Even though your nervous system evolved for a world that no longer exists, you can reprogram it for the world in which you are living. When the crisis response is repeatedly and needlessly engaged, constantly flooding your body with stress hormones that are not being burned off, it is not only useless for your survival, it plays havoc with your health and peace of mind. You can interrupt this loop by reprogramming your autonomic nervous system to no longer set off a crisis response in the face of daily stresses. By training your nervous system to keep the blood in your forebrain, you will rather than being overwhelmed by life's ongoing pressures, be more able to think clearly and cope effectively.

Holding a stressful memory in your mind while touching specific spots on your head, called "neurovascular holding points," conditions your body to have a composed rather than emergency response to the memory. By resetting your nervous system in this way, the stress response cycle is not activated when the memory occurs. If you carry this out with a number of memories, the effect begins to generalize, both to other memories and to current stressors as well. This simple technique for creating a new conditioned response within primitive brain centers can be tremendously valuable. Not only can it bring greater peace of mind by keeping you from unnecessarily triggering the stress response cycle, it will help maintain and even improve your health.

The stress reaction cycle is a physical response. When you fall apart or emotionally "lose it," it has more to do with physiology than psychology. This fact alone can afford you some compassion for yourself or for another. And a wonderful thing about the neurovasculars is that you don't need to try to be positive. It's better, in fact, to sink into the full unpleasantness of the feeling while holding the points. As the blood returns to your forebrain, you are reconditioning your response. Holding your neurovascular points also provides a cranial adjustment, so symptoms such as chronic headaches, neck pain, or jaw tension may spontaneously disappear.

The neurovascular holding points are situated at various spots on your head as well as three other places on your body. They affect blood circulation. By softly holding specific neurovascular points for between three and five minutes, you can increase the blood circulation to the part of the body the points affect. Two neurovascular points, called the "frontal eminences"--the bumps on your forehead directly above your eyes--impact blood circulation throughout the entire body. They are particularly valuable because by holding these points when under stress, the energies from your fingertips keeps the blood from leaving your forebrain. More importantly, this can draw blood back into your forebrain even after you've begun to "lose it." Some people do not have bumps on their forehead. If you do not, just find the points about an inch above your eyebrows.

We actually know these points instinctively. When shocked, the hand naturally finds its way to the forehead. That is why I call these the "Oh my God" points. Because they are slightly raised in most people, they are also called the "frontal eminences." The next time you are hit by stress and feel overwhelmed or highly emotional (time--3 to 5 minutes):

1. Lightly place your fingerpads on your forehead, covering the frontal eminences, the "Oh My God" points.
    

2. Put your thumbs on your temples next to your eyes, breathing deeply.
    

3. As the blood returns to your forebrain over the next few minutes, you will find yourself beginning to think more clearly. It is that simple!

Years ago I was doing volunteer work at an elementary school, assigned to help a teacher who had the seemingly impossible job of handling about thirty hyperactive kids, mostly boys. It was a wild scene to walk in on. Erasers were flying, kids were climbing on cabinets, the sounds were deafening. It felt hopeless. I was trying to give the teacher some tools and techniques that might help, but to say the least, it was a challenging mission. Sometimes by mustering the full force of my personality I could engage the class in the exercises, but chaos tended to rule.

 
Many of us get caught in the following loop: the daily stresses of life trigger the primitive brain centers into an emergency response condition, up to eighty percent of the blood leaves our forebrain, stress chemicals pour into our bloodstream, primitive stress response emotions sweep over us, and we proceed through another day in the modern civilized world with the biochemistry of an early ancestor in mortal danger. We wind up trying to adapt to the complex surroundings that caused the stress with the most primitive parts of our brain. Our more recently developed cognitive abilities are annihilated. Our perceptions become distorted. Our capacity to respond creatively and adaptively is in meltdown. The automated strategies that developed millions of years ago to deal with threat take over. Have you ever been waist deep in an impassioned fight with your spouse but unable to recall what the argument was about a few hours later? That is the stress response loop in action.

Posttraumatic stress disorder exemplifies this loop in extreme. A harmless sight or sound or smell or impression activates a concentrated stress response where your body relives a situation of overwhelming threat. But in a milder form, we are all dealing with stresses and pressures that unnaturally trip our fight-or-flight response, cage us in the limited reality of our primitive brain centers, pulse stress response hormones through our bodies, and leave us feeling far more fearful or anxious or angry or aggressive than the situation warrants. These conditions can persist like a low grade fever. And, in a polite, civilized modern society, the loop offers few natural outlets for burning off, through fight or flight, the stress chemicals that maintain the cycle.

Bring to mind a situation where you had a hard time coping. Perhaps you were terrified, panicked, or furious. Perhaps you were overwhelmed with jealousy or grief. Perhaps you "lost it."

Place your fingerpads over the "Oh My God" points, thumbs on your temples next to your eyes, breathing deeply. Keep the scene in your mind over the next few minutes. As you relax, you will be freeing yourself from the memory's emotional grip.