This is the sixth in a blog series as we follow Donna Jackson Nakazawa in “The Last Best Cure” as she incorporates mind/body practices into her life in order to experience more joy and better health after having a severe autoimmune disorder.
Playing Catch with Thoughts in Mid-air
“By putting your feelings into words, it’s as if you’re hitting the brakes on your emotional responses.” Mathew Lieberman, UCLA – Leader in social cognitive neurosciences
Donna’s attempting to turn a pretty bleak existence into a more joyful one – and possibly improve her health at the same time.
Donna Jackson Nakazawa is working hard on getting her emotions and mental outlook under control, but she does not have a mood disorder; she has an autoimmune disorder. She’s spending a year incorporating meditation and mindfulness techniques into her life because the research suggests to her that doing so will help her quality of life – and very likely her health.
Now she’s getting down to the nitty-gritty – adding some practices to her daily life. She has been asked to
- label her negative emotions when they come up.
- assess the speed of her thoughts by using a mental speedometer.
- when her subconscious starts beating her up, quite it down by telling it she’s forgiven.
- focus on her breath when she’s upset.
Labeling Emotions
Functional MRI studies have found two things happen when you label or name a negative emotion that you’re having: activity in your amygdala (fear center of the brain) goes down while activity in your prefrontal cortex (center of organized thought) goes up.
Studies suggest that connections between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – the seat of executive functioning, decision-making and planning – and other parts of the brain may be critical in illnesses like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Japanese researchers believe the PFC is increasing activity in parts of the brain that produce fatigue signals in ME/CFS.
Another theory proposes that the prefrontal cortex may be getting so hard by signals from lower parts of the brain that it’s buckling under the strain. With the PFC down, areas of the brain like the amygdala that are primarily involved in fear reactions can light up, pumping out stress hormones and proinflammatory cytokines.
Donna’s goal – catching those stress hormone and pro-inflammatory cytokine producing thoughts before they send her system into a tailspin
The research indicates that labeling fear when fear is present, anger when anger is present, or despair when despair is present gives the PFC – which should be downplaying these negative emotions – a boost. It’s as if you’re consciously doing what the PFC should be doing subconsciously but can’t.
Donna’s been in the grip of these emotions a lot. In Landmark Education’s parlance they’ve been “running her” – putting her in states of fear and anger she’s had little control over. Since each time this happens a proinflammatory immune response – the kind that she of all people with her autoimmune condition doesn’t want – flares up, it would benefit her not just emotionally but physiologically to stop it.
Stopping “It” From Taking Over
She’s also to put a stop to the negative self-assessments that “it” – that lacerating, self-judging part of our minds – keeps running by telling herself that she’s “forgiven”. Then, to take “it” further out of the picture, she’s to focus on her breath. Hopefully, this practice, run time and time again, will leave her in a calmer and healthier state.
A recent study on mindfulness-based stress reduction in fibromyalgia explained the general process like this: You learn “to pause and choose your response to difficulty rather than reacting without thinking.”
Life Intrudes
Some things go wrong and the “screaming meemies” are back…
She quickly gets a great test of her practice. While headed out to do an interview she goes to pick up her car at the mechanic’s shop. First she gets set off by the mess the mechanics have left behind in it. Then, both the radio and the navigation system – the later almost a necessity if you’re driving through Washington D. C. – are dead. Then she smacks her foot hard against a door.
The catastrophic thoughts start pounding out – she’ll never find her location, she’ll be late if she does, she’s such a klutz . They all culminate in the thought “everything (my body, my work, my life) always breaks!”. Within seconds she’s drenched in anger and despair.
Then she steps into a puddle of gas at the gas station. Now she’s going to show up at her interview late and stinking of gasoline.
Applying the Correction
But then she remembers. First, apply the correction – “Forgiven” she tells herself four times. Then check her mental speedometer – yep, mind racing at about 220 miles an hour. Then label her thought processes – experiencing “self-loathing, worrying, thinking”. Finally, she brings herself back to the present by focusing on the breath. The screaming meemies feelings subside, she calms down – and the options start to open.
The skies aren’t entirely blue but the dark clouds are gone and Donna is calmer and things are looking up after her practice
She realizes it’s not as bad as “it” was making it out to be. She can call and get directions. If the navigation doesn’t reboot she can bring the car back and get that fixed. The pain in her foot is beginning to ease. The gasoline smell will probably be gone.
It’s a minor miracle. In a matter of minutes she’s re-established her home base. She realizes that she is not her thoughts. She doesn’t have to get absorbed in her anger. Her emotions are like internal weather – they come and go; as one front comes in another front goes out. By using practices to identify them as they really are – temporary passengers – she can gain some distance from them. Then she can choose her response. She can insert new conversations. The mind, as Toni Bernhard says, is malleable.
Is It True?
Toni Bernhard’s explication of Byron’s Katie’s “Is it true” practice came to mind when reading this chapter. In this practice. you ask yourself
- If a thought is true.
- Are you absolutely sure that it’s true?
- How do you feel when you think that thought? (getting the cost)
- Who would you be without the thought?
The Turnaround – after this process you turn the thought around.
Note that the catastrophic thoughts – none of them – were true. She could call and get directions. The gasoline smell would dissipate. The car can be fixed later. The pain in her foot was subsiding…Everything is definitely not broken! The thoughts, though, were causing her large amounts of mental and undoubtedly physical stress. Who would she have been without them – a calm, collected person taking the breakdowns in stride as she resolved them moved on to her interview; i.e. – the person she became after doing her practices.
Big Sighs
Donna is also taking three big sighs periodically to blow out the tension held in her body. I’ve found that whenever something goes wrong I tend to hold my breath and my body becomes rigid. I’ve found that periodically following my breath allows me to breathe again (always a good idea :)) and helps me release the muscle tension that has built up.These are little practices that temporarily allow me to breathe more deeply and feel more relaxed. Over time, though, they can help to reset one’s system. Even if your functionality isn’t greatly improved, there’s the possibility you can feel better – maybe even a lot better – than you are now, and enjoy better health.
I love breathing more deeply…
The Last Best Cure Blog Series
- “The Last Best Cure”: An Exploration of One Woman’s Quest For Healing # I – Beginnings
- The Past WAS Prologue: The Last Best Cure II: An Autoimmune Patient Searches For Health
- Alps to Climb: Lab Tests and Clinic Workup Suggest Big Trials Ahead – the Last Best Cure Pt. III
- “I Think I Have A Meditation Disability” : The Last Best Cure #IV
- Telomeres, Wandering Minds, and Creating Cellular Health: the Last Best Cure V
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa is a science journalist, author, and public speaker. She tweets often about breaking medical news. Follow her tweets and check out her Facebook site and website and blog.
She is the author of the The Last Best Cure, The Autoimmune Epidemic, and Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? A Parent’s Guide to Raising Multiracial Children
as well as a contributor to the Andrew Weil Integrative Medicine Library book, Integrative Gastroenterology, (Oxford University Press, April 2010).Among others she is the recipient of the 2010 National Health Information Award, the 2012 international AESKU Award from the International Congress on Autoimmunity for her lifetime contribution to autoimmune disease research with the book The Autoimmune Epidemic.
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This is a great read. I find myself breathing shallow breaths when I am tense which is most of the time. I inhale deep breaths while pushing my abdomen out
then let my breath slowly out through my mouth and deflating my abdomen. I do about three or four of these, a good exercise to do to release tension. This article has reminded me to do this more often.
Judi
I’m surprised – once I start focusing on my breath and letting it go – how much deeper I can breath at times. It feels great!
Many ME patiënts have breathing problems not due to there wrong thoughts but due something else like ANS or brain(stem) inflammation.
Consider this idea – stressful thoughts – a natural outcome of having a debilitating disorder (how could you not have many of them?) have greater impact because of ANS or brainstem or whatever it is dysfunction.
It if can’t handle exercise – why would it be able to handle other kinds of stress?
Great advice for anyone, sick or well! Thanks Cort.
Sick or well – that’s exactly how I feel about it. I think it’s harder to do when you’re sick – but then again – what isn’t?
I have absolutely experienced more pain and fatigue during and after stressful experiences.
Some research suggests that people who have had stressful or abusive childhoods are more prone to ME/CFS. It is understandable that people with such backgrounds have more difficulty with self-talk and processing negative emotions.
Granting oneself forgiveness and self soothing in difficult times may go a long way in reducing symptoms. I have worked with a therapist for awhile now and have slowly grown to see things from a different perspective. I feel less unwell of late.
The physical feelings of overall achy pain and exhaustion are a bit less so. I know I am dealing with stresses and past traumas in a healthier way. The power of the brain to affect the body, neurotransmitters, inflammation etc. is only begging to be truly understood.
Thank you Cort for this web site and a platform for us to look to for information and to be able to convey our thoughts to others with.
Thanks, Cort, for a well-written piece that will be very helpful to your readers. I’m going to use an unpopular term here: cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT. CBT has become a dirty word in ME/CFS circles but it’s a very helpful technique for managing the illness – although certainly not a cure!
CBT is “a short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that takes a hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving. Its goal is to change patterns of thinking or behavior that are behind people’s difficulties, and so change the way they feel.” It is used to treat a number of concerns of both the healthy and the ill populations. It helps us do life more effectively.
“CBT works by changing people’s attitudes and their behavior by focusing on the thoughts, images, beliefs and attitudes that we hold (our cognitive processes) and how this relates to the way we behave, as a way of dealing with emotional problems.” It involves learning new techniques and behaviors and ways to examine and rewrite irrational thoughts.
When used as one of a number of interventions in chronic illness, it helps us learn to live with the fallout. It’s not a panacea or something that will return disabled people to work. It’s not magic – but it can be exceptionally helpful.
(Source of quotations above: psychcentral.com)
Indeed Katrina!
And you would know -being someone with a long standing case of ME/CFS – who still has it despite your own work in this area.
I’m telling everyone – at the end of this Donna is going to still have an autoimmune disorder AND she is going to be doing better…emotionally and physiologically. So, yes, it’s no panacea, but when you’re where we’re at – it’s good to have something that can provide a little light.
Dear Cort,
I’m such a dinosaur when it comes to computers. Did my comment register? I hope so because I thin it was noteworthy. Please let me know if I am doing things correctly. Also,
thank you for the excellent research .
Yep it made it through 🙂
What Donna is applying are basic cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques. I know you have to be careful about mentioning CBT in relation to ME/CFS, and I couldn’t help noticing that it’s not named in this article, but let’s call a spade a spade, shall we. CBT can be very helpful in calming down the nervous system and retraining your natural responses to stressors and/or negative thoughts. When you combine CBT with meditation and general relaxation techniques, it helps you to manage your condition at the very least, and science seems to indicate that it may also help towards restoring balance and supporting your body’s natural healing capabilities.
Actually I didn’t know that – Donna is going at it from a different approach – but if it’s so it’s so. It seems to me that many different approaches from Buddhism to MBSR to Amygdala Retraining to what I’m do with Landmark Education – are basically doing the same general thing – replacing mostly subconscious thought patterns that kind of wring us by the neck with better ones that can help as you say restore balance and allow some natural healing (hopefully) to take place.
Great read. I have involuntary painful muscle spasms and even breathing is painful but just reading this made me relax for a few minutes. You are definitely on to something.
Glad to hear it…Muscle stiffness, pain – trouble having my muscles relax – is a key thing for me…
Once again another great article at the perfect time. I have been having these same situations happening to me repeatedly lately, running late to doctor appointment, tire won’t hold air in it, slam my calf into the trailer hitch while trying to put air in tire, the list goes on and on, I find myself afraid to leave the house somedays because everything goes wrong, if it can it will and so on. But every little bit of hope gives me another reason to keep trying.
Thanks for an article of helpful recommendations and reminders. My body, mind, and the world around me frequently seem to be in chaos. Of course, my perception of that only puts gasoline on the fire. I feel like I am frequently putting out big and little fires and some of them are also embarrassing — the clumsiness (falling up (!) and down stairs, closing my hand in car door, dropping numerous items in stores just to name of few…). It helps to know that others deal with these challenges too. I am a clinical psychologist, unable to work for many years now. So I know about all these tools, but I’m just a person, really, so implementing them can be humbling.