Four Things You Can Do to INSTANTLY Calm Your Adrenals
Sometimes anxiety arrives without warning, not in response to something specific, nor a genuine threat, but the free-floating kind that descends in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday, in a meeting, at a dinner table or whilst standing in the supermarket and fills your body with a quality of dread that has no clear address.
Your heart rate rises, your breathing shortens and moves up into your chest, your jaw tightens and your thoughts begin to race. Somewhere beneath all of it your adrenal glands are firing a stress response that your nervous system cannot distinguish from a genuine emergency even though nothing is actually wrong.
I have sensitive adrenals and have written many articles including about the morning I woke up in what felt like a full cardiac event and ended up in the emergency room, only to discover that what I was experiencing was adrenal dysregulation at the exact moment menopause arrived and my body needed an adrenal reserve it did not have. That experience taught me more about the relationship between the adrenal system and anxiety than anything else I have encountered and it changed permanently how I respond when the anxiety comes.
Here are the four things I do, because they work and are available to you anywhere, anytime, without equipment, medication or anyone around you knowing you are doing them.
A deep sigh is the fastest known method for reducing acute stress in real time and the research behind it is both elegant and convincing. Neuroscientist Dr Andrew Huberman at Stanford University has identified the physiological sigh as the single most rapid way to shift the nervous system from the fight or flight state into parasympathetic calm.
Inhale deeply through your nose for a count of four. Without exhaling, take a second short sharp inhale on top of the first; a double inhale that fully inflates your lungs to maximum capacity then exhale slowly and completely through your mouth, releasing absolutely everything, for a count of eight.
The mechanism is specific. Your lungs contain tiny air sacs called alveoli that deflate and collapse slightly during periods of shallow breathing. The double inhale re-inflates them fully and the extended exhale (longer than the inhale) activates your vagus nerve, which signals the heart to slow and shifts the entire autonomic nervous system from alert to calm within seconds.
Two or three repetitions and you will feel the shift, physiological and measurable. Your heart rate will drop, the tightness in your chest will ease and your racing thoughts will slow down.
You can do this discreetly and undetectably anywhere.
Tapping the two points on either side of your nose where your nostril and face meet at the inner corner is the third eye point or the bladder 1 meridian point in acupressure. Because it is directly connected via the trigeminal nerve to your amygdala, the brain's stress response circuitry, gentle tapping or sustained light pressure on this point sends a direct neurological signal that interrupts the adrenal activation cascade.
Use two fingers to tap gently and rhythmically on the side of each nostril, alternating sides, for thirty to sixty seconds while breathing slowly. Or hold gentle sustained pressure on both sides simultaneously while taking three slow deep breaths. It is a form of acupressure that provides a calming counter-signal to the stress response that is currently running. I use this often and it works.
Running cold water over your wrists and the inside of your forearms for thirty seconds and splashing cold water on your face particularly on your forehead and the area around your eyes uses the diving reflex, a hardwired physiological response present in all mammals. When cold water contacts the face and particularly the area around the eyes and forehead, your body automatically slows your heart rate, redirects blood flow and activates your parasympathetic nervous system.
Box Breathing, using the 4-7-8 breath is the deepest reset taking slightly longer but producing a more sustained shift in nervous system state. Inhale quietly through your nose for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, then exhale completely through your mouth for a count of eight making a gentle whooshing sound as you release. Repeat the cycle 4 times. The extended hold and the long exhale activate the parasympathetic nervous system deeply and consistently. The seven-count hold allows carbon dioxide to build slightly in your bloodstream, which paradoxically produces a calming rather than alarming effect because it is the build-up of carbon dioxide that triggers the urge to breathe and learning to sit with that urge calmly for seven counts is itself a form of nervous system training.
Dr Andrew Weil, who developed and popularised this technique, describes it as a natural tranquilliser for your nervous system suggests that with consistent daily practice you become, at the physiological level, harder to panic!
Each of these techniques addresses your typical anxiety response at a different point in the cascade.
The physiological sigh interrupts the acute response in real time and is your fastest tool and the one to reach for first.
Nose tapping sends a direct neurological counter-signal to your brain's threat-detection centre an works on the mental and emotional quality of the your anxiety as much as the physical.
The cold water reset activates an involuntary physiological calming response that bypasses your thinking mind entirely and works even when you are too anxious to think clearly.
The 4-7-8 breath produces the deepest and most sustained shift and is your tool for coming fully back to baseline after the acute response has passed and for building long-term resilience.
Used together, in that order, they address anxiety from every angle simultaneously and within five minutes of working through all four you will be physiologically and neurologically in a different state than when you began.
If you find yourself reaching for these techniques frequently because anxiety is a regular visitor your adrenals may be asking for more systemic support than in-the-moment techniques can provide.
I find that Ashwagandha has the most consistent research support for adrenal recovery of any adaptogenic herb I have encountered and Magnesium glycinate in the evening supports my nervous system's ability to downregulate.
I have also reduced caffeine, and I prioritize my sleep.
These techniques are your emergency kit but the lifestyle practices are the renovation. Both matter. Start with the emergency kit and work toward the renovation.
written by Marjolein Brugman
Marjolein Brugman is the founder of lighterliving and Aeropilates. “lighterliving is a movement and lifestyle choice we can all make. Let’s make it simple – make one decision a day to be better and watch the small steps lead to big changes. Eat smart, stay active, and you’ll live to feel a lighter life."
