by Douglas Nelson President, BodyWork Associates
You are just about to speak before a large audience, something that is not the most comfortable thing for you to do. As they are introducing you, it is hard not to notice that somehow, someone has inserted about seven of those cotton rolls your dentist uses in your mouth. You try to swallow but there is no saliva present. At this point, you are sure that when you speak, there will be only consonants, an intelligible series of sounds produced by a mouth devoid of moisture. Sound familiar?
The reason behind this physical experience is fascinating and has to do with the physical response to stress.
If you are a gazelle being chased across the savannah by a lion, the nervous system diverts all available energy to the extremities so you can outrun the lion. At this point, you stop all energy related to digestion, since if you don’t run fast enough; it is the lion that is going to do all the digesting!
The very first step of digestion is to produce saliva. Under stress, you divert energy from digestive functions to ones related to fleeing the stressful situation. This process is employed for your protection and ultimate survival. (I am not saying that you view the audience as lions!)
A similar example happens every day on my treatment table. Often, during a massage therapy session, a client will remark how much noise his/her stomach is making. At that point, the nervous system is shifting gears, changing from the external action to internal regenerative activities. The process is a sign of relaxation, not of hunger.
In our speaking engagement, the stress is over after the talk. In real life however, stress does not always resolve so easily. When stress is unrelenting, digestive activities are constantly inhibited. What was meant to be a short term intervention becomes a serious health problem when the stress does not have a clear resolution. What was a great short-term strategy on the savannah becomes serious health issue when relentlessly activated in Urbana. Such is our current condition.