs feelings of stress. Those who are more stressed and anxious have an amygdala that is overactive. Meditating reduces this.
“And there is an effect on the insula, the part of the brain involved in deep emotions, including love.
“We know from other studies that the insula allows us to feel emotions, so when we are heartbroken we really do experience a kind of pain.
“Normally activity in this area is closely linked to the part of the brain involved in analytical thought. So if we have a fight with our partner, we not only feel dreadful but we start to think about why, what this says about our relationship and what might happen if we don’t put it right,” Williams said.
In those with mental illness, this loop becomes overactive – the thinking feeds the emotions, which feeds more thinking until it becomes overwhelming.
“Meditating breaks this cycle by reducing the links between the insula and the parts of the brain that analyse, as we have seen on brain scans.
“It doesn’t stop a person from feeling or thinking but it uncouples these two parts of the brain, giving the patient more control.
“Further to that, we’ve discovered in clinical trials that mindfulness works as well as antidepressants in preventing relapse of depression. It can also be used alongside drugs,” he said.
Janet Jones, 48, was diagnosed with severe depression 10 years ago. The mother of two was introduced to mindfulness in 2008.
“I was very sceptical at first. But gradually it became part of my everyday life,” she said.
”I would find it difficult to get out of bed and when I got to work, I would feel miserable. Once I committed to mindfulness, my approach changed and my life improved. Mindfulness has given me more control over my life. I now know that no matter how painful something is, it will pass,” Jones added.
Owen Nicholas
IEET
Posted: Feb 24, 2012
Science and meditation are two things that one might initially regard as having no more in common with each other as Chinese calligraphy and Italian pasta. Science, however, has recently examined the eastern tradition to answer the longstanding question: how does meditation work? Is anything actually happening or is it “all in the head?”
The effects of meditation on human cognition and physical health have become the subject of numerous scientific studies in the past decade. Results are linking meditative practice to improved memory, concentration and self-control, and the lowering of stress, blood pressure and other psychological conditions.
For example, UCLA researchers are exploring the connection between meditation and resistance to age-related brain atrophy. Assistant professor Eileen Luders states that: “Meditation appears to be a powerful mental exercise with the potential to change the physical structure of the brain…. it might not only cause changes in brain anatomy by inducing growth but also by preventing reduction. That is, if practiced regularly and over years, meditation may slow down aging-related brain atrophy, perhaps by positively affecting the immune system.”
Here’s a listing of additional study results:
* M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after participants’ meditation found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and stress.
* High-risk patients who meditated cut their risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from all causes roughly in half compared with a group of similar patients who were given more conventional education about healthy diet and lifestyle. The meditators remained disease-free longer and reduced their systolic blood pressure.
* Meditation reduces stress, due to brain changes that cut stress hormones like cortisol and dampen the inflammatory processes associated with atherosclerosis.
* Students at risk of hypertension that practiced meditation reduced their systolic blood pressure by 6.3 millimeters of mercury and their diastolic pressure by 4 millimeters of mercury on average.
* Meditators have demonstrated superior ability at detecting fast-changing stimuli, like emotional facial expressions. Mediation may also increase concentration levels by helping to control brain phenomenon such as the attentional blink.
* Researchers found that when meditators heard the sounds of people suffering, they had stronger activation levels in their temporal parietal junctures, a part of the brain tied to empathy, than people who did not meditate. Distressed sounds elicited stronger empathetic responses than the positive and neutral noises, and the brain activity in these regions was much stronger in the seasoned meditators.
* Meditation increases the thickness of the cortex in areas involved in attention and sensory processing, such as the prefrontal cortex and the right anterior insula. The finding is in line with studies showing that accomplished musicians, athletes and linguists all have thickening in relevant areas of the cortex.
* Mindfulness meditation holds promise for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which provokes intrusive thoughts, emotional numbness and hypervigilance. It could also lead to decreased activity in an area of the brain implicated in a range of neurological disorders, potentially even slowing down the onset of dementia.
* Scans taken after meditation training showed that every participant’s pain ratings were reduced, with decreases ranging from 11 to 93 percent. At the same time, meditation significantly reduced brain activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, an area that is crucially involved in creating the feeling of where and how intense a painful stimulus is.
An interesting debate ignited by the studies has been the suggestion that the personal beliefs of the researchers are directly influencing results by distorting scientific objectivity. These arguments were played out in a similar context during the early 20th century when psychoanalysis was causing a stir.
As science pushes forward, age-old beliefs have become increasingly threatened, marginalised and retired. It has been easy for many to imagine that all spiritual practices, meditation included, may eventually go the same way. Yet here is one example where science – far from dismantling a social practice – may, in fact, give it new life by informing and invigorating it’s processes.
by Sarah Berry
20 Feb, 2012
Northern Argus
Better than morphine ... meditation can reduce pain dramatically, study finds.
When Subhana Barzaghi was a midwife she taught breathing and meditation techniques to relieve the pain caused by contractions.
“Most of us have a habitual reaction to pain – an aversion that we react against,” Subhana, who is now a meditation teacher at North Sydney’s Bluegum Sangha, explains.
“Meditation teaches us to observe rather than get caught up in the strong sensations we are experiencing. We learn to stop labeling and therefore stop reacting. In this way, instead of tightening up against it and resisting, which causes further tension, we start to soften into it. As we do this, the pain can begin to soften and subside.”
Recently, the 5000 year old intuitive teachings of meditation were given the backing of science. A report from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center states that meditation can be more effective than morphine.
“This is the first study to show that only a little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation,” said Fadel Zeidan, PhD, lead author of the study and post-doctoral research fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “We found a big effect – about a 40 per cent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 per cent reduction in pain unpleasantness. Meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other pain-relieving drugs, which typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 per cent.”
In the study, 15 volunteers, who had never previously meditated, were taught mindfulness meditation techniques over four 20-minute sessions. Mindfulness meditation teaches the individual to focus the attention on an object, such as the breath.
“This concentration brings the awareness to the present moment, allowing the individual to experience what’s going on at a subtle level, ” Subhana explains. “As the mind stops jumping around like a 24-hour TV channel, we develop our sense of calm and begin to cultivate equanimity and serenity. In this way, we enhance our own natural relaxation response.”
During the study, participants had their brain activity measured, with an arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI), both before and after meditation, while they were subjected to a pain-inducing heating device – heated to 120 farenheit or almost 50 degrees celsius – over five-minute periods.
The scans found that after meditation, participant’s pain was reduced by as much as 93 per cent. They also showed that activity in the somatosensory cortex – the region of the brain associated with pain response – which was rapid prior to meditation, was significantly diminished afterwards. Movement in the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and the orbito-frontal cortex however, was increased after meditation.
“These areas all shape how the brain builds an experience of pain from nerve signals that are coming in from the body,” says Robert C Coghill, PhD, senior author of the study and associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist. “Consistent with this function, the more that these areas were activated by meditation the more that pain was reduced. One of the reasons that meditation may have been so effective in blocking pain was that it did not work at just one place in the brain, but instead reduced pain at multiple levels of processing.”
As a result of the study, Wake Forest recommended meditation be used as standard clinical practice to deal with pain.
This scientific endorsement came as a welcome, but not unexpected result for those in the profession.
“With guidance from a trained practitioner, mindfulness meditation allows you to achieve a level of focus and concentration where you are deeply calm and even blissful,” Subhana says. “Certainly, this shifting of mind and body state at times of intense stress has the power to be stronger than drugs.”
By Gordon Hoekstra
February 16, 2012
The Province
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Meditation, long deemed the exclusive domain of monks and Eastern culture fads, is now being shown by scientific research to have positive, long-lasting effects on the human brain — even among children.[iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Simple meditation techniques, backed up with modern scientific knowledge of the brain, are helping kids hard-wire themselves to be able to better pay attention and become kinder, says neuroscientist Richard Davidson.Davidson — who will speak Friday at the University of British Columbia on his new co-authored book,
The Emotional Life of Your Brain— has put his research into practice at elementary schools in Madison, Wis.About 200 students at four elementary schools have used breathing techniques to hard-wire their brains to improve their ability to focus on their work.
“It’s so widely popular and successful, the district wants us to scale it up the entire (Madison) school system,” Davidson said Wednesday in an interview.
Davidson, who was inspired by a meeting with the Dalai Lama in 1992 to research areas like kindness and compassion, heads up several laboratories at the University of Wisconsin including the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.
In 2006, Davidson was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Davidson said research has shown why the brain’s circuitry is important in governing a person’s resilience to stress.
Research has also shown the brain is elastic, that it can be shaped by experience and behaviour.
Research, including brain imaging studies, also shows it is possible to cultivate the mind to change brain function and structure in ways that will promote higher levels of well-being and increased resilience, said Davidson. His research is outlined in dozens of articles in scientific journals.
The techniques used with elementary schoolchildren are quite simple. To improve a child’s ability to pay attention — and also improve their studying abilities — a stone is put on a child’s belly, and they learn to focus on their breathing as the stone goes up and down.
The technique can be taught to children as young as four, said Davidson.
“A simple anchor like one’s breath is a centuries-old meditation technique, but it turns out to have some very beneficial qualities in terms of changes in both the brain and behaviour,” he said.
To foster kindness in teenagers, students are asked to visualize a loved one suffering followed by a thought that they be relieved of that suffering.
This is extended to difficult people as well, said Davidson.
This exercise has also been shown to produce meaningful changes in the brain and behaviour, he said.
Elementary schools in Vancouver have also embraced these meditation techniques as part of a program called MindUp that teaches children that it is hard to concentrate when the brain is stressed.
More than 1,000 teachers have trained in the program at the Vancouver school board, and the district has received requests from other school districts, including in Yukon, to teach the program.
by Dr Linda Comin
The hundred millions of neurons that exist in our gut justify the expression "gut feeling".
How many of us over the years have heard the saying two brains are better than one? Would you be surprised to find out that we do have two brains in our own body? Yes it turns out that the gut does have a mind of it’s own and it is known as the “enteric nervous system”. Just like the brain, which we identify as the mind, there is also a brain in our gut that is located in the tissue lining of our esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. According to, Dr. Michael Gershon, author of The Second Brain, “the connection between the two can be unpleasantly clear.” In fact, we can all relate to this statement “butterflies in the stomach”, before giving a speech, or the first time we kiss someone, anytime we have to make an important decision that involves risk, or the night before a significant examination a bout of diarrhea. This is a direct experience of the action between our two nervous systems.
Many of you may be surprised to hear that there are 100 million neurons in the gut, and that this is greater than what we have in our spinal cord. Furthermore, there are major neurotransmitters like serotonin (95% of serotonin is produced in the gut), as well as, dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine, and nitric acid. Not to mention the presence of two-dozen small brain proteins, called neuropeptides, as well as major cells of from the immune system. The presence of Enkephalins (a member of the endorphin family) is also found in the gut. Endorphins are small protein molecules that are produced by cells in your body and their goal is to relieve pain with an analgesia type effect. This is experienced by some as the natural high experienced in running or some other form of exercise. It is also one of the sited reasons why soldiers continue to fight in war when they have been injured. Benzodiazepines, an anxiolytic medication (anti-anxiety medication) is also abundantly found in the gut, from the popular psychoactive chemicals known as Valium and Xanax.
The brain and the enteric nervous system (gut) are connected by the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the major communication network between the two brains. Messages between the two brains run up and down this network and are supported by other neural networks such as the myenteric plexus and the submucosal plexus, which command and control neurons in the gut.
According to the current research, there is a plethora of evidence that is coming to light regarding the circuitry between the two brains. Scientists, psychologists and nutritionists are beginning to understand why people act and feel the way they do. It has long been known by psychology the connection between fight and flight and that the response is initiated by a fearful situation, which in turn results in the release of stress hormones that prepare the body to flee or fight. If the body prepares to fight like on the battlefield the higher brain communicates to the gut and tells it to shut down. However, fear can also result in the opposite result whereby the vagus nerve turns up the volume of the serotonin circuits in the gut resulting in overstimulation and diarrhea.
Current research is clearly making a connection between the gut and the brain and how digestive imbalance and mental health are highly correlated. Therefore, if we balance the gut, issues like depression, anxiety, and digestive issues, autoimmune illnesses, and arthritis, fatigue, eczema, migraines, and attention deficit disorder come into balance.
There is an old saying, “we are what we eat” and it is never truer than now. It is time to pay attention to what we eat. It is true that some people eat all the right foods but for some reason they cannot digest them or absorb the necessary nutrients. In these cases the result is diarrhea, constipation or irritable bowel syndrome (known as IBS). Below are some of the stats on what the current research is finding with gastrointestinal diseases.
- 84% of state anxiety (chronic anxiety) is related to small intestine bowel disorders, such as h-pylori and ulcerative colitis.
- 67% of trait anxiety (periodic anticipation of something happening in life) is related to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
- 27% of depression is related to celiac and irritable bowel syndrome.
- IBS affects 10-20% of the adults in the U.S. According to Dr. Gershon more than a two million Americans are afflicted with IBS, which arises in part from too much serotonin in the gut, and may well be regarded in the future as the mental illness of the gut.
- 70-90% of patients who seek treatment for IBS have a psychiatric co-morbidity such as a mood disorder or anxiety disorder.
- 19% of population has schizophrenia.
- 29% of IBS patients have Major Depressive Disorder.
- 46% of IBS patients have a panic disorder.
- 40-80% are at high risk for having migraines, and fibromyalgia.
- 91% of children with autism have a gastrointestinal issue.
In my practice I focus on an integrative approach between all factors, body (food, supplements, water, breath, rest and sleep), mind (stress management, yoga, meditation and automatic negative thoughts), relationships (important connections with others in our lives), and spirit (our connections to something beyond the physical). The client is asked to keep a thorough food diary (including how they feel after they eat certain foods) and activity log (detailing how much exercise and how they feel after they exercise). All ingested materials are looked at included prescription drugs and supplements. The philosophy I take is that food and exercise are our best medicine and when everything in our lives is balanced we will feel better.
Most physicians within the field of traditional medicine not only cite the health benefits of meditation, they actually prescribe it for many of their patients. Most of us are aware that practicing medication can improve our health by doing things like lower our blood pressure. Meditation can even strengthen our immune system and help the body fight off infection and disease. However, there are many other, often overlooked benefits of practicing meditation that you may not be aware of – or need to be reminded of.
Meditation can help you lose weight
At the time this was written one out of every three adults in the United States is obese. Most people don’t understand the difference between being overweight and being obese. If you are overweight, it means you weigh more than an average range relative to your height. If you are obese, it means that you have excessive body fat. More important is the fact that obesity is significantly more dangerous to your health then being overweight.
It comes as no surprise that the cause of obesity – eating more than we should – but the reason why many of us eat more than we should is where meditation comes into play. A large majority of obesity is caused by something called “emotional eating.” Emotional eating is a response to high levels of anxiety, stress, or other mood related states such as sadness, even boredom.
The practice of meditation promotes reduces levels of anxiety and stress, and can also improve our mood. All of which reduces the risk of emotional eating as well as promoting weight loss.
Mediation can make you younger
While this may sound like some crazy claim you’d hear on a late night informercial, there is scientific evidence that meditation can reverse biological age. Biological age is the term used to describe how old someone is physiologically. It is based on how well major body systems are working. Research studies on those who have been practicing meditation regularly for more than 5 years indicates that, on average, these meditators are 12 years younger physiologically than their actual chronological age.
Meditation can relieve insomnia
Research estimates that there are 70 million Americans who suffer from insomnia. Add to that number those who have occasional difficulty getting and staying asleep, and we can see why the pharmaceutical companies are making billions off of sleeping pills both by prescription and over the counter. However, sleeping pills can have detrimental side effects, some of which represent serious risks to your health and well-being.
Practicing meditation at bedtime can be an extremely effective and natural sleeping aid – and the side effects are all positive. Bedtime mediation not only promotes getting to sleep more quickly as well as staying asleep, but has been shown in medical studies to create improvement of sleep in 100% of those in the study and 91% of those who continued to meditate regularly after the study reported that they were able to significantly reduce or eliminate their reliance on sleeping pills. 
Meditation helps you remember things
There are many ways to improve your memory and scientists have now included meditation among them. One study involved having people meditate for 40 days. The results were astounding. After the study the people who participated in the study were tested along with a group who had not participated. Researchers were impressed by statistics that showed those who had participated by meditating for 40 days did four times better on memory tests than those who did not.
Meditation frees the creative mind
Creativity is one of the most profound characteristics of being human. Unfortunately, in a world filled with distractions and almost constant stressors, for many of us creativity is stymied. Those who practice meditation benefit by quieting their agitated and anxious mind. Additionally, science suggests that mediation assists in the promotion of what you might call a “free exchange of ideas” between our “creative” right brain and our “rational” left brain. Furthermore, the practice of meditation improves our ability to focus. All of these things encourage creative thinking and new ideas.
Meditation can increase your intelligence
At one time it was felt that a person’s level of intelligence was fixed at birth. In other words, you were stuck with whatever amount of intelligence you happened to be born with. Research now indicates that our brains our much more “plastic” than previously thought, meaning that it is possible to improve IQs. There are various methods shown to improve IQ, and researchers include meditation into this mix. Evidence for this includes measuring muscle mass. Meditation has been shown to increase the muscle mass of the cortex of the brain, what is commonly referred to as “grey matter.” It has been shown that practicing meditation can contribute as much as 20 points to an individuals IQ.
For more, read the original at Quantum Jumping.
by Bret Lyon
dfay.com
January 14, 2012
(Drawn from Steven Porges and Peter Levine)
In order to sustain life, the body has two complementary nervous systems: a Sympathetic (arousing) and a Parasympathetic (calming). Both are needed not only for psychological balance, but for survival. Without a Parasympathetic modification, the heart would beat too quickly to sustain life.
Ideally there is a smooth balance between the two, a gentle collaboration. The Sympathetic is dominant in exertion, exercise, athletics, emotional and sexual arousal as well as stressful situations.
The Parasympathetic takes over in relaxation, sleep, meditation, massage, gentle touch, connecting deeply with another person, nurturing – both nurturer and nurtured.
When stress is very great, the Sympathetic system automatically goes to a fight or flight response. This is built in to the system. It can happen in response to external threat or the perception of threat.
Either fighting or fleeing can resolve the stress.
If neither is possible or successful, the sympathetic arousal can get so extreme that it is too much for the body to handle.
At this point, we have a failsafe survival mechanism. The Parasympathetic system spikes. It comes in so strongly that it overwhelms the Sympathic arousal and sends the person into a state of Freeze. This can be full collapse, dissociation, or a more partial freeze such as inability to think clearly or access words or emotions, or move parts of the body.
This can be momentary, short term – such as a possum freezing and becoming reanimated after the predator leaves, or, in humans, continue indefinitely.
Stephen Porges has focused his attention on the Vagus Nerve, one of the largest nerves in the body and a major part of the Parasympathetic system.
The Vagus has two branches: dorsal (back) and ventral (front). The Dorsal Vagus is a large, primitive nerve, which is common to all animals, including fish. I goes down the spine and has a role in controlling our lungs, hearts (moderating heartbeats so they don’t get too rapid) and stomach (where it actually aids digestion).
It is prominent in sleep and relaxation – i.e. when we lie on the beach in the sun. It is very active in the “diving reflex” that allows marine mammals to hold their breaths for long periods of time.
A cultivation of the reflex has allowed humans to set records of over 6 minutes under water.
Normally, the Dorsal Vagus serves a very positive function. It helps the body gently pendulate between arousal and relaxation. However, when the Sympathetic is too aroused, the Dorsal Vagas nerve can shut down the entire system and we go into freeze. This is most common in trauma and shame, which is developmental trauma.
The Ventral or front Vagus Nerve is a much more recent addition. It is common to mammals, who raise live young, not reptiles, birds or fish. It goes directly to the muscles of the face and helps determine expression and is active in social engagement.
When the Ventral Vagal is active we seek and initiate social contact.
Social engagement for mammals is a way of activating the Parasympathetic system. Ventral Vagal social engagement – or attachment behavior – is a way to prevent and come out of Dorsal Vagal Shutdown.
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