Connection beats Anxiety

It’s a known fact that oxytocin, often called the feel good or love hormone, helps to reduce the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies and lowers anxiety. Personally, this year has been one of high stress. Various situations, and mostly completely out of my control.

This stress has affected me in many different ways including poor sleep. I wake and toss and turn and my mind spins around and around over different scenarios, conversations, anxieties… It’s frustrating and so, so tiring.

A few nights ago I awoke, once again, in the early hours.
Too much light.
Too much noise.
Too hot.
Too much spinning through my head.
I lay there and tried to get back to sleep. But it just wouldn’t come.

At about 4.20am I literally reached out. I touched Reuben’s back. And in response he reached his hand over and took mine.

Exhale. I felt myself letting go. That’s the last thing I remember until my alarm woke me at 6.30am.

That simple act of touch, love, connection triggered a release of Oxytocin, that calmed my anxiety, quieted my mind and allowed my body to relax back into sleep. Amazing stuff.

The next day as I considered the power of what had happened the night before, and the way connection beat my anxiety, I had a lightbulb moment…

Here the share:

💡 Eternal and Spiritual truths are often mirrored in the physical.

💡 In the physical: Oxytocin beats Cortisol.
The hormone released when we experience love and connection has the power to silence our stress hormone cortisol, released when our SNS activates during experiences of fear and heightened stress.

💡 In the Eternal: God’s word says in 1 John 4:18 that when we know and experience God’s perfect love, fear is removed from the equation.

How cool is that! What a master designer God is. What a powerful experience and realisation.