“Flight or fight”…or sit

Stress, the kind that rattles you and leaves you wired and jumpy is unpleasant. Even if it transitory, the flight or fight response is designed to save your life. It evolved as a survival mechanism that allows people -and mammals in general- to react very quickly to life-threatening situations; so once it’s set in motion, it’s no small deal.

This instantaneous and beautifully choreographed sequence of hormonal changes and physiological responses helps someone fight a threat off or flee to safety. Unfortunately, the body can also overreact to stressors that are not life-threatening, such as traffic jams, work pressure, and family difficulties. When you overreact to these types of situations, you can create a loop of chronic unresolved physiological changes. You pay for this habitual alarm mode, in a currency dear to you: health and wellbeing. 

According to the Harvard Medical School’ Mental Health letter, “research suggests that prolonged stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging deposits, and causes brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and addiction. More preliminary research suggests that chronic stress may also contribute to obesity, both through direct mechanisms (causing people to eat more) or indirectly (decreasing sleep and exercise)”.If this sounds like you, you’re in good company. According to the American Medical Association, 80% to 85% of all human illnesses are related to stress.

The stress response has a nemesis that lives as a possibility within the same autonomic nervous system. It’s the Relaxation Response which, when activated, allows humans to relax. It is seriously easy to evoke. (https://www.relaxationresponse.org/steps/). Oh! you might say, this is reminiscent of meditation. And yes!, you would be right.

The benefits in learning how to evoke it regularly have been very well documented. Mindfulness practices demand that the individual sit alone with his thoughts, emotions, and nervous system, the hyper vigilant sensor of danger.  According to Barry Boyce, editor in Chief of Mindful magazine, “when we sit for a time with no immediate project to fixate on, we expose ourselves directly to the workings of our mind and body, and can learn to regulate them more effectively”.

If we learn to manage and regulate our nervous system, our tolerance for stressors increases and we can avoid marinating in stress hormones, and probably avoid making rash judgments and decisions. No wonder then that the effectiveness of such practices is being actively researched on firefighters, police, soldiers, doctors and others who work in high stress jobs.

Next time you feel the urge to fight or fly, try sitting instead. 

Pilar Angel - August 2015