Stress is a topic I talk a lot about in my coaching at Vibrant Living; good stress, bad stress…often it’s all in our perception. Similarly, our body’s stress response is also affected by our “perception” of stress. What is bad stress to one individual might be motivating & exciting stress to another. Different perception, different impact on the body.
Our response to bad stress, also known as our fight/flight response, is hugely beneficial (even life-saving!) when we are under physical threat. But, today in our always on and wired world we experience something much less helpful – we engage our stress response with “emotional” threats (think worry over money, reliving a bad job interview, beating yourself up over and over again for a decision you made or never giving yourself a break from the constant beeping of your mobile device).
Understanding that our thoughts (and not just actual, physical events in our life) can result in the engagement of this response and taking steps to notice and disengage it (think 5, long, slow deep breaths) can significantly increase both our physical health and our overall emotional happiness.
For a great little explanation of this response check out Robert Sapolsky’s 2 min chat below. And if you would like help learning to engage your rest and digest response, please reach out to me, Amanda Weber, or one of the other passionate practicomers