Anxiety – butterflies, ants in pants, heebie-jeebies, pin and needles,
Hmmmm? That is an interesting synonym, a
nxiety and butterflies.
I guess the fluttering feeling we feel in our gut when we are anxious and worried can be characterized as a feeling of fluttering of butterflies. But is there more to that?
We all know how the caterpillar morphs into a beautiful butterfly.
But what does that radical transformation entail? How does a caterpillar rearrange itself into a butterfly? What happens inside that chrysalis or cocoon? First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out.
Now if the caterpillar stopped there and looked at itself, it would most likely say, “Holy Cow! What kind of mess did I get myself into? How am I ever going to be whole again? I will NEVER be a beautiful butterfly!” WHAYYY!
Does this sound like you?
As you continue to grow and learn and develop into all that God intended you to be, you might stop and look at the oowy soup that appears to be your life.
But God is faithful, ‘He who began a good work in you will complete it.”
You may see oozing soup and God sees ingredients with which to build you into a beautiful butterfly.
But we become anxious and doubt ourselves and God. Just as we feel ‘butterflies’ in our stomach, we feel anxiety in our organs. This anxiety when left uncheck will manifest itself in different areas of the body. As the caterpillar digests itself, we will begin to feed on ourselves and develop ulcers, colitis, headaches, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, swelling, constipation and diarrhea.
How and why does this happen? When the body’s stress response kicks into high gear, the brain signals the body to get ready to fight the stress or ‘flight’, run from the stress. Just as the captain of a ship will lighten the cargo load in order to withstand the impending storm, the body tells the large intestines, “Lighten up the cargo hold.” And it will begin to eliminate the bowels. The brain tells the small intestines to ‘cease any movement and lock down the ship.’ (We have all seen the scene in the Titantic after it hits the iceberg and the crewmen frantically begin to shut down all valves to stop the intake of water). Imagine that happening to the gut and intestines. “Tighten up Scotty, we need to conserve energy!” Well…something like that. You get the idea.
Once the cargo hold is lightened up and the ship is locked down so no more damage is incurred, the collateral damage is constipation, cramping and irritable bowels.
How did I get from anxiety to caterpillar to butterfly to the Titantic. Talk about linguistic gymnastics!
When the tongue blocks your airway, you release more adrenaline putting your body in a constant state of ‘fight or flight’ mode.
This is when your Titanic starts taking in too much water! The crew (your hormones) start shutting down the valves (I’m talking constipation, irritable bowel) to save the ship.
Enough of the analogies.
YOU CAN get help for your anxiety/depression with a simple comfortable mouth piece that will re-align your tongue and get it out of the back of your throat and get you to breathe optimally.
Visit my website at www.drwaynewhitley.com and watch the amazing video testimonials. Call for a complementary consultation at 540-993-1091. A simple XRAY will see if your tongue is blocking your airway.
BREATHE BETTER, LIVE BETTER