What is Your Brain Telling You Today?
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In 2013, I was bedridden for 6 months. Not only did I need to step away from my work as a missionary, I couldn’t do much of anything but lie in bed. The energy needed to sit up was sometimes too difficult.
With so much free time, I began to search the internet for answers. Most of us know how terribly wrong that can go, but in my case, I stumbled across a webinar recording from a naturopath about the connection between the thyroid and adrenal glands. Having been diagnosed with hypothyroidism over 20 years prior, my curiosity was piqued. I listened to the recording and felt so strongly that I needed to reach out to this doctor.
Once getting on her calendar, she did an intake and recognized my symptoms were pointing to adrenal insufficiency. After taking a saliva test, it showed that I was in an extreme state. By Western medical standards, I would have been hospitalized with Addison’s Disease, but because I was moving to a naturopath, the treatment was very different, slower, and more intentional at getting to the root problem.
A little bit about adrenal insufficiency: it is all based on cortisol levels and stress. When David Rock wrote in Your Brain at Work, “When you experience over-arousal over a long period of time, your allostatic load increases. This means your level of markers such as cortisol and adrenaline in the blood become chronically high,”[1] I was nodding. Although it has been over ten years, I must self-regulate all the time.
One day, a friend asked what that season was like. I said, “To get up and walk the ten steps to the bathroom, I had to tell my body to move, get up, and walk, each step slow.”
“What was going through your head?” she asked.
“Well, that’s the thing with adrenal insufficiency. So many thoughts are scrambling and running through your frontal cortex, it’s hard to shut them off.” I knew she was asking for a deeper response, so I added, “Not once was I mad at God.”
“Tell me more,” she goaded.
“Something beautiful happened in the dark. I learned about Instagram. And as an amateur photographer, I started a photography group featuring local photographers every day. Later, when I felt better, I started doing meet-ups with the group that began virtually. My first meet-up was with a group of ex-gang members. I was the only female, but I knew I was meant to be there. They were all polite and respectful, and it ended up being a good day.”
Eventually, that group held the highest number of regional photographers under a larger umbrella. I only learned this because the founder flew to LA to join in a meet-up, and he mentioned it. And to that, I say, all glory to God. Beautiful things really can grow in the dark.
About five years ago, my naturopath said she thought it wise to meditate thrice daily for 20 minutes each time. Being a contemplative person, I wasn’t afraid of meditating for 20 minutes, but three times a day?! I was shocked, but when I first began meditating, I felt the benefits immediately. Rock’s ARIA model of awareness, reflection phase, insight, and action is spot on, in my opinion. Your brain needs to slow down to be able to methodically enter each of the phases. “Mostly it’s about getting the prefrontal cortex out of the way and allowing deeper signals to be heard.”[2]
This reminds me of the first time I meditated. The right side of my brain began to tingle. When I mentioned this to both my naturopath and therapist, they were stumped only because no one had ever mentioned that to them before.
The amazing part of mindfulness meditation is that the more one practices, the amygdala (associated with awareness, concentration, and decision-making) begins to shrink, and the “scale of these changes correlates with the number of hours” a person has been meditating.[3] The connection between meditation and health is also remarkable. Though it might not cure heart disease, it can reduce stress and inflammation biomarkers directly correlated to cortisol.
This eventually assists in what Rock refers to as the braking system because when you’re always in a state of high cortisol output, you tend to be reactionary and less able to control urges. This was key when my naturopath asked me to make a list of all the stressors in my life—physical, emotional, and environmental. Learning to rewrite my narrative as a Type A personality, I know that my penchant for how I approached sports activities needed revision. More walking, less running, and highly competitive sports. Darn.
When I think about where I am now and where I have been, I am grateful for the journey and everything I have learned. Rock is brilliant in referring to Professor James Gross and his development of choosing different options before emotions arise. When I learned to utilize cognitive change[4] to, as I call it, name it, claim it, and put it into the Light, I also taught my brain to slow down before going into overdrive.
As I think about my NPO and how a group of interfaith writers needs validation and space to explore, I have a deeper understanding of why many write about their mindfulness and gratitude practices. They know the value and want to share it with the world, one word at a time, in hopes of creating a more peaceful place.
[1] David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long (New York: Harper Business, 2009), 110.
[2] Ibid., 84.
[3] Tom Ireland, “What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain?” Scientific American, last modified June 12, 2014. https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/guest-blog/what-does-mindfulness-meditation-do-to-your-brain/.
[4] David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, 112.
About the Author
Nancy Blackman
16 responses to “What is Your Brain Telling You Today?”
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Thank you Nancy. Do you have any tips regarding the meditation routine? I love to spend time in silent prayer as close to “daily” as I can, but I struggle to slow down my brain.
Hi Debbie,
One of the things I share with my clients as they begin a mindfulness meditation or contemplative prayer practice is to imagine their thoughts as trains in a train station. Watch the thought come in and then leave. Return back to your breath and meditation or prayer and don’t get anxious when the next train suddenly appears. Again, just watch it pass by. Pretty soon the trains come by quickly. Eventually, your brain will shut down all service to trains and you will be in sole head-heart space with Jesus. I hope that helps!
Hi Nancy, beautiful story – thank you for sharing.
Reflecting in your experience, how would you make the connection between Professor James Gross’s concept of choosing different options before emotions arise and the practice of cognitive change?
Hi Shela,
The only way I know how to answer that is by sharing what my therapist taught me. I agree that you can’t just brush a feeling under the rug. After awhile, as Dr. Mary Kate Morse would say, “it will come out sideways.”
My therapist taught me that if I’m feeling sad to put my hand on my heart and feel the sadness. If I felt the need to say, “I’m feeling sad,” then do it. The point of this is to acknowledge that I’m feeling something.
The more a person feels the feels and acknowledges how they impact you and your heart, mind, and soul, the more you will become more whole (and, I believe, acknowledge the holiness of the process).
Hi Nancy, thanks for sharing your journey here. When you talked about meditation it seems it was recommended for a health or physical perspective. I am wondering if and how it might have impacted your spiritual life as well. Actually, not necessarily as a question for you but maybe with you, as I write this I am wondering if I missed in the book how some of Rock’s strategies would relate to our spirituality as well. I do not recall seeing it there but now I am curious.
Diane,
I have learned that the longer I can be in meditation, the more I sense God’s presence. Rock didn’t mention spirituality per see, but I think of mindfulness as a spiritual practice.
I have learned the more I spend in meditation or contemplative prayer, the more I am able to sense the presence of the triune God.
Hi Nancy! As always, your post inspires me more and more as I learn more of your personal journey. I appreciate your spoke of mindfulness and the impact it had for you personally. How much have you changed bringing the actors on stage as a compliment to your mindfulness? If so, how effective was it?
Hi Daren!
Yes! Mindfulness meditation has helped move the actors from the front stage (or the monkeys, however you want to refer to them) to the back or, in some cases, asking them to leave.
The practice of quieting my brain has been helpful for the spiritual practice of listening as well as being. Overall, not only has it helped my mental and emotional health, it has helped my physical health.
Nancy,
Your post reminds me of a movie I show in one of my classes called In Sickness and In Wealth. In the film that discuss the health disparities that exist in the city of Louisville, KY based on where people live and they link a lot of that back to stress/cortisol levels in people. We were not meant to live in a state of constant stress. I’m glad that your meditation helps you. Since 2008 I have scheduled at least an hour long lunch break where I go out and engage in exercise. I love bike riding and hiking and recently took up disc golf. It is a great experience to get out and get the blood flowing, process my work day and feel refreshed when I return. I am one who struggles to shut my mind down. How do you keep yourself from being distracted when meditating?
Hi Jeff,
Good for you in keeping up a consistent practice of movement.
There is no magic answer to your question. The distractions will be there. You might want to read my response to Debbie Owen. I refer to those distractions as trains in a train station.
But also, when I’m struggling, because I am goal oriented, I will use the Insight Timer app and set a timer with intermittent bells to let my brain know that I have made some progress. And I don’t beat myself up when I don’t meet the end of the time. I just applaud myself for doing what I could that day. And, as you probably know, start small. Start with one minute or five minutes or whatever you think will work as a beginning. When you master one minute for a week, then move to 2 minutes and so forth and so forth. It’s like saving money. It doesn’t happen all at once. A little bit at a time will help you progress faster than you think. Pretty soon you’re meditating for 30 minutes.
Blessings to you as you navigate your practice.
Nancy, thank you for your post. I appreciate how you draw on your own experiences to confirm Rock’s propositions. I am curious if you found an area Rock could have explained more clearly or even perhaps spoke contrary to your experience?
Chad,
Thanks for reading.
Don’t tell Dr. Clark — ha ha — but this is the first book I read that I was going, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” because of my lived experience. Over time, I have become more and more curious about the intersection of neuroscience and spirituality. There has been research on the positive health effects of a gratitude practice as well as mental and emotional (https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2019/03/practicing-gratitude).
I actually appreciate the way Rock created pnemonic terms as well — the ARIA is brilliant, just as the SCARF method.
Nancy – thank you so much for this post. It feels like a map for healing. I love this phrase, “name it, claim it, and put it into the Light.” No question today, I only wanted to share that Rock’s discussions of labeling and having language had me fully in mind of bring things into the Light – where darkness must flee and sin has no hold and healing happens. Shalom.
Nancy, first off thank you for sharing a sliver of your story. I knew we shared some similarities on this but I had no idea how much I needed to explicitly hear this until I found myself weeping as you said “To get up and walk the ten steps to the bathroom, I had to tell my body to move, get up, and walk, each step slow.” I know this all too well and while my legs are now working again, so many other parts are still being impacted in ways that limit my ability to function as I’d like. Honestly, it was almost easier back then because people could see the impact and understand but now that I “look fine” on the surface, it’s different. Having just come out of an Intensive where I had a team of clinicians supporting me, one of the biggest takeaways was about how “going slow is going fast.” I didn’t like this and still can find it not ideal yet ( since I just want to be free haha) but I do believe that the ability to slow down and allow ourselves to sometimes operate at a snail’s pace is what will eventually enable our brains and bodies to rebuild the ability to function at higher speeds.
All that said, I’m curious how writing this post felt for you — how it felt in your mind and body to remember where you were, where you are now, and where you hope to be?
Knowing that your NPO is about helping people express themselves through writing AND knowing that Rock talks a lot about the importance of naming what’s happening and getting things outside of ourselves, I would imagine there’s something powerful to glean mentally from the emotional release in writing and would love to hear any insights. As well as what has been most helpful for you to even be able to express when sometimes even that can be exhausting… I know you mentioned starting with virtual meet-ups and then moving to in-person so was writing a similar process or different? And what baby steps might one take to begin without adding to overwhelm and fatigue?
Okay I know I threw in a TON of questions lol so no worries if answering them all is a bit much. Thanks again ❤️
Hi Nancy, thank you for sharing this part of your story. I appreciated your words, “Your brain needs to slow down to methodically enter each phase.” I have very recently been struggling to not be reactive. Do you ever still feel yourself headed towards “overdrive?” If so, what do you do to combat it in the moment?
HI Nancy, Thank you for sharing your story. As a nurse practitioner, I particularly appreciated how you correlated the book to your medical journey and the spiritual aspect of your healing. You are in inspiration!