Pilates for Stress
How the parasympathetic nervous system, mindful movement and controlled breathing let Pilates help you break the stress chain reaction.
Stress is a global buzzword — everyone is stressed these days. From students to the elderly, no one seems immune. Yet being stressed is a relatively new “phenomenon”; there is not even a word for it in Sanskrit. So what does it actually mean, and why is it a modern plague? Let’s look at what is happening physiologically, and at what we can do about it.
What is it?
Stress is a physiological response to a stressor — this can be large or small, good or bad. Stress is only a response; the body is preparing itself for some sort of reaction to an occurrence or challenge.
Modern times have blurred the lines between work and home. Technology in the form of phones and laptops has made us available 24/7 and given us unlimited access to stimulation — music, movies, podcasts, the highs and lows of social media. Noise, interactions (real and virtual) and too much stimulation can be detrimental because they keep us constantly mentally active. We can keep our minds going for far longer than is healthy for us. In other words, we are constantly in contact with stressors, and this causes stress.
What can be done?
Plenty. Not least: limiting overstimulation and the constant bombardment of the nervous system. Keeping ourselves properly fed with healthy food and water so we don’t create stress for our digestive system. Making time to keep family and friendship bonds intact. Making sure we have healthy boundaries.
Mindfulness at its most basic: what am I feeling? why am I feeling this? could the situation I am in be perceived differently? must I have this podcast / movie / social-media moment? when did I last eat? when did I last move?
Being able to ask yourself — and then answer — a question about your state of mind and body is a very valuable tool, because it gives you a moment to assess your state before it gets too bad and you overload your system with stressors.
Eustress versus distress
Not all stress is bad for us — hence eustress. Joy is a good example. Yet joy can be sparked (as all Marie Kondo fans well know) by completing the smallest of actions, right up to the satisfaction of achieving something great. We need to be pushed beyond our boundaries in order to grow and develop. This is as true in life as it is in bodywork. If we are not challenged to complete an assignment by a due date, repeat a difficult exercise, learn something hard — we would not develop our potential. Recognising this can be a helpful start: knowing that stress can be both good and bad often provides immediate benefit to those who feel stressed out.
Distress is unfortunately a part of life — death, loss, abuse, accidents, money problems — but time usually heals most wounds if we are healthy and have access to support. However, if we have too much distress or our stressors build up too quickly for too long, we start to develop mental- and physical-health problems. We need energy to react to stressors (even pleasant ones), and this is where it gets interesting.
Our perception plays a large part in how our body will respond to stress, because our brain is releasing hormones telling our body what it must do. So too much of anything can cause “stress” as we know it. Why?
The chain reaction
We have an area of the brain called the amygdala which processes emotions. If a stress is perceived, the sympathetic nervous system is activated. To explain it simply, this fight-or-flight response provides us with adrenaline to release energy to cope with the physical demands of the situation. Once the stress is over, the body balances itself with the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system and we reach homeostasis, or equilibrium.
If this process is not allowed to complete, we become physiologically unbalanced and stay in a sympathetic (alerted) state. We get stuck in a cycle: adrenaline, then cortisol, then more adrenaline and more cortisol. We become physically inflamed due to the constant release of cortisol, which has terrible consequences for the body — including increasing the size of our amygdala. In other words, we become emotionally overcharged, over-reacting, experiencing everything as a negative stress that triggers the same sympathetic responses and keeps us trapped in the chain reaction.
However, once we understand what triggers these two systems, we have tools to help ourselves. This in no way replaces medical or psychological treatment — but it can help us manage stress before it reaches the need for professional medical intervention, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or a nervous breakdown, where the nervous system becomes completely dysregulated.
What to do
Movement is one of the best stress relievers we have, because it allows the body to complete the stress-response cycle and return to equilibrium. As a tool, we need to be careful with movement, because an over-zealous amygdala must be taught how to react. Mind/body exercises excel at creating a balanced neural response to movement because of their use of breathing.
A good stress-management programme will always use movement as the first go-to tool, because it helps the body release built-up tension and adrenaline. Because Pilates uses a controlled breathing pattern, both the mind and the body are forced to slow down — and this in turn calms the reactions and triggers the parasympathetic nervous system to initiate a return to equilibrium. I say forced because even if our thoughts are racing when we start a Pilates class, by controlling the breathing pattern and working on the spine we are channelling our nervous-system responses and intervening in our stressful chain-reaction patterns. By creating a state of calm we recharge mentally, reset our nervous system, and build both physical and mental resilience.
A quiet, focused Pilates session — however long — is almost guaranteed to help calm a stress response. Once it becomes a regular practice, we have a reliable tool: a favourite exercise, a breathing pattern, a class, or a teacher, to help us overcome an uncontrolled stressed reaction.
With time, we find harmony in ourselves and in our interactions with society again. We can hopefully do all the other things we are told to do to minimise stress — some tech-free time, turning off social media, spending time in nature. Once we start to breathe for our parasympathetic nervous system and learn to manage our stress, we can start to make the decisions we are told will make our lives better.
But it takes doing something differently to react differently — so try having a mind/body moment and see how you feel. It can be as easy as inhale, and exhale.
Try this now (51 seconds)
If you don’t have much time, try this short exercise to help relax your spine, ribcage and mind.
Repeat each side two or three times, working gently and slowly. Keep the shoulder blades sliding down your back, abdominals engaged, the breath flowing (in through the nose, out through the mouth — one breath per movement). Be aware of even weight on both sitting bones. Try to feel the rib cage expand as you inhale.
Enjoy a little moment of introspection. Bliss.