In general, when we think about the idea of competition, we think of sport. We think about playing a game and winning. In my gym many clients compete in bodybuilding competitions. Most competitors think about the idea of placing in their class or winning their class. The thought of doing well and placing ahead of others is competition. However, this is not the type of competition I am referring to.
When I talk about concepts regarding mental health or the psychology of the brain as it relates to the body, I am going to relate these ideas to how they could affect our ability to reach our fitness goals, lose weight etc. as that is why those who are reading this are using our gym services or following us.
What is the opposite of competition?
The opposite of competition is compassion. Competition is a stress response. When competition floods our mind, our stress hormones elevate. If we are competing in a sport or getting on stage to do a show, the increase in stress hormones is natural and is a positive response by our body to help us perform our best. This increase in stress hormones helps us focus on the task at hand in our sport, it increases are adrenaline to perform and many other benefits that we need when competing. Also, you can think about it as a survival mechanism. If you were being chased by an animal that was trying to kill you, then your fight or flight response would kick in to help you escape to safety. When the event is done or you find safety, these stress hormones return to baseline through cortisol, and this is a very natural and healthy response in our mind and body.
What are other types of competition? This one I believe will stand out as most can relate to this idea. That is the idea of politics. Expressing political viewpoints is a great idea of competition as politics have been a great debate amongst people over the years as these debates often create an emotional response. How would expressing political viewpoints differ from competing in sport? Quite simply, games/sporting events end after a period of time, (the buzzer goes off at the end of the game). When expressing your political viewpoints to someone of the opposing viewpoint, when does that end? Does it ever end? Do they ever really see your point? The individual has a strong viewpoint, and they believe they are right, and the other side is wrong, therefore they make posts on social media or engage in conversations about their viewpoints trying to persuade the other side because they should believe the same way as they do and so on. I am not using this example to make any points about political strategies, but rather the point is, when does the buzzer go off and when is the game over so that your stress hormones can return to baseline? There isn’t one. It never ends. When an individual decides to make an opinionated post about their political stance to the other side, they are having a response to their stress hormones increasing putting your body into a state of fight or flight. The more they post or think about their political viewpoints in relation to changing the other sides mind and get frustrated, the longer their stress hormones stay elevated which means the positive effects of cortisol cannot take place and thus your cortisol levels stay elevated creating a negative response on your body. If they find themselves constantly thinking about how the other side cannot see their point of view so they continue to make more and more posts about their viewpoints, then they are living in a constant state of fight or flight. Think about that for a moment. When we come across political posts where someone is trying to persuade the other side to change their stance, do we see posts coming from a compassionate point of view, or is it more coming from a competitive view trying to make the other side feel unvalidated for having their viewpoint? We all know what politics are and can relate to someone we have seen who posts a lot about politics in an opinionated viewpoint. What we don’t think about is the brain doesn’t recognize the difference between what you physically do vs what you do think about. All our brain does is recognize the emotional response to the thought and then sends off hormones to your physical body as a response to your thoughts. Therefore, the simple thoughts of politics for many will cause a hormone fluctuation that will active your stress hormones.
Another example would be reading the news every day. How many people have found themselves stressed out from reading the news daily or going down rabbit holes of this theory or that theory over the past 2 years with covid. Then you may have turned the news off for a week and noticed you felt a lot better and found yourself with less stress and perhaps less anxiety about the world. This would be another example of the effects of living in fight or flight on your physical body based on things we can read or see every day. Our list can go on and on with what see or read daily that could have a negative impact on our brain.
The opposite of competition is compassion. Compassion is calming. Competition is stress inducing. You cannot live in a state of compassion if you are in state of competition. Compassion is having the ability to listen without voicing your difference in viewpoint, it is the ability to be empathetic towards others, it is the ability to breathe through your heart and to be loving. Sticking with the political example as that is major issue in our society today. Someone who is discussing politics coming from a compassionate state of mind is going to listen to that other side, intently looking for a way to find connection and a common ground with that opposite viewpoint knowing that if they can show empathy towards that other viewpoint, then that other side will be more open to hearing their viewpoint and a civil, mutual conversation can occur where both sides can calmly discuss their differences and then walk away from the conversation feeling like they both made ground in coming closer together. This is going to be a stress reduction, vs shouting at each other where no one is listening and both sides are leaving the conversation in an elevated state of flight or flight.
When we think about our lives and all the things that stress us out. We may realize that we are more likely to be living in fight or flight more often than we are not with just everyday life. The effects of this is, when our stress hormones are high, our insulin levels are very resistant, our main hormone balance of testosterone, estrogen are going to become imbalanced as a percentage of our hormones do come from our adrenals. When we are in this constant state of fight or flight, then those adrenals will have a negative effect on our testosterone and estrogen and both issues will result in weight gain and make it difficult for you to lose weight or achieve your fitness goals. Insulin resistance essentially means you do not have the ability to burn calories and rather you are going to store calories as fat. Testosterone imbalance is going to mean your metabolic rate is going to decrease which means you are going to have a hard time burning calories and more likely store more fat. Both factors are directly related to your stress levels.
Who would have thought? When we involve ourselves in controversial topics of discussion where an emotion response is likely, then we could very well find ourselves struggling to lose weight by causing our own elevation in your stress hormones based on our own thoughts. And really, any personal belief where you find yourself being emotionally attached to a viewpoint where you feel the need to change someone else’s perception is going to be the idea of competition. If you are in competition in your mind where there is no buzzer going off to end the game, then you are not able to be in a state of compassion where you are able to reduce your stress hormones. This is how the stress response affects our ability to lose weight and make progressions in our fitness journeys.
How do we become more compassionate? That does take work. However, this is one thing you can do every day starting right now that will help you. Any time you find yourself feeling your stress response elevate or you feel your need to express your viewpoint that may come off in a competitive manner, stop yourself and take 10 deep breathes. Our heart rate controls everything in our body. Therefore, inhale very deeply through your heart. Feel like you are really inhaling into your chest, into your heart, hold it for a second and the exhale slowly as much as you can. Repeat this 10 times and you should find that you find some sense of calming come over you where that initial stress response that came into your mind, won’t feel as strong. This would be great way to start entering a greater state of compassion to reduce your stress hormones so that ultimately you can make the progress you want in your fitness journey.
