Each of us has an instinctual response for self protection called the fight or flight or stress response.   When we experience a situation we perceive to be harmful or threatening to our self, our brain feels the anxiety and fear and activates the stress response.

The stress response provided our early ancestors the added energy and strength to fight or flee wild animals in order to survive a hostile environment.   Today, however, we know through recent research, that this automatic response is being turned on not only by real threats, but also by imagined fears.   The brain illogically can create its own feelings of danger unrelated to actual situations.

Basically if we fear any aspect of our lifestyle is threatened, our brain feels this sense of fear, anxiety or apprehension and triggers the stress response.   Feelings like we might lose our job, or lose a loved one and end up alone, or suffer some catastrophic health or financial problem can turn on the stress response.   It can also be activated by our reactions to bosses, office politics, endless deadlines, unpaid bills, snarled traffic, and the diverse demands of our families.

What happens when the stress response gets triggered?   Our body goes on alert status; it's like a 911 call.   Since the stress response is our basic survival mechanism, when it gets triggered, it overrides all other systems of the body.   It virtually transforms and affects change in all major organ systems to provide us with quick energy.

When the stress response gets activated:

• Our senses become increasingly alert to the threat of potential danger.

• Adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones, flood our bloodstream to increase the body's metabolism and overcome the effects of fatigue.

• Breathing becomes shallow as it speeds up to supply increased oxygen to our muscles.

• Heart rate and blood pressure are increased to rush blood to our arms and legs.

• Sugars,  fats and cholesterol from the liver are converted into fuel for quick energy.

• Saliva dries up and the digestion and elimination systems are stopped so blood can be directed away from our internal organs to our muscles and brain.

• Muscles become tense ready for action.

• Perspiration cools the body allowing it to bum more energy.

• Blood clotting mechanisms are activated to protect us from blood loss in case of injury.

• The immune system's efficiency is suppressed.

• The sleep process is blocked.