Your Body, Stress, the Fight/Flight Response
Sweaty palms, racing heart, shortness of breath, knots in the stomach, inability to think clearly - these are just some of the indicators that your nervous system is in fight/flight mode.
The fight/flight response is a primitive mechanism, part of the sympathetic nervous system, designed to activate when we perceive we are in danger - danger to our personal safety.
Many people who dislike public speaking experience these symptoms to a greater or lesser extent.
When the fight/flight response is activated, the body is prepared to run away or stay and fight. This is enabled by the secretion of adrenalin. Muscles tense, pupils dilate to take in more information, the heart beats faster in order to send blood to the extremities diverting it from digestion and the thinking part of the brain, breathing becomes shallower and sweat is produced. Now you are ready to run or stay and fight.
Once the danger is over, the parasympathetic strand of the nervous system kicks in to calm things down.
Nature demonstrates this very well; think of an animal such as a deer being chased by a predator. The animal will run as swiftly as it can and when it senses that it is out of danger, will shake itself off and return to grazing - almost as if nothing has happened.
Modern life makes it difficult for our nervous systems to operate in this ideal way. We have numerous daily tasks to complete, deadlines to meet, traffic to negotiate and so on. Most of us are “wound up” to some degree and may never “wind down” fully. This means we may be secreting adrenalin and other stress hormones almost continually.
No wonder then that many people feel anxious, unable to sleep properly, tense, have headaches and digestive problems. The body is stressed. The restorative part of the nervous system is unable to operate.
Finding the time to relax and learning to relax properly is not a luxury but rather a necessity if you want to reduce stress-related dysfunction. As the American journalist, Sydney J. Harris said, “the time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”
The fight/flight response can also be triggered because we have certain beliefs that cause us to be fearful or tense. These can include ideas of perfection, expectations either we or others have of us and difficult work situations and colleagues, to name a few.
Dealing with these triggers means that we find ourselves much less likely to go into fight'/flight mode, leaving us much freer to be and operate in the way we want.
If tension and the kinds of symptoms I have delineated above are troublesome for you in some situation in your life, do get in touch. Integral Eye Movement Therapy and Hypnotherapy are ideal modalities for dealing with these.
