Brendan Lloyd PhD
January 2025, ꟕ: 01.00
Do you need to change the way you feel? Is this something that you’ve been working on all this time? How do you want to feel? At the very least would you say that generally, you’d like to have more energy and a greater sense of well-being?
Changing how you feel can apply to how you feel generally and it can apply to how you feel right now. It’s the accumulation of all these individual real-time stressful events and emotional experiences that adds up to how you feel generally. If you have in mind to change how you feel generally, then have you considered that it’s those real-time stressful events and emotional experiences that need your attention?
When you find yourself experiencing the stress and unwanted heightened emotions, you can change the way you feel with a rapid relaxation. This is not magic. It’s not freaky. It’s just a matter of dealing with the facts.
Did you know that regardless of your theories about why you feel unwanted heightened emotion, you can change how you feel anyway? Firstly, you feel the way you feel because there is something in your body making you feel that way. Mainly we’re talking about your autonomic nervous system responding to a trigger. Regardless of what the trigger is, there are responses in your body that you can turn off with rapid relaxation. You can change the way you feel.
Do you already have a willing and open mind? Are you willing to move forward from this point? What you do now will prepare you for the next time it happens. Would you like to be prepared for next time? Next time, will you notice the telltale signs that it’s happening again? You can have the skill to take on the heat of the moment in real-time. This is where you use a rapid relaxation skill, in the heat of the moment.
In the heat of the moment, you need some way to communicate with your autonomic nervous system. In particular, the sympathetic response, AKA, the emergency button. This is the part of your nervous system that’s responsible for releasing adrenaline, increasing heart rate, sending your blood flow to your legs and arms, etc. If the emergency button is continually activated then you will end up sick, stressed, anxious, depressed, etc. The purpose of rapid relaxation is to get you off the emergency button as soon as possible, in the heat of the moment. You need to find the language of the autonomic nervous system. Rapid relaxation speaks that language.
What would you lose by changing how you feel in the heat of the moment? Just remember, there is one task here, just one agenda, that is, to change how you feel. You might note that we’re not trying to change the world. The best advice is, change how you feel then change the world. You’ll most likely do a better job all round if you do it in that order. You will at least have more energy to do whatever you need to do, if there is anything in fact that needs doing.
Rapid Relaxation Focus
It is crucial that you understand what you’re doing when you attempt rapid relaxation. It’s not complicated, but here is the point that you really need to get. In your autonomic nervous system, there are two main responses, namely the emergency button and the relaxation switch. These are the sympathetic and the parasympathetic responses. Rapid relaxation has nothing to do with the relaxation switch. It’s all about turning off the emergency button.
The hard fact of the matter is that you can never activate the relaxation switch whilst your emergency button is on. In technical terms, these two responses are antagonistic. This means that they cannot be on at the same time, and the emergency button will override the relaxation switch every time.
Rapid relaxation will turn off the emergency button. Then, if it is right for the moment, you will have access to your relaxation switch. At the very least, after you have changed the way you feel, your body will be ready to take on the world.
Energy
Your energy levels in your body can be affected by many different influences. For example, you might simply be fatigued by hard work, and you need a rest. Or there is something affecting your mitochondria; this is your energy source at a cellular level. Or you could have low blood-sugar levels in which case you’ll feel fatigued and unresponsive.
Stressful or emotional events can literally rob us of our energy; this is because of the chemical changes that happen in your body in response to a trigger.
From the trigger there is the adrenaline release. The elevated adrenaline makes you race and burn up your fuel (blood-sugar). If your stressful or emotional event lasts more than say 15 minutes and you just keep it going, your body will begin to produce cortisol. Cortisol is also known as a glucocorticoid steroid, the ‘gluco’ bit is the clue here, which is glucose. In other words, the cortisol is the energy source during a prolonged heat of the moment event. But…
There is a big but. You cannot rely on cortisol for energy because it’s there to protect you from the threat; it’s not there to sustain your daily life. So, in the heat of the moment your elevated adrenaline and cortisol are there to speed up and support the muscles that you have in use. For example, if you’re running like the clappers from the sabretooth tiger, then your legs get the firepower. The rest of your muscles are blocked to the energy source.
The elevated cortisol from ongoing unwanted heightened emotions is accumulative. Adrenaline is quick in and quick out. Cortisol, on the other hand is slow and lingering. Its effects can still be there days later. This is how your general feeling of low energy and low motivation can seem like a permanent feature in your life. This is why we talk about changing how you feel.
That lack of energy in your life could be due to fatigue from sustained elevated cortisol in your blood. This is the most compelling reason to change how you feel in the heat of the moment. This is one of the main reasons to develop the skill for rapid relaxation.
Rapid Relaxation Coaching
Would you like help with developing rapid relaxation skills? There are many reliable methods/skills that will help you with rapid relaxation. All different approaches have the same features in common. These common features involve events in your mind and body. In your mind there is letting-go and moving forward. In your body it’s your breath that will speak the language of your autonomic nervous system.
Help is available. Is telehealth acceptable to you? Would you enjoy the convenience of telehealth? Just a couple of coaching sessions (telehealth or face-to-face) will go a long way. The articles listed below will sustain your efforts once the coaching is done.
For your mind, Let Go for Health Sake – letting-go is a process. [PDF] [Phone]
For your body, Three-Minute Breathing Meditation: noticing & focusing, use your breath skilfully. [PDF] [Phone]