Do you get butterflies in your stomach when you’re nervous?  If so, you’re not alone.  That fluttering feeling in your stomach can happen before an important event such as your first date, wedding day, or job interview.  You can also get those butterfly flutters when you fly, read your credit card statement, or open your child’s report card.  You get the picture.  Obviously, you don’t have real butterflies fluttering around in your stomach.  So, let’s look at what’s going on down there.

Why Do You Get Butterflies In Your Stomach?

Surprisingly, when your body anticipates a high-stakes event, whether positive or negative, it activates the basal ganglia.  Now, you don’t want to miss this. The basal ganglia consist of a network of structures in the brain that controls motor learning, executive function, emotions, pleasure, and sexual arousal.  Do I have your attention now?

Well, this pleasure center sends a signal to the vagus nerve in your gut to start fluttering.  Hence, the butterflies in your stomach.  Interestingly, whether you feel nervous or sexually aroused is all a matter of how you interpret the feeling.  Let me break it down a little further.  Once the basal ganglia network identifies the stimulus, it evaluates it based on previous exposures and experiences and then prepares an appropriate response.  

When faced with danger or excitement, the body releases a healthy adrenaline dose, which prepares you for the fight-or-flight response.   Adrenaline increases your heart rate, releases glucose from the liver, and moves blood away from the gut to the muscles in your arms and legs so that you can run away or face the danger. 

So, if this is a person that you’re really attracted to, your body also releases a healthy dose of dopamine, the feel-good chemical messenger (i.e. a dose of lust).  On the other hand, if this is an event with an unknown outcome or a person with whom you’ve had or might have a negative encounter with, the butterflies in your stomach flutter because your body perceives a threat.

Other Symptoms Related to Butterflies in Your Stomach

In addition to the nervous flutter in your stomach, you may also experience these other symptoms.

• Sweaty palms
• Nausea
• A sensation of having a “knot” in your stomach
• Faster heart rate
• Heavier sweating
• Faster breathing rate
• Lightheadedness
• Dizziness

How to Release the Butterflies In Your Stomach

There are several techniques that you can use to release those nervous butterflies in your stomach.  Some will work when the fluttering feels intense, and others will work to control your overall nervousness and anxiety.

One: Visualize Releasing the Butterflies

Now, I like to think that those butterflies are there to help me.  Again, it’s always a matter of how you interpret the event. 

• So, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in and breathe out slowly through your mouth.
• Now, see the butterflies fluttering their wings in a cage in anticipation of being released.  They are ready to find the prettiest flowers and sip the delicious nectar. 
• Smile as you visualize how happy the butterflies are to see you. 
• Now, put your hand in your pocket and take out the key to the cage. 
• Take a few more deep breaths, then put the key in the lock and open the cage. 
• Now, walk to the large window in the room and open it to let in the light and a light breeze. 
• Imagine that the butterflies circle you to thank you, and one by one, they fly out of the window. 
• Take a few more breaths and open your eyes.  
• Repeat this visualization a few days before the event or a few minutes before it.

Two: Practice Box Breathing or Square Breathing

As I mentioned in a previous post, I often use box breathing or square breathing to calm and energize myself.

• Sit upright with your feet on the floor.
• Try as much as possible to stay in the moment and focus and feel your breath as it enters and leaves your body. 
• Slowly exhale through your mouth to get all the oxygen out of your lungs.
• Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose and count silently to the count of 4. Feel the air as it fills your lungs and fills your abdomen.
• Hold your breath to the count of 4.
• Exhale slowly through your mouth to the count of 4.  Focus on the breath leaving your lungs and emptying your abdomen.
• Hold your breath to the count of 4.

Three: Practice a Brain Dump Activity

As I mentioned during a previous post, I often use a brain dump activity to declutter my brain and to release anxiety.  A brain dump activity means that you write a list of things that are bothering you, including the negative thoughts that keep playing in your head.  This activity works well the night before a big interview, date, meeting with your boss, or speaking in public.

Now, the key to a brain dump is to write as many things as you can without critiquing what you write.  Just get it all out of your head.

Four: Practice Journaling

If you’re a regular reader or subscriber to the blog, then you know how much I love journaling.  And, as with my previous posts on the importance of journal writing, these beautiful words of William Wordsworth haunts me when I slack off or feel too numb to write, “Fill your paper with the breathing of your heart.”

Fill your paper with the breathing of your heart

William Wordsworth

Here are several reasons why journaling can help to release the butterflies in your stomach.  Journaling:

1. Helps to record your important life events
2. Clears your mind and improves your focus
3. Helps to chart your goals and progress
4. Improves your mental health
5. Tracks your personal growth and progress.

Now, It’s Your Turn To Release The Butterflies in Your Stomach

So, I hope that you feel more educated about why you get butterflies in your stomach and how to release them.  I think you will enjoy these posts: box breathing to calm and energize you, journal writing through the pandemic, and journal prompts for anxiety.

We look forward to hearing about your experience in the comment section of this blog.  And, you can join the conversation on the Keep It Tight Sisters Facebook Page.

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Keep It Tight Sisters.

Eat. Move. Breathe.