Widen the Window Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Widen the Window

Einleitung anhören

00:00

Zusammenfassung von Widen the Window

Name: Widen the Window
Rating: 4.8 (353 reviews)
Author: Elizabeth A. Stanley

Elizabeth A. Stanley

Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma

4.8 (353 Bewertungen)

24 Min.

Themen

Mentale Gesundheit Sport Trauma & Heilung

Inhaltsübersicht

Widen the Window
in 8 Kernaussagen verstehen

Audio & Text in der Blinkist App

Kernaussage 1 von 8

What’s in it for me? Learn to heal your stress and trauma through mindful recovery.

Would you believe it if you were told that being constantly overworked and sleep-deprived could have the same effect on your mind and body as PTSD?

Our culture tends to talk about “stress” and “trauma” in very different ways. We use “stress” to describe our reaction to everyday annoyances, pressures, and anxieties — from pending deadlines to flat tires — while “trauma” is usually reserved for the long-term psychological effects of a catastrophic event, such as a major accident.

But stress and trauma actually have more in common than you think. Both activate our bodies’ stress arousal systems, and both can have severe consequences for our mental and physical health.

In these blinks, we discover how stress and trauma affect our mind and body, how we often unconsciously aggravate our pain, and which practical exercises we can use to address stress arousal in a conscious and constructive way.

In these blinks, you will learn

why your “thinking brain” and your “survival brain” don’t always get along;
how focusing on your butt can help your body discharge stress; and
why some stress is good stress.

Stress and trauma prompt the “ancient” part of our brain to engage our bodies’ natural defense systems.

Stress and trauma are often seen as separate issues in our culture. Often, we view stress as something to brag about — a sign of our busyness and importance. Trauma, on the other hand, is viewed as a serious, more or less permanent condition in response to a horrible event.

But for your mind and body, stress and trauma lie on the same spectrum. That’s right, how you react to an angry email from your boss versus a gun to your head actually have a lot in common. Both rely on an ancient survival response of your brain — it’s just a matter of degrees.

Your brain can be roughly divided into two parts. The surface, or neocortex, is the “thinking brain,” which enables higher cognitive functions such as thoughts, plans, and memories. These activities are mostly conscious and voluntary.

Below the surface lies the “survival brain,” which consists of the limbic system, brainstem, and cerebellum. It exists in all mammals, regulating basic survival functions such as breathing, sleeping, and hunger — most of which are not under our conscious control.

Most importantly, the survival brain also regulates your response to stress. It constantly scans your environment for internal or external threats in a process called neuroception. When the survival brain neurocepts a threat, it engages your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which controls things like hormones, heart rate, and digestion to help you deal with the situation. The ANS has two branches: the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), which is responsible for turning stress activation on; and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS), responsible for turning it off.

When stress activation is turned on by the SNS, your mind-body system runs through your three lines of defense.

The first one is your social engagement system. Imagine yourself walking alone in a park at night when suddenly, a hooded figure blocks your path. Your first reaction would likely be to look around for other people, perhaps yelling for help.

Once you realize you’re all alone, your SNS resorts to your second line of defense, the fight-or-flight response. You prepare yourself to throw a punch, but when the hooded figure produces a knife, your heart jumps and you run away.

Now imagine that you’re not fast enough. Your attacker catches you and pins you to the ground. Your body goes slack, and your mind goes blank. This last line of defense is freeze, and it’s the one most often associated with trauma. It happens when the survival brain perceives you to be truly helpless. The stress of such trauma can get stored in your body and brain for a long time.

Stress gets stored in our bodies and brains without adequate recovery, which can lead to dysregulation.

Your stress-response system is designed to mobilize a lot of energy at once — speeding up your heart rate, slowing digestion, and increasing oxygen flow to your brain — in order to help you deal with danger. After such heavy activation, your body and brain need to recover.

Recovery from stress is also managed by the survival brain. In a process called allostasis, it helps your brain, hormones, immune system, and nervous system return to a healthy baseline. But in the same way you can’t control your instinctive stress response, you can’t control recovery. For recovery to happen, your survival brain has to perceive safety.

Dysregulation compromises our health and decision-making.

To determine whether you might be dysregulated, ask yourself if you’re familiar with the following pattern: You have an important project due. For a week, you work 16 hours a day, barely sleeping. On top of that, you somehow will yourself to go to the gym every night and eat as healthily as possible. But once the project is finished, you crash. You spend the whole weekend in bed, binge-watching TV and mindlessly consuming junk food.

This example illustrates the two ways in which dysregulation typically presents itself. Your mind-body system either gets “stuck on high,” mobilizing all possible resources and making you hyperactive, anxious, irritable, and restless; or it gets “stuck on low,” saving every bit of energy it has left and making you depressed, exhausted, numb, and overwhelmed.

Chronic stress and unresolved trauma narrow the window in which we can efficiently handle stress.

After learning about the many negative effects of stress and trauma, you might think that the healthiest choice you could make is to somehow engineer a completely stress-free life.

But stress is actually perfectly natural, and humans are built to withstand it. In fact, a certain amount of stress can boost our mental and physical performance.

The initial size of our window is determined by our genes, our childhoods, and the traumas we’ve experienced.

Stress and trauma narrow your window, but what determines its size in the first place?

Your biology is the first part of the equation. How you react to stress and how much stress you can handle is partly determined by the genetic material passed down by your parents. Researchers now know that genes can also store trauma. One study exposed male mice to traumatic conditions and later studied their offspring. Even in the third generation of mice, the researchers found signs of dysregulation in their metabolism and behavior; the trauma of their grandparents had been handed down to them through genes alone!

To widen our windows, we must create understanding and cultivate attention.

Now that you know what determines the size of your window, how can you learn to widen it?

Understanding how you personally react to stress and trauma is the first step in addressing any dysregulation. Journaling is a great way to reflect on your experiences and behavior.

Two basic “MMFT” exercises can help you discharge stress activation.

MMFT stands for Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training, a program the author designed to help soldiers learn to prepare for, deal with, and properly recover from stress and trauma.

Healing stress and trauma has no quick-fix solution, so widening your window with MMFT will require some dedication and consistent practice. The good news is that it only takes two fundamental exercises to start your practice.

MMFT and healthy habits can help us regulate stress, emotions, and chronic pain — as well as heal dysregulation.

Just as they can help you manage stress, MMFT exercises can also be used to deal with difficult emotions and chronic pain. For example, you can adjust the Ground & Release Exercise to use when you experience overwhelming emotions. First, acknowledge your feelings and thoughts, and let them wash over you. Then, ground yourself by focusing on your contact points.

Similarly, if you’re one of the many people who suffer from chronic pain, you can use MMFT to address any underlying dysregulation, shift your perception of the pain, and potentially lessen it over time. Once you have some experience with MMFT, you can try to work with the pain directly in your mindfulness exercises.

Du möchtest die gesamte Zusammenfassung von Widen the Window sehen?

Kernaussagen in Widen the Window

Mehr Wissen in weniger Zeit

Sachbücher auf den Punkt gebracht

Kernaussagen aus Sachbüchern in ca. 15 Minuten pro Titel lesen & anhören mit den „Blinks”

Zeitsparende Empfehlungen

Titel, die dein Leben bereichern, passend zu deinen Interessen und Zielen

Podcasts in Kurzform ^Neu

Kernaussagen wichtiger Podcasts im Kurzformat mit den neuen „Shortcasts”

Worum geht es in Widen the Window?

Widen the Window (2019) is your guide to healing trauma, relieving chronic stress, and living fully in the present. Drawing on her personal experience as a military leader and building on the latest science, Elizabeth A. Stanley examines how stress and trauma impact our mind and body; how our culture incentivizes work over health; and how mindfulness can bridge the gap between our thinking brains and our bodies’ ancient survival stress response.

Wer Widen the Window lesen sollte

Anyone who has suffered physical or psychological trauma
People working in the military, first response, and other high stress professions
Overachievers, workaholics, and other “type A” personalities

Über den Autor

Elizabeth A. Stanley is a US Army veteran, award-winning author, and associate professor of security studies at Georgetown University. She holds degrees in political science and strategy from Harvard, Yale, and MIT, and has used her experience to create the acclaimed Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT), a method used to help soldiers and civilians manage high-stress situations.

Kategorien mit Widen the Window

Gesundheit & Ernährung Psychologie

Ähnlich wie Widen the Window

The Body Keeps the Score

Bessel van der Kolk

Mind, Brain and the Body in the Transformation of Trauma

18 min

4.5

What Happened to You?

Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey

Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing

Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self

Why stress is good for you and how to get good at it

16 min

4.4

Forgiving What You Can't Forget

Lysa TerKeurst

Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again

25 min

3.7

It Didn't Start With You

Mark Wolynn

How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End The Cycle

Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model

22 min

4.6

When the Body Says No

Gabor Maté

The Cost of Hidden Stress

From Surviving to Thriving: A Scientific Model

The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking

A Brief History of Humankind

Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha

15 min

4.5

My Grandmother's Hands

Resmaa Menakem

Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

24 min

4.4

Do Breathe

Michael Townsend Williams

Calm Your Mind. Find Focus. Get Stuff Done.

23 min

4.5

She Has Her Mother’s Laugh

Carl Zimmer

The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

The secrets of 40 millionaires' wealth, revealed

15 min

4.4

Waking the Tiger

Peter A. Levine with Ann Frederick

Healing Trauma

14 min

4.2

When You're Ready, This Is How You Heal

Brianna Wiest

Inspiration to Begin Your Journey of True Transformation

18 min

4.6

The Epigenetics Revolution

Nessa Carey

How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance

24 min

4.6

Resilient

Rick Hanson with Forrest Hanson

How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness

21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

The Art of Split-Second Persuasion

17 min

4.4

The Myth of Normal

Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté

Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture

Simple Truths for Going Easier on Yourself, Embracing Imperfection & Loving Your Way to a Better Life

How to Get What You Want by Living Fearlessly

Listening to Ignite the Human Mind

20 min

4.5

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo

The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary

16 min

4.5

Ultra-Processed People

Chris van Tulleken

The Science Behind the Food That Isn't Food

7 min

2.9

The Stress Prescription

Elissa Epel

7 Days to More Joy and Ease

20 min

4.6

Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess

Caroline Leaf

5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress, and Toxic Thinking

The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life

Myths about genius and what it really means to be great

The Biohacker's Guide to Getting the Body and Mind You Want

Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN

36 min

4.6

The Willpower Instinct

Kelly McGonigal

How Self-Control Works, Why it Matters and What You Can Do to Get More of It

23 min

4.4

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

One Man’s Obsession With Beauty and Youth, and His Downfall

A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be

How to Make Tomorrow Better Today

18 min

4.4

My Morning Routine

Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander

How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired

Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life

A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity

How to Eat Smart and Sharpen Your Mind

27 min

4.6

What the Fork Are You Eating?

Stefanie Sacks

An Action Plan for Your Pantry and Plate

16 min

4.1

How to Think Like a Philosopher

Peter Cave

Scholars, Dreamers and Sages Who Can Teach Us How to Live

18 min

4.2

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

The Psychology of Persuasion

33 min

4.6

The Mental Toughness Handbook

Damon Zahariades

A Step-By-Step Guide to Facing Life's Challenges, Managing Negative Emotions, and Overcoming Adversity with Courage and Poise

19 min

4.5

❤️ für Blinkist️️️

Ines S.

Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.

Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.

Ekaterina S.

Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll

Nils S.

Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.

Julia P.

Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.