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It is thought that stress originates from an
ancient reaction to danger called the ‘fight
or flight’ response. Put simply, this means
that, in situations of extreme danger, our
ancestors needed to make split-second
decisions about whether it was better to face
their enemy and fight, or to run away from the
danger. These decisions would have been made
on a subconscious level which automatically
released hormones such as adrenalin and
noradrenalin into the blood. These hormones
then hastened the heartbeat and so rapidly
increased blood flow to the essential muscles.
Although we rarely require an automatic
response to danger in modern life, we have
nevertheless retained this emotionally
triggered response. The equivalent stressors
nowadays may be events such as speaking in
public; standing in endless queues or meeting
new people in social situations. We often feel
a physical discomfort as we struggle with
involuntary shaking or profuse sweating. These
uncomfortable and distressing feelings emerge
from the same ancient ‘fight or flight’
response which automatically prepared our
bodies for action. However, fighting or
running away from the situation is rarely the
appropriate response when perhaps speaking in
public (much as we may like it to be).
Therefore, what we now experience is the
body’s preparation for action, without the
action itself.
Clearly, reacting in such a primitive and
automatic way can cause many problems in life.
For example, each time we enter the same
stressful situation, we may anticipate the
discomfort we felt before and experience an
even more exaggerated emotional response. This
can eventually become such a cyclical process
that we employ avoidance strategies and start
to limit the things we do. In the most extreme
form we may even experience physical illness
or ‘panic attacks’. These attacks can involve
rapid heartbeat or unusual feelings in the
arms and legs - as blood automatically rushes
to the muscles.
Conversely, we may display our extreme
emotional arousal as ‘anger’ and perhaps begin
to blame others for the way we feel.
Transferring our own emotions from ourselves
to other people may make us feel exonerated of
any real responsibility. However, this may
simply cloud the issues and prevent us from
getting to the route cause of our own
distress. Blaming others may also be extremely
counterproductive as we begin to alienate
those around us and become further stressed by
confused and conflicting emotions.
Therefore, we need to relax and take time out
of our busy lives in order to allow our bodies
periods of recovery. If we are affected by
high levels of negative stress, this can lead
to physical and mental health problems.
Relaxing allows us to take a break and
re-energise ourselves, so that we are better
able to cope. We may also use a period of
relaxation to re-evaluate the way we conduct
our lives and work out more practical ways to
deal with the things which cause us negative
stress.
This re-evaluation could include more
controlled or logical ways of thinking about
our emotional responses and accessing our
‘emotional intelligence’. Becoming more
attuned to our inner signals may help us to
recognise knee-jerk reactions and keep them in
check. Equally, retaining the ability to look
at the bigger picture may help with more
measured responses to specific situations.
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