Yesterday you fled for your life from an enraged mammoth. Later you stalked a boar through a forest but then had to fight your main rival for the carcass. Another day at the office, 12008 BCE.

For most of our species’ history the ‘flight-or-fight response’ allowed us to react instantly to events by giving us sudden boosts of energy or aggression so we could flee - or fight.

• Breathing becomes fast and shallow. Oxygen is fuel for your muscles to run faster, hit harder.
• The heart pumps three times faster (to carry the oxygen to those muscles). Tiny blood vessels at the surface of the skin close down so the body can sustain a wound and not bleed to death.
• Digestion stops, sexual function stops, even the immune system is temporarily turned off.
• It’s not about thinking clearly – the body doesn’t need to think, it wants to take action.

These days we don’t face predators or prey or (usually) tribal rivals. Instead we face job pressures, deadlines, public transport, meetings, traffic jams, domestic issues. Yet our bodies can react in the same way.

Your mouth can dry; you may feel trapped and want to escape, or get a sudden burst of aggression (which you try to keep under control); your hands might feel clammy; you may sweat; your heart can pump faster and blood pressure could soar.

Every time stress triggers the fight-or-flight response you are experiencing a false alarm. Short-term it may boost performance. When it becomes prolonged and excessive it can take its toll.

Too many false alarms lead to disorders like heart disease, high blood pressure, immune system disorders, panic attacks, fatigue, migraine headaches, IBS, insomnia, TMJ (temporomandibular joint) syndrome, skin conditions and sexual dysfunction.

What can you do?

With fast shallow breathing your brain constantly searches for an explanation of why your body is in a heightened state of alertness.

1. To interrupt the stress cycle, simply be quiet for a short time and do some gentle abdominal breathing.

• Sit with both feet on the floor. Relax your jaw. Inhale slowly through the nose. Expand your abdomen (let it inflate like a balloon).
• As you exhale, let your belly drop back towards your spine. Contract your abdominal muscles as you finish exhaling to expel all the air.
• Make the breath silent so that it’s gentle and relaxed.
• It can be helpful to place one hand lightly on your abdomen to direct the breath. Breathing like this for just 1 minute will help to relax you.
  With relaxed abdominal breathing you’ll be able to focus on what’s really important.

1. Discharge the energy.

• Exercise is good. Any activity that will help release muscular tension will also tend to lead naturally to abdominal breathing.
• A brisk walk around the block can also help by getting you away from the stressor, even temporarily. When you return, you may benefit from a different perspective on the issue.

When you understand the stress cycle you can do things differently, feel differently and get different – better – results. Whatever mammoth lies ahead.

Sara Longmuir, Business and Executive Coach,
SLongmuir@shirlawscoaching.com 07941 015 866

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Health and Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.