Buddhist remedy for stress tremors?
FleaMarket
Veteran
Stress tremors are one of the body's responses to anxiety. A fight or flight response of sorts. The body shakes and shivers as if cold when under various levels of stress and anxiety. Something as mundane as speaking to a business over the phone about resolving a mistake on their end can trigger a bodily response regardless of the mind's understanding there is no real threat. It can begin at first thought of making the call and persist long after the conclusion of the call.
The directed mind does not necessarily need to be involved for the physical response to take place and persist. In fact it can actively observe the tremors as they are, separate from the condition of the mind. This allows a strange state of a reasonably calm and collected mind with a tremoring body before, during, and after the call.
Placing the directed mind on the tremoring body and focusing on calming the body appears to work as a better remedy than directing thought to other activities while allowing the body to carry on without judgement. This is an after-the-fact remedy. I'm curious if there is any remedy to eradicating this particular physical response before it arises?
Cats provided for additional stress relief
Comments
There's no quick fix (but when it is happening , grounding your self in the present moment by breathing, will help to reduce the impact)...
However...Thus have I heard for a more effective way... explore the Three Marks of Existence Anicca, Dukkha), and Anatta ...one then has a better understanding ( hopefully an experiential understanding) of how one ticks and in turn this knowledge should help to reduces the chances of becoming ticked off/triggered....
Looking at this a bit through the three marks..
The sensation comes from somewhere. It originates within me somehow, influenced by some conditions.
A held view on how this event will unfold influenced by different events of the past.
A held preference for a desired outcome which conflicts with the held view.
Ignorant of the right action the mind proliferates negative emotions.
A mind begins the event unprepared, in conflict, and emotional.
It's a business' nature to behave like a business.
It's a patron's nature to behave like a patron.
The tremors may come from not knowing what to expect while holding on to views and preferences.
Maybe they will stop through more thorough planning and investigation prior to engaging in events, along with reducing/eliminating attachment to held views and preferences.
Of course if I fully let go the desire to remedy the mistake, it all goes away. Though in this case, it is more of an obligation I've been avoiding due to aversion.
This isn't going to go well,
I want it to go well,
I don't know how to make it go well,
That makes me feel uncomfortable.
Ok, let's begin..
This is going to go as it goes,
It will be as it will,
I act with sila and brahmaviharas,
Equanimous in the moment.
Ok, let's begin..
It’s best to take this response by surprise… the moment you think of making the difficult phone call, immediately do it, and don’t sit fretting about it. Or at least that was my method.
The best resource that I've found so far on curing anxiety is the Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@anxiety_recovery
In addition to the YT channel, which includes many success interviews, they have a lively free Facebook group, as well as two paid Mentorships where the mentors are people who have cured their anxiety (or what they call "went back to living", free from anxiety).
The method, if I understand it correctly, is quite aligned with Buddhism, implementing awareness, acceptance, and right action. In the mindset part, there is much talk of self-compassion.
In the example of the stress tremors, one would respond with the "ALARM" method (which is used with all anxiety symptoms, since they are all taken to be just symptoms of the underlying cause which is anxiety, and not discrete symptoms needing a myriad solutions).
A - Acknowledge/Aware - One would acknowledge or become aware that one is experiencing stress tremors.
L - Label - One would label the stress tremors as just (a symptom of) anxiety.
A - Accept - One would accept the stress tremors to the best of their abilities. Not fight them, not try to suppress them, not try to do anything with them. Just accept and let the stress tremors be there. "What we resist, persists". The idea here is to send to the nervous system the message that there is nothing wrong, that there is no real danger, with the aim that the nervous system then over time "desensitizes" ie. that the symptoms go away gradually on their own as a result of us taking an attitude that there is nothing wrong, that there is no real danger, that these are just symptoms of anxiety.
R - Refocus - One would refocus on the next thing that one needs to or wants to do. I take refocusing to mean thinking about that next thing. In the example above, this might be the telephone call, or something else.
M - Move on - One would go through with doing the next thing one refocused on, ignoring completely (but not suppressing) the stress tremors, or just allowing them to be there, but focusing on that next thing.