I'm Ann Corbyn, your crossover coach here with this week's episode of The mind body spirit connection. You are a complex being composed of 3 parts. Just get those 3 parts. Mind and spirit, working together in harmony, and upscale your life. I'm here to show you how. Last time, when I was discussing the importance of proper breathing, I promise that today's podcast would be going into the science behind the relationship are between body breathing and the fight or flight reflex.
I might have mentioned that A good many people are in fight or flight all the time without realizing it. Some call this state stress, Anne, of course, it comes in all levels and degrees from mild to major. Some describe it as anxiety. Which could be just a vague feeling of unease, or it could go right up to real fear. Culminating in panic or terror.
Anne, of course, back when the COVID pandemic or panic started, you will remember how fear was ratcheted up in many people because our glorious leaders know that fear is the best way to control people. And you'll remember those news bulletins that carried nothing but information about the spread of this scary virus Anne those daily news briefings. They were only designed to worry people. Do you remember the so called scientists would say much the same thing every day.
And then there would be a handful of selected people from various media, whether it was magazines or news Anne, and they would ask carefully selected questions, and they would get really bland answers for bland answers in the sense that they didn't give very much information except the best thing to do is panic. If you were around in the eighties, you will probably well, if you were around, you will definitely remember those extremely scary adverts. They were kind of dark and gray.
And there was a tombstone, and the scrap line was, don't die of ignorance. Because there was this new disease called AIDS on the scene. Nobody knew very much about it, except that it was killing people. Anne what was really not known was how it was Anne. Does that sound familiar? In fact, I believe they are still seeking a vaccine for it as though a vaccine is gonna solve anything. All the vaccine does is line the pockets of the people who make it.
So While we were all being scared, witless, about AIDS, Princess Diana was considered really brave because she was willing actually to go into hospitals and hold the hands, you know, sit on the bed of and actually touch these poor souls who were dying of AIDS. So she did really good work there, spreading the word, that AIDS was not contagious. And yes, okay. It was something to be frightened of, but Blind panic was not going to be the answer. Okay. That was a slight digression.
But what I'm talking about is the idea of a general feeling of anxiety. And one of the issues here is that if we aren't breathing properly, meaning through the nose, right down into the belly, then there's no way that the fight or flight mechanism will switch off. So let's talk a bit for a moment about the reflex. You I'm sure you know what I mean when I say reflex.
If you put your hand on a hot plate, you will pull your hand away be for the message has even got up to your brain that you've hurt yourself. Your subconscious swings into action makes you pull your arm away Anne pain only registers later. And this is a very typical automatic reaction which is designed to save you from inflicting too much damage on yourself. This is the main function of a reptile brain. The reptile brain is oldest part of the, the brain in the head.
And its main job is to keep us safe, simple as that Anne it takes its job really seriously. What's more? Your subconscious mind has got a phenomenal memory Now this is why limiting beliefs hold us back from achieving our goals. But before I get into anything of that nature, I want to fully describe how the fight, flight, or fight mechanism actually works from a scientific point of view as I promised.
So imagine you're walking along and you see a saber toothed tiger or the modern equivalent, like say, a man rushing towards you waving an axe or a shotgun or something like that. Or just to make it Easy to talk about, let's say bears. I mean, actually, I could say spiders because the fear of spiders is the number one fear declared by people in the UK. Anne I find that amazing because the spiders here are not killerly big, and they're generally speaking not dangerous.
I know we do get black widows occasionally, and, yep, they are dangerous. But imagine those great, big furry things that are like the size of kittens or puppies in the Amazon jungle, although really seriously poisonous button spiders and red back spiders in Australia. I mean, oh my goodness. I wouldn't personally like to go camping whatever in Australia because you never know what you might meet in the dark. Anyway, I'm going to talk bears.
So just before I go on about bears, imagine there's a little trap door in your head. And through this little trap door, which is between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, messages pass through in one direction or the other Anne at a time. So you're walking along and you see a bear. Automatically, your conscious mind will send the message down to the subconscious. There's a bear over there. What do I do?
So the subconscious will access the memory banks, like, imagine a filing system, and it comes out with, ah, it's a bear, run for your life. So that's what happens. The only part of your body that you're going to need at that moment is your legs. So What the subconscious does is organize that the blood supply goes to your legs and nowhere else. What's more? That needs to be well oxygenated blood. So your heart is gonna pump faster so that more blood gets to where it's needed.
You are going to breathe quickly, and you're not gonna bother with the belly. The air is gonna come in and out of the upper levels of your lungs. Three miles because you're going to be Anne. You want maximum oxygen possible. And also, there are various parts of your body that isn't are not going to need blood at all. So the supply to, for example, your digestive system your exclusion system, your brain, the blood just, ceases to a trickle. There, it all goes to those muscles in the legs.
And how does the message spread all over the body so that each piece does performs its part in the plot, well, it's hormones. Your subconscious orders the adrenal glands to produce agrenaline agrenaline and Corbin. Anne these hormones sweep around in the blood going to all different parts of the body and instruct that part of the body to do whatever it's meant to do in a panic situation. And then suppose the bear goes away. Or you Anne to run back to the safety of your car, whatever.
Your conscious mind now accesses its own memory files, or sends a message to the subconscious, whichever asks what do I do now? The filing clerk looks up. What do I do now? Danger has passed, and the message comes back to the rest of the brain It's okay. Relax. You can breathe again. You can chill. So long as that little trap door is open, the communication works fine. But in real life, there are 2 things that cause the fight or flight mechanism to be On the whole time, it never switches off.
What can cause it? Well, for example, when there's more than one bear at a time, If you've got half a dozen, well, even if you've got 3 coming at you from different directions, which direction are you gonna run-in? And in real life, we don't think about bears. For example, you're struggling with traffic and you arrive. Late for work. You can't get a parking space.
You, immediately find there are messages on your desk that you've got to deal with y Anne zed, then the boss wants to see you, and he's on your case for something that's not really your fault that you happen to be in charge of the department. So, yes, it is your fault. The buck stops with you. And then back home, you might be having issues with the kids. One of them is in trouble at school, just say, maybe you're not getting support from your other half. You can imagine the sort of thing.
Oh, on the financial worries as well. This is ongoing stress, and I'm talking normal 21st century problems. I'm not even talking about the additional problems that we've got at the moment with COVID and lockdown, etcetera, etcetera. The other thing which can upset the system is where and in fact, this happens most of the time. We don't take any physical action to use up these hormones that are circulating in the system. And with all those hormones, The reflex doesn't switch off.
So you're not running for your life. You've got adrenaline and what's worse cortisol floating around. Anne very common symptom of this is digestive disorders because you don't feel like eating, your digestion isn't happening properly, so you probably feel full, but you don't want to eat. You probably grab a bit of food on the go. And even if it's healthy food, you're not digesting it properly. You've got all that acid in your stomach, and the digestion function isn't working.
Result of that clearly is going to be an ulcer depending on how long you leave acid reflux, unattended. You can't make decisions properly because the blood flow to the head, to the to the brain, the thinking brain, is compromised. Remember? So this is one of the causes of brain fog that a lot of people complain about these days.
And cortisol in your system is also responsible for unexplained weight gain Anne a vicious circle kind of kicks into play here because cortisol causes weight gain, so does lack of sleep And the reason that you're not sleeping is because your subconscious is telling you that you need to stay on the Kyiv Anne take care of all these bears that keep popping up right, left, and center.
So we've got an upset system, and it's like The filing clock up there that deals with the memory has thrown up her hands in disgust and said, it's too much for one person to deal with. I quit. Anne the trap door slams shut, and that's the end of communication between the conscious and the subconscious mind. So Just say whatever threat or 3 or 4 threats have all been dealt with, and your conscious mind says, Anne. I'm coping. I'm in charge. Nobody tells the subconscious mind.
So that is busy fighting bears, producing adrenaline Anne Corbin. And this is why so many people are in a low level state of stress all the time. Anne of the easiest ways to start addressing low level anxiety is breathing. Honestly, it it helps enormously to open the trap doors. And of course, there are other ways as well, which I address on my training course. So I referred earlier to the amazing memory that's deep in your subconscious brain.
Literally, memories of everything that's ever happened to you Even the ones that consciously, you wouldn't dream of remembering because your conscious brain treats them as insignificant. They're there. They're stored in that massive filing system within your brain. Anyone who spent just a little time doing personal development will have heard of limiting beliefs. Right? Money doesn't grow on trees. Money is the root of all evil. And then we're told, oh, no. That's not what the statement is.
It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. The problem is we've got money and evil in the same sentence, and that's the connection that our simple brain makes We think that, rich people are evil. We think they're not gonna get to heaven. And Anne of my mentors says all beliefs are limiting beliefs. So that's a bit horrifying, but Just imagine, remember all those old wives tales that you've grown up, absorbing For example, blondes have more fun. Moment on the lips Anne inch on the hips.
No. Sorry. A moment on the lips. A lifetime on the hips. Actually, I think that's 2 versions of the same saying. Mutton dressed as lamb, good girls don't enjoy sex, all kinds of stupid things like that. And another name for limiting beliefs is blockages or mental blocks or subconscious interference. Anne here's where that trapdoor story comes into play.
Remember, it's not a real trapdoor, not like in your heart where there are actual valves, which only allow the blood to go in a particular direction and do not let it flow back in the wrong direction. Assuming the valves are working. What I'm talking about in the brain are metaphorical trap doors. They're not really there. But it's a lovely graphic way of explaining what happens when your conscious and your subconscious are not communicating with each other.
When everything up there is working the way it was designed, well, it's magic. Our life will flow in a nice, smooth way, but the fact is Our subconscious is so intent on keeping us safe that it wants to do that no matter what, and we have to activate our conscious mind to tell the subconscious to take its foot off the brake. Anne actually let us do what we want to do intentionally. Oh, and just incidentally, you can imagine that there are many, many trap doors up there.
Anne the majority of them have snapped shut. And what's more, they snapped shut by the time you were 7. And in most cases, you were probably about 4 or 5 because kids are like spongers, and they absorb everything that their parents say. And You know, your parents want to do the best for you. And even if you had a really good upbringing and your mom and dad were really Kind and nurturing. And, you know, there wasn't actually anything terrible going on in your past.
You still took away things like, oh, I must be quiet. I must behave. I mustn't interrupt. My mom, and what happens as a result of that, you are reluctant to speak up in meetings. Until you've recognized the issue, and then You can address it. The problem with subconscious interferences, we don't recognize it's there until We do a little bit of work on ourselves and recognize it.
And I'm coming to the end of this, but I just want to point out A subconscious belief that both my brother and I had, we imagined growing up when we were, like, quite little, that we didn't like nuts Anne that our father was a little bit odd because he would eat them and not complain about it. Anne we recognized eventually that this was because our mom didn't like nuts. So she would say, oh, leave the nutty chocolates for daddy. He he eat those. You have the nice soft centers.
And we actually thought there was something wrong with the nutty chocolates. And what's even more stupid We thought there was something wrong with dad because he liked them. I must also point out that religions leave us with all sorts of limiting beliefs. So start asking questions if you haven't begun to do that already, there is a whole world of freedom out there when you recognize these limiting beliefs or subconscious interference for exactly what it really is.
So friends That wraps up the mind body spirit connection for this week. Let me know, please, if there are any specific subjects that you would meeting include in a future podcast, join me, same time next week, or connect with me anytime on social media,