The fight-or-flight response also called the acute stress response is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. A good example of this in play is if you were to meet a bear as you were walking home. What would happen to your body in this case? Your brain which hosts your nervous system would trigger the production of stress hormones mainly adrenaline and cortisones. There “stress hormones” cause a surge in blood pressure and increased heart rate that would prompt your flight response making you RUN! (Because lets face it you’re not gonna try and fight the bear. Your brain is smarter than that!)
Now that we have the science behind I would like to focus on the bear in our minds. This bear could be deadlines at work, finances, relationships, family and basically anything that causes us any form of anxiety prompting us to either become defensive or run away. Life is filled with ups and downs and if we let them, nearly all things we come across in life can bring us stress and lots of negative energy. You could be sitting in traffic, its not moving, you’re getting late! What happens to your body? Your heart rate goes up, anxiety rises, you get angry you honk your horn unnecessarily! This is a fight response initiated by your brain you want to fight for your job so you want to be on time because maybe you’re the breadwinner, you have 3 kids or your simply trying to make your life better.
Lets take another example you’ve had a tough ride in your past relationships be it relationships with men, women, family or general friendships. None of them seem to last or stick around so you find it very difficult to attach yourself to people. You dissociate. Whenever you get too close to someone or some people what happens? You start to worry, anxiety rises, your stress levels hit the roof, you get all sorts of paranoid feelings that they will abandon you and when this happens, your flight response is triggered. To protect you from harm your brain has already created a defense mechanism for you through the flight response, so you find yourself cutting off people who start becoming too close to you. You find yourself making excuses not to see them, ignoring their calls, starting meaningless arguments and anything that will push them away.
We all know someone or have experienced something similar in life. You should know that life is a series of events and not all of them can be rosy. Our reaction in circumstances will determine whether we are happy and have peace of mind or will be in a constant state of anxiety! The best way to beat the modern day bear in our minds in through meditation. Learn how to calm your mind through simple breathing and bringing yourself into the present moment, the here and now. When you calm your mind the neural transmitters will be triggered to produce “feel good hormones” such as dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. These hormones produce feelings of euphoria, happiness and excitement. They bring us positive energy which is very important because it results in better health, reduced blood pressure and the feeling of wanting to live life to the fullest!
Do not let all aspects of life both minor and major keep you in an anxious state. You will live your whole life anxious and worried about what happened and what is going to happen. The past is gone, the future is uncertain and worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. Even as you go about your day bring yourself to the here and now take every problem positively and as a lesson don’t worry too much. Worry is infinite. It will always be there but today will not.
LIVE! LOVE! LAUGH!
