Oxytocin is the bonding hormone naturally produced and released by the brain to fill our relationships with connection, closeness, and trust.
People know oxytocin as the love and bonding hormone between couples, and as the hormone that makes new moms and dads get silly cooing and goo-gooing - which in their sleep deprived state increases their patience and regenerates their worn brains. Yet oxytocin production belongs to all of us, and this is where i’d like to start…we could each benefit from a little oxytocin every day.
Oxytocin reduces stress and helps us communicate and get along.
But in the same way digestion shuts down when the tiger’s chasing us and we’re in frantic survival mode, brains can’t make oxytocin when panicking in fight or flight.
Without oxytocin to sweeten our secretions, cortisol and other stress hormones run wild, and panic and inflammation take hold. Patience vanishes, tempers flare, immune systems fail. A brain stuck on high alert oxidizes and inflames itself.
We all need a good long dose of oxytocin now…
Waking Heart Resonance
Are we heart-broken?
It feels like something has changed drastically as of late, like we’ve reached a boiling point and the pot’s rocking and shaking and ready to blow. Everyone is reacting, no one is listening, and everyone is upset. It’s heartbreaking to see and feel these divides, especially one-on-one; and it’s an intolerable irony that should not be hard to solve among evolved souls.
i sense this disruption as the wear and tear of prolonged extreme stress on our hearts and brains. How tiring it is to stand for principles, truth, and goodness in a field of adversity and deceit.
Trauma makes deep imprints in our brain circuits that then dictate our behaviors and beliefs.
Buried trauma keeps us unconsciously locked in fight, flight, rage, and fear.
As stress levels escalate and old trauma triggers get pushed, we good hearted people can easily become reactive and defensive and lash out.
Even if we’re not talking about it or are hiding out because we’re too traumatized for one more question, confrontation or concern, we still need to listen to our own hearts.
No matter what, we have to cool our brains and warm our hearts…
We are all susceptible - and in fact predisposed - to excess brain heat now.
Brain heat is very irritating to the nerves and inflammatory to the brain. Inflammation interrupts healthy metabolism and hormone production.
Tumultuous emotions create brain heat - as do EMF’s from cellphones, electricity, atmospheric radiation, and chemical toxins that cross the blood-brain barrier and penetrate into the brain.
Brain heat is inflammation.
Brain heat creates agitation that damages the nervous system, which in turn leads to restlessness, irritability, resentment and rage.
This is, on a small scale, the same downward spiral we see in traumatic head injuries and neurodegenerative disease.
When experiencing symptoms of agitation, anxiety, negative emotions, and/or chronic illness, it is wise to stop and tune our brains. Breakdown happens circuit by circuit and cell by cell - and so does self-repair.
Awareness of our own dysregulated nervous system is the gateway to mental equilibrium and a more coherent heart.
Self-regulation prepares and enables the brain to make hormones for trust, bonding, and friendliness…like oxytocin.
Hyper-arousal, or high alert, is an amygdala driven survival reflex based on subconscious memories of danger and threat. This can be epigenetic trauma passed through the family line, or painful experiences imprinted during this lifetime; and most often a combination of both. If not resolved within our body tissue, these low vibrational energies derail our plans and projects, drain us, muddy our vibrational field, and ruin our relationships.
By noticing this, we take back the reins. Then we can saunter if not gallop to the other side, the isle of heart. Conscious practices carry us there, day by day.
SIMPLE SELF-REGULATION - lifestyle tips to balance and repattern stress:
1) Notice and stop yourself from over-reacting. Then cool your brain.
a) Hydrate. Drink water - lots - and preferably structured water which has a perfect crystalline form.
b) Breathe. Start with a long exhalation, then breathe slowly and deeply in and out through the nose. If you’re really agitated, first blow out through mouth 5x to expel stress; then begin nose breathing.
c) Close and palm eyes; rub palms together to create warmth and place palms over closed lids. Imagine your brain is liquid - which it is - and relax your eyeballs backward into the ocean of the brain. Eyes are neural tissue that projects outside the skull; thus, quieting the eyes quiets the brain.
d) Go outside and walk around the block or the yard or take a hike. Rhythmic breathing with movement lowers cortisol levels fast.
e) Cuddle your rescue dog, kitten, baby, or other beloved, and coo sweet nothings in their ear. You’ll both start producing oxytocin right away.
A dose of oxytocin is very healing to the brain - and the heart.
Try these simple tips as you wish. Give them a chance. They are simple, basic, primary self-care that make you feel better right away. But beyond that, you are upgrading the chemistry of your own brain! How cool is that?
Our resilience is potent, stubborn, and unflinching, but we've all been "brain damaged" by history's dark deceits, and it's changed us - especially in the last three years. We've been battered, ripped off, and hardened, and it steals our patience, clarity, ands joy. But we can reverse this all - once we find and engage the full power of our (quantum) brains.
I wuv you yolanda pritam hari. . . goo goo ga ga...this is awesome. thank you xoxox. We do the eye exercises often in our somatic practices....excellent suggestions and info. xoxo