relationships

How artificial oxytocin injection influences female health

This article is re-published from www.fitandtreat.com

I read a lot about oxytocin effect on female health and overall feeling of wellbeing during my nutrition, mental health and neuroscience courses. Multiple research findings were pretty fascinating and looked like a solution for all specific “girly” problems. Statistically, the majority of us (especially single working ladies) lacks this miracle hormone that’s why we constantly feel stressed, depressed, gain weight, experience anxiety attacks, sleep deprivation, digestion problems, irregular or painful periods, moodiness and so on. On the other hand, it’s not easy to find the desired partner and build bonding relationships to regulate the natural release of oxytocin. So, I made my research, found oxytocin in a form of nasal spray and decided to test the chemical on myself.

Here is the report.

I got delivered nasal oxytocin spray yesterday. I always try all supplements on myself before I recommend it to my clients. So took it. Results are incredible. But before I share let me tell a couple of words about oxytocin itself:

1) it’s a hormone of bonding (usually our body produces it naturally when we cuddle with the loved ones). Female body also produces oxytocin during breastfeeding.

2) women are more sensitive to oxytocin than men (men produce vasopressin – male bonding hormone similar to oxytocin)

3) oxytocin neutralizes cortisol (the hormone of stress which has catabolic and inflammatory properties as well as provokes water retention, immune system suppression, and increases anxiety). Cortisol reduction helps women feeling more relaxed and satisfied, however, according to multiple studies, it reduces critical reasoning and motivation.

So! What did I feel?

1 hour after the injection: relaxation. My verbal functions and mental sharpness are slightly suppressed but I’m still fine and focused.

2 hours after the injection: I created an affordable package of my services and posted it on my web-site. (I’m not going to earn selling it but I will have more exposure and more opportunities to sell complimentary services, therefore, such as PT sessions). So I’m calm and relaxed but still alert and pretty logical, however, less hungry to profits.

3 hours after the injection: I went to bed because I felt like fall asleep. Usually, I work until I’m done. So, the obsessive motivation for success is gone. The feeling of my personal comfort and wellbeing turned into my top priority. Moreover, my verbal functions are suppressed even more. I don’t feel like to talk at all.

8 hours after the injection: still very relaxed, soft, tolerant. No obsessive motivation to hit the gym straight after getting up.

10 hours after the injection: spent an hour doing facial massage and beauty treatments with no anxiety to be late or lose time doing “unnecessary things”. Caught myself on clear understanding that

– I don’t really care to move back to Russia if in one year time my U.K. business (both of them) is not going to generate enough income to cover their high costs, salaries and my personal expenses (so pretty logical thought isn’t it?)

– I don’t care what anyone will think about it

– My comfort is my first priority

– I’m endlessly calm and relaxed

– I’m not going to work 12 hours a day anymore

– I love and value myself as I am and I’m completely fine with the way I move, look, sound, and so on. (Women will understand the feeling as we always never feel satisfied.)

Bodily effect:

– I have no water retention even if I’m on the first day of my period

– I have no psychological tension

– I have no muscles inflammation and moodiness

– I’m really fine with everything that’s going on.

Conclusion:

1. It works

2. It has positive impact on the body

3. If reduces cortisol as well as “fight or flight” motivational effect (be careful here if you have high-level risk-taking job)

4. It slightly reduces analytical functions and critical reasoning during the first few hours after the injection but both come back in 10 hours. The overall feeling of wellbeing is improved. However, motivation and drive for achievements are shrunk.

5 Tips to Overcome Social Anxiety

Social anxiety is one of the most common psychological disorders, following depression and alcoholism. The study published by Psychology Today revealed shocking results: 90% of participants stated that they experience symptoms of social anxiety disorder regularly. The good news: these 5 tips could help you to overcome symptoms and start living more fulfilling life.

1) Remember: you brain tend overthinking things.

No matter how confident we are, our brain is always anxious. Just take it as rule. It works this way, period! Our brain is evolutionarily wired to keep us safe from danger and rejection otherwise we would not survive. Anticipating a worrisome event is always worse than the actual situation. Always! For example, after being worried about a date or even visiting a gym in the first times, it may actually be a relief to walk through the door, and surprisingly find out that it is not scary at all. Our brain always tries to draw the worse case scenarios. So it’s important to remember that the alarm bells before an event are usually louder than necessary.

2) Face your fear – volunteer!

Exposure-response prevention is one of the CBT techniques that recommends facing your fear voluntary step by step or at once (depends on your personality). Push yourself slightly or just “jump into the sea”. I mean, for example, ask whoever is in charge how you can help. If you are worried, for instance, about the big event and scared to meet new people – volunteer to be a host. It sounds a bit strange but it works. Often, social awkwardness could be eliminated by having a defined role. Asking attendees to sign the guest book gives you a reason to interact with people with no fear to be rejected.

3) Be curious

Many people feel anxious because they think that they have nothing to say. Here is one helpful technique: ask open-ended questions or ask for advice. Carry on. Ask another question based on answers that take the conversation deeper. Many people would be glad to talk about their lives.

4) Dedication is the key

Don’t trust to what you see in social media. Multiple social psychology studies shown that the average American has about two true friends and one out of four participants revealed that they have no social circle at all. Unfortunately, we are living in the century of solitude. It means you are not alone. We are all in the same shoes to some extent. All of us suffer from the lack of true deep relationships. So, take the initiative! Think, what you like to do and, based on your answers, plug yourself into a small, recurring group with like-minded people.

Do you like rave music? Go and party. Do you like skiing – take a day off and subscribe for skiing school. The most important part is to be consistent and to keep showing up. Commit for at least few month, even if you’re tempted to stop. Just keep going and trying, and one day you will meet nice people.

5) Counseling

If you’re ready for a change, a good CBT partitioner could help you face your fears safely. You will be asked to build a hierarchy of things you are scared or avoid. Next, you’ll work through them gradually, moving on to the next level when you’re ready.

Don’t let the social anxiety to ruin your life. Take your time, practice, be friendly, slightly push yourself, and slowly but surely you will start being comfortable in your own skin.

Tatiana Dmitrieva

Sources:

https://www.fitandtreat.com

How to make your brain work better

7 activities your brain has to enjoy every day

Neuroscientists believe that the net effect of spending eight hours a day in the office performing repetitive tasks, a further two hours commuting, and the rest of the day scrolling through social media or watching TV, is an impairment of our normal brain functions. In short, we are being transformed into easily manipulated, apathetic zombies.

A daily routine, similar to the one above, has been scientifically proven to kill creativity. This occurs as a result of a rapid drop in our level of consciousness in such conditions. Read: Levels of consciousness vs happiness. Lacking the opportunity to really focus on a new task and the possibility of stretching itself to solve problems, the brain slips into so-called ‘down time’ or ‘sleep walker’ mode. The brain’s capacity to be proactive disappears quickly in such conditions, and it simply becomes lazy.

This is comparable to the process which occurs when we stop doing physical exercise, and the body consequently swiftly enters a more sedentary mode. Similarly, the brain loses focus and slumps into a semi-awake state.

An alternative scenario sees the brain engaging in 12 hours of extreme activity, permanently focusing on a variety of new tasks, learning on the go, and engaging in intensive decision making. It is constantly working at its peak. While this situation appears preferable, our brain is not designed for such extremes either. After a while it will simply stop functioning properly, due to information overload – another common feature of modern life. Read How to cope with information overload.

What happens next? The overly-active brain loses its ability to process new information, and again automatically switches to down-time mode. The recharging period could be long. Chronic information overload also causes fatigue, lack of creativity and depression.

According to David Rock, director of the Neuroleadership Institute and the author of bestseller Your Brain at Work, the human brain needs to experience 7 types of activities in order to function properly and we must have all of these every day.

If you want a plant to grow, it needs the right amount of water and nutrients,” says Rock. “It’s obvious when you leave one of those out. With the brain, it’s a less obvious. The right dietary elements are only one part of this.… The basic balanced diet that you probably already know is a foundation, but there are other types of inputs that your brain needs that people tend to ignore. And these are essentially exercising different types of circuits in the brain, allowing other circuits to rest and recover.

The ideal ratio of each of the 7 types varies from person to person, but it is important to have them all and separate them from one another. For example, don’t try to catch-up with friends or work during your down-time or time-in. In order to be more productive, creative and to feel happy and satisfied, we have to differentiate and clearly understand what kind of activity we are engaging in at a particular moment, allowing our brain to benefit from it. Likewise, don’t check your social media during your focus time.

Focus time

This is our productive time when we get things done. Our brain is highly active and exercised by problem-solving and intellectual challenges.

It’s helpful for creating deep circuits,” says Rock “and it’s a healthful and helpful process.

Without focus-time the brain becomes idle, resulting in mental sluggishness. It is very important to force it to focus, even if there’s no immediate need for it to do so. Let’s say you are on a two week holiday, and plan to spend your time doing nothing. That sounds great, but not for your brain. Give it the chance to focus for at least a few hours a day just to “keep it fit”. Learning a new language, reading a challenging book or doing any problem-solving tasks is very beneficial.

Connecting time

We are all social animals to some extent. We need to be connected and belong to a group, and our brain has the same need.

Being isolated socially is twice as dangerous to yourself as smoking. If you’re just working and not maintaining a social life, you’re probably impacting your health and well-being, not just your mental performance…

says Rock.

I moved to different countries at various times in my life, starting again from scratch. Each time I experienced a terrible lack of connection to people at the beginning. I didn’t have friends in these new locations, and sometimes could not even call the places I lived in ‘home’. What did I do? I visited local gyms or dance classes. Even without deeper interpersonal interactions, our brain can be satisfied through merely talking to other people… So give it a chance to be connected: Go out, help someone, start doing something with other people, and it will bring plenty of positive things into your life.

Down time

Down time is unrelated to problem-solving or to achieving your goals. It could be achieved by reading an interesting novel (don’t confuse this with reading professional literature – this is something to be done in your focus time), cleaning your home, cooking, or just sitting on a park bench, enjoying nature. Down time allows the brain to rest and recover.

You’re allowing space for your unconscious connections to come to the surface, to solve complex problems,

believe Rock.

Down time is vital for healthy brain functioning. However, it should be limited. It is always very tempting to dwell in such a mode all the time. As I mentioned earlier, when adopted for prolonged periods, down-time makes our brain lazy and impairs its functioning. Instead, take a 15-30 minute break every 2-4 hours of your active time. It will be refresh you and help you to unwind, but do not regress into this mode for hours or days.

Time in

Time in allows your brain to, in a sense, reorganize itself through reflection,

says Rock.

It’s different from down time, which is very inactive. With time in, you’re thinking about your thinking, you’re mindful and connecting your brain in deeper ways. It’s the kind of practice that allows you to reflect on your thoughts.

Yoga, meditation, psychoanalysis sessions, various spiritual practices such as tantric breathing, and many other techniques could help you to reach this mode. It is a state of being which enables you to capture your true feelings, analyse your experiences, and stimulate new ideas. Time in is one of the healthiest things you can do. Balancing yourself as a person will also improve you from a professional point of view as well. People lacking time for internal deep reflecting finally reach a state in which they are disconnected from what they want, what they need, and what really makes them happy.

Speaking about real time-in Rock noticed:

The number (of such hours) continues to decrease as I ask people. It’s not 20 or 10 or even 5 hours. For a lot of people, it’s a couple of hours a week, if that.

The culprit, he thinks, is our extremely fast lifestyle, overloaded as it is with tasks and information. The solution:

Find the ideal window in your week when you can carve out focus time — to do what I call level three thinking, deeper problem solving and writing and creative work.

It is a time slot which differs from person to person, but Rock says that the best time is generally early in the day, and early in the week — Monday, Tuesday, maybe Wednesday morning.

Play Time

This is all about novelty, the unexpected and fun, allowing new novel connections to form,

says Rock.

This could be absolutely anything that makes you laugh or experience relaxed and positive emotions. Comedy shows, shopping with friends, drinks or dinner out, playing games and any number of other options can be included in this category. Doing something “just for fun” at least once a day, enormously increases productivity and creativity.

Physical Time

Your brain benefits tremendously from physical activity, particularly aerobic activity. A recent study showed people were 23% more effective on days they exercised,

says Rock.

“When we exercise, we’re oxygenating the brain and helping to flush out toxins, but we’re also activating regions of the brain intensely that don’t otherwise get activated, and this allows other functions to rest and helps with the overall coherence of the brain. There’s increasing evidence that thinking is very closely connected to movement, and it seems you can improve the quality of thinking by improving your effectiveness at physical activities, and it’s not just an aerobic benefit.”

So make a habit of having physical time every day. If you have no chance to get to the gym, just walk home.

Sleep time

This is the time when our brain activates its special recovery mode to put all the things it has absorbed over the course of the day together.

The sleep situation in our society has become a terrifying problem,

explained Dr. Jessica Payne, head of the Sleep, Stress, and Memory Lab at Notre Dame, and advisory board member for the Neuroleadership Institute.

If you’re not getting enough sleep before work, research shows you might as well be working drunk,

she adds.

This is not just a metaphor. According to Dr. Charles Czeisler from Harvard Medical School, a week of sleeping four or five hours a night induces impairment equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.1%.

The advice? Get enough rest and try to enjoy all 7 types of mental activities every single day!

Tatiana Dmitrieva