Stress Reaction Cycle - Natural Stress Response

Check this out, this is really cool. I want to talk about the Natural Stress Response us humans have. Let’s say we’re walking alone in the dark at night and we hear a scary noise, we consider that noise a perceived threat. That sets off a chemical reaction in our bodies and prompts our adrenal glands, which are on our kidneys, to spit out adrenaline and cortisol.

Now, the adrenaline increases your heart rate and gets you excited. Cortisol increases the glucose levels, which are the sugars in your bloodstream, forces our brains to use that glucose, and increases the ability of other substances that repair organic tissue. It also alters immune system responses, and suppresses the digestive system, among other things. It also talks with the areas in the brain that control our motivation, fear and mood responses. It’s pretty cool stuff.

BUT, here’s the thing, our Natural Stress Response is USUALLY self-regulated, meaning that once the perceived threat is gone, whether it is a noise at night, a screaming child, a problem with somebody at the store, or a car accident, our hormone levels return to normal. All of our bodily functions I was just talking about calm down, like our blood pressure and our heart rate, and we just move about our day. That is what we used to be like as humans years ago. We were more primal and instinctual and basically just “moved beyond” the stressor.

But, now we are constantly under pressure and those stressors we are talking about, ranging from financial problems, to family and relationship problems, addiction problems, health problems, or whatever your problem of the day is, are ALWAYS present. And, we constantly feel like we are under attack, so that “fight or flight” Natural Stress Response is constantly on, causing a cascade of physiological health related problems like weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, headaches, anxiety, depression, and digestion problems… just to name a few.

This is why learning healthy ways of coping with stress is actually vital for overall health and wellness.?Anyway, this is just a short snippet of a larger video series I did on mindfulness and meditation in my Life Mastery School by Dennis Berry series.

Please check it out here: https://dennisberry.com/life-mastery-school/

Have a beautiful day!

D.