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Our Bodies Are Chronically in “Threat Mode” Our Bodies Are Chronically in “Threat Mode”
Wellbeing

Our Bodies Are Chronically in “Threat Mode”

But Being Kind Recalibrates Our Nervous System
Jaimee Bell
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Jaimee Bell:
an independent writer who specializes in sexual education, psychology and wellbeing.

Kindness is a virtue that is admired and applauded, in most cases. But did you know that being kind can also be good for your health? In fact, being compassionate to others can actually reset our consistently stressed systems back into our default “rest mode”, causing all kinds of positive effects to our overall health.

Our nervous system was never meant to be in “threat mode” all the time

According to Dr. James Doty, Stanford professor and author of Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and Secrets of the Heart, the nervous system doesn’t function optimally if it’s in threat mode all the time. And yet, our adrenaline-fueled, “on-the-go” lifestyles have us operating mainly in threat mode, which

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Jaimee Bell:
an independent writer who specializes in sexual education, psychology and wellbeing.
Publish date: 18.09.2020

Also read:

Why Go Barefoot? Why Go Barefoot?
Wellbeing

Why Go Barefoot?

A Cultural Account of Feet
Anna Berestecka
Anna Berestecka:

has a degree in dramatology and graduated from the Polish Reportage School in Warsaw. Her work has appeared in publications including Autoportret and Tygodnik Powszechny. She’s a fan of Iceland’s fjords and the snows of the far north.

Walking barefoot puts your thoughts in order, unclogs your head and can be a synonym of freedom. But it’s also part of a cultural code that helps us break routines or enter the realm of sanctified behaviour.

How can we manoeuvre in this labyrinth of meanings? Look below your feet and in front of you. On this path, we’ll be accompanied by Professor Arnold Lebeuf, a cultural anthropologist who for years headed up the Sociology of Religion Department at the Jagiellonian University’s Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion. When I ask about the sources of going barefoot, he refers me to his book Stopa bosa, stopa obuta. Semantyka motywu ikonograficznego [Barefoot, Shodden: The Semantics of Iconographic Motifs], and it will be our roadmap.

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