Be like. a Zebra Article

Be like a zebra…simple ways to help you activate your natural and innate resilience. 

By Vanessa McHardy, Child Psychotherapist, Director of Light Education Training

Most people experience moments of stress and anxiety. But when it starts to interfere with your life, health and wellbeing then it is time to look at ways to address it.

When activated, the stress response system is what makes us feel anxious, nervous, stressed, tense,  and sick. Our stomach swirls, our palms sweat, and our heart beats fast. These are automatic reactions that we don’t think about. But the thinking, worrying thoughts, and critical voice all come after the body sensations. 

So from this understanding you can see that we need to support the body to turn off the stress response which will in turn support our thoughts to be much more supportive and caring.

There are two different ways of doing this:

1.     working with your nervous system or;

2.    working with your connective tissue system. 

The following exercises and suggestions can help build our calm system in our body therefore reducing stress.  

Horse Lips 

Put your lips together and blow air out so that you make a loose tractor  or horse sound. You will feel the reverberation releasing tension in your jaw and neck. This might take a bit of practice if your jaw area tends to hold a lot of tension. 

Be like a zebra!

What? It was discovered that wild animals do not hold trauma in their bodies and when studying these animals they realised that the key thing that occurred after a traumatic incident like being chased by a lion (if you were a zebra) was they shook off the nervous energy that had just been used to escape the incident. It makes sense when you think about it. If the zebra was constantly in fear of being chased by another lion – which it will be – it would not be able to eat and digest its food when eating, so they have to be able to be fully present in the moment with no stress or worry of what could happen. So we need to be more like a zebra. Exercise: big shaking to little shaking. For this you start out with big shakes of you whole body while in the standing position and do horse lips along the way, slowly reducing the shaking to smaller movements until you come to a stop, then place your hand on the  centre of your chest, close your eyes and feel how your body feels. It’s likely to feel vibrant, energetic. 

Connective tissue exercises

These are slow, rhythmic, repetitive movements. By doing this sort of movement in this quality you are activating the connective tissue to be in flow instead of the dense tightness it goes into when stressed. Starting at your shoulders, lift one up and then gently let it go down, releasing further each time you do the movement. Do a minimum of 3 up to 10 times then repeat on the other shoulder. Then let your arms hang out to your sides and move your hands gently, rhythmically as if you are scooping water in a bath. Now close your eyes and see what you can feel moving in your body when you lift your toes up and place them down, repeat this movement. 

Walking daily 

15 minutes of walking helps to reduce depression and anxiety due to the release of endorphins. The rhythm of walking is good for the left right brain integration. Being in green spaces like parks and forests for 5 mins reduces cortisol (the stress hormone). Combine the two if you can two times a week, and it will help with both mental and physical wellbeing.

https://steptohealth.com/walking-alters-brain-suffer-depression/  

Appreciation

Write down things you appreciate about yourself. Appreciating qualities you know you have helps reinforce what you know to be true about yourself. If you struggle (which most people do at first) write things that are facts about the human body you will quickly become amazed at the incredible body you are in, appreciating the wonder of  your ankle turning this way and that, movements that we can’t replicate with all the tech we have. If you can’t think of qualities, you can ask your close relatives or friends and in return tell them things that you appreciate about them. 

Writing/Journaling/Reflection

The actual physical act of moving pen on paper helps us process feelings and move them to the part of the brain that can process it and move it to memory. This is important as it will stop you being triggered by events that you had strong reactions too, and helps move the event from the left brain (feeling state) to the right brain (thinking memory place).  

Food and sleep

Supporting yourself through eating well and drinking enough water is really crucial to how resilient you can be. Think of yourself like a car. You can’t put the wrong fuel in your car and carrying on driving. It breaks down instantly! Unfortunately the human body does register it’s upset at food and drinks that aren’t designed for good energy, which we often override, and it does carry on less efficiently but eventually we pay for this. But if you can make shifts to healthier choices your mind and body will thank you. 

By being connected and looking after yourself as the precious and amazing being you are, you will naturally activate your innate resilience. Look at babies learning to walk - we are fully equipped to know how to deal with adversity and mis-takes. We come into the world full and wholly capable of expressing exactly how we feel. And we know how to learn and grow without shame or fear (that only occurs through things we take on from the outside of ourselves). Breathe, let go and know you have got this… be like a zebra, be in the now, run when you need to, rest when you need to, eat when you need to, socialise (safely) when you need to, be kind and loving to yourself like you would be to your best friend.