How anxiety is showing up in your body. You can see it!

In 2020, I was someone who exercised regularly, engaging in dance, weight training, HiiT, and endurance runs. Despite doing everything "right," losing the weight around my abdomen was still a challenge. I had no programme, structure or ritual.

Maybe you can relate? Perhaps you've looked in the mirror and noticed a swollen and bloated feeling tummy with muscle tension in your shoulders? But have you ever considered that you might be too anxious, stressed and disconnected from your body's needs?.

In my case (that's me in the pic) my abdomen appeared round a full due to intra-abdominal pressure. Stress and anxiety form ADHD caused me to breathe into my upper abdomen and disconnect from your lower tummy. My stress caused my shoulders to rise and tense up and my lower back to excessively curve, causing my abdomen to droop forward. I finally understood that my body was telling me that I hadn't healed from current or past physical & mental stress, and other physical problems were just piling up, like diastasis recti and an umbilical hernia.

My body was 'holding the score'.

Thanks to the help of my women's health physio I learnt that my abdomen was not a functioning one. 'It must contract and release to support you and your movement'.

Until I reduced my anxiety and stress, I was not going to heal!.

The solution

The solution did not lie in engaging with more exercise and core work. Because of my stress, I was making unhealthy eating choices, sleeping poorly, thinking negatively, and breathing inefficiently. An efficient breath should allow you to fill your entire chamber with oxygen in 360 degree directions, not the shallow breath that we are used to doing on a daily basis. This vicious cycle meant that I could not break out of my stress pattern caused by my overactive nervous system (ADHD).

I decided to hire a coach and follow a set programme. This provided me with structure, accountability, consistency and a challenge. I also started medication to control my ADHD symptoms. This allowed me to finally connect with myself and listen quietly to my inner self without judgement. I began to support my exercise routine with practices such as meditation that effectively reduced my stress levels. My inner calm began to reflect from the inside out, my shoulders dropped, my tummy softened because my breath deepened. I started to understand where other health problems were coming from and saw them disappear. The plastic surgeon who had told me that the only way that I was going to heal my diastasis and hernia was through surgery was shocked when I revisited him with a healthy abdomen.

The science behind this is straightforward. Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing the the body to be in a state of fight or flight, which causes your muscles to tense up. Breath holding impacts the tension of the abdomen muscles to be 'tense' not 'strong', inhibiting it's potential function which can also directly impact pelvic floor function, causing a myriad of issues. Your stress sends cortisol levels to peak levels and if you do not bring this down you will not allow your body to enter a regenerative state when you sleep. This means that even if you sleep for the recommended hours, the quality of your sleep will be poor, add high intensity exercise to that and the problem is exacerbated. Your body won't understand the stress that it's under, it will just keep adding it up. This creates the swollen tummy within inactive muscles that have no space to move.

The key to restoring balance is to calm down, connect with yourself, and restore your energy. Before you start any exercise can you ask yourself a few questions?: How do I feel right now? How stressed am I? How tired am I? This will help you make informed decisions about the type of exercise that would be beneficial for you.

Task:

1. Look in the mirror with no judgement and watch how you breath, can you see your full abdomen contract and relax (all the way from your chest to your pubic bone)?

2. Place your hands on either side of your rib cage, can you fill your hands with your breath? Can you see it and feel it?

3. When you inhale you will feel your ribcage expand and as you exhale it will contract.

4. Once you have made your observations you are one step closer to understanding your breath and can take it forward with you.

5. Try this lying down or even at your desk.

6. Check out @In|Exhale who does a wonderful free Sunday reset breathwork session everyweek.

In conclusion, the reasons why you might not be losing your round looking tummy might not be apparent at first glance. However, by paying attention to your body's needs and reducing stress, you can start to see positive changes inside and out. Calm, connect, and restore your energy to achieve your ideal balance. This supports your body and it's response to the stress of life and exercise.

I have finally achieved this, a simple 5 minute meditation and a structured programme can enable to you change what you feel and therefore what you see.

This next picture shows me today, a calmer and happy and strong individual, from the inside. The swelling has gone, my breath is full, my abdomen is functioning and most importantly my stress in managed. It takes hard work, consistency, dedication and a lot of self-love.