Hello you handsome, lovely soul and fellow beautiful, peaceful warrior to another episode of the Health Anxiety Podcast Show. I just want to thank all the listeners to this podcast, and I do hope you’re being led to more meaningful and peaceful places, my lovelies. Today we are going to take the look at automatic defensiveness. Now, with defensiveness comes a number of different elements that we must become aware of, and towards the end of this podcast episode, I’m going to give you a key practice which can effectively cut down that defensiveness going on in your body starting today. Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
Understanding Automatic Defensiveness
The Fight or Flight Mode
And you know when the body is in fight or flight, the body becomes a bit hyper sensitive, right? You can feel that reacting as though constant threats are always around. We wake up in bedrooms with heartbeats racing or bursts of feelings and signs across the body and wonder why these reactions when in fact there is no danger. The body has not heard that there is no danger to the life it is about to.
end while this is a good thing the body is learned that nothing is safe here.
Muscle Tension and Its Impact
Automatic defensiveness involves muscle tension, and individuals with chronic tightness in muscles are perceived to be bracing up for danger. This tightness can influence our physical movements – and at some point one begins to ask why do we have such restricted movements at a certain age . If the mind is tense, the body will be tense and if the body is tense, the mind will too. Occupational stress that relates to the high degree of muscle tension tends to cause the tunnel vision way of viewing things.1
Hyper-awareness and Heightened Attention
Attention-focused toward the body makes perceived threats more prominent. This makes us too sensitive to our own bodies and causes a vicious cycle of anxieties and defensiveness.2
Breathing Patterns and Defensiveness
This is because shallow and rapid register are fundamental in maintaining the state of alert. We may be unaware of how shallow our breaths are being until we develop hyperventilation or panic attacks. Most of these practices have to be curbed so as to eliminate defensiveness:3
Automatic Thoughts and Defensive Reactions
It is then common for the content of the automatic thoughts to be completely dwelling on the catastrophic mode which triggers the defensive mode of operation. As these thought processes are automatic it’s possible to pay no attention to them and not get emotionally invested in them, which causes them to go away.4
Adrenal Responses and Digestive Disruptions
Vivid examples of adrenaline release makes the body ready for the fight even when it is not necessary. This omnipresent, unremitting deluge of stress hormones is called defensiveness. Most individuals encounter at least occasional digestive disturbances because the nervous energy is devoted to defense.
Emotional Numbing and Startled Reflex
Blocking Emotions
Emotional numbing is for example when the body separates the emotions in order to stay sheltered. It can also result to situations where there is no response to noble feelings that are supposed to be elicited.
Exaggerated Physical Reactions
A heightened startled reflex means even minor triggers prompt exaggerated physical reactions, such as jumping at loud noises or sudden movements.
Key Practice: Separating Yourself from Defensiveness
To deal with the issue of defensiveness, start on disidentifying with it, that is, start on seeing what function it has got for you. Ego deterioration is a pattern that desires to reoccur to protect you. Once you grasp this concept, you are in a position where it is possible to fight the program and reprogram your mind and your muscles.
Practical Steps for Reducing Defensiveness
- Recognize Automatic Thoughts: Identify catastrophic thoughts and avoid emotionally investing in them.
- Adjust Breathing Patterns: Practice deep, slow breathing to counteract shallow, rapid breaths.
- Understand Muscle Tension: Be aware of muscle tension and practice relaxation techniques.
- Challenge Hyper-awareness: Allow yourself to focus less on bodily sensations and trust your body to take care of itself.
Conclusion
Friends, begin the Health Anxiety Recovery Program today at TheAnxietyGuy.com under Health Anxiety. Here you will find an application of actions to proceed in order to avoiding defensiveness and / or health anxiety. And always remind yourself, you’re so much more than the feeling that is anxiety. It’s very important to learn and strive for this change as basically you can reprogram your mind and your body and lead a healthier and happier life. That’s it for today, you’re welcome and as always, meet you in the next episode with other fun stuff! Endeavour; you are progressing or you are going to get there.
Citations
- Title: Muscle Tension Dysphonia: Perceptual and Acoustic Considerations Author: G. Roy, et al. Link: NCBI ↩︎
- Title: Attentional Bias to Threat in Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Author: S. J. MacLeod, et al. Link: ResearchGate ↩︎
- Title: Stress-induced Hyperventilation: Analysis of Risk Factors and Mechanisms Author: K. Yoshida, et al. Link: PubMed ↩︎
- Title: The Role of Automatic Negative Thoughts in the Development of Anxiety and Depressive Disorders Author: A. Hjemdal, et al. Link: Springer ↩︎
Comments (2)
I’m always having tight in the middle of the chest and my neck and shoulders and thinking.
Sturllerering