Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Oct/Nov 2017 Aspire Mag Full Issue: Feminine Wisdo | Page 52
Sympathetic Nervous
System: The Panic
Room
into the Panic Room because it doesn’t know
what to do with birth. “This is an unknown,
this is scary — I don’t know what to do
with this. Yup, we’re probably going to die.”
None of these thoughts are based in reality,
yet they evoke a very real response in the
body, making birth more challenging, and
ironically, more dangerous. The quickest
way to achieve a room reassignment, from
the Panic Room to Meditation Room, is
deep breathing, which we’ll explore further
in chapter 17.
Parasympathetic
Nervous System:
The Meditation Room
When you’re shoved into the Panic Room,
you fight, take flight, or freeze. Because it
is unlikely you will be in many situations
where physically fighting is an appropriate
(or legal) response, the modern-day “fight”
mechanism is to experience anxiety. A few
other fun features of your Panic Room
are a triggering of stress, an increase in
blood pressure and heart rate, a slowing of
digestion, a rerouting of blood to defense
organs (the uterus is not a defense organ),
and a decrease in your ability to think and
reason. Fun, right? But remember, your
body is not very good at deciphering an
actual threat (a rattlesnake staring at you)
from a perceived threat (the grocery store
not having the right brand of almond milk);
both situations can throw you into your
Panic Room. You should be living in your Meditation
Room for about 98 percent of your life.
You deserve to be living in your Meditation
Room for 98 percent of your life. This is your
restful space, where you get to feel all warm,
fuzzy, and Zen-like. When you’re living in
this space you calmly respond to non–life
threatening stressors, your body is at ease,
all your organs (including the uterus!) are
When you’re moving through childbirth,
a process that is natural and rarely life
threatening, the mind often sends the body receiving the ideal amount of blood and
oxygen, your breathing is slow and steady,
and you feel really good. With the release
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