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Stress
We are all pre-wired
with the potential to be stressed. There is not one of us who has
not experienced that sense of dread and alarm that comes with finding
ourselves in a dangerous situation. The body and mind screams "run
away" our heart races, we sweat, we breath fast, our thoughts
are full of gloom and disaster, we are pumped full of adrenalin
so we are stronger and faster and our five senses go into overdrive,
sensitive to the smallest hint of the threat growing. We have a
survival choice; Fight and defend ourselves by any means or to get
out of there at super speed and make good our escape. This natural
way of handling the stress of danger is called the "Fight or
Flight" response.
Fight or Flight
Our bodies and our
capacity for thought have not changed for one hundred and fifty
thousand years. When we were hunter gathers our threats and dangers
were a lot simpler. Sabre tooth tigers, Bears, Wolves, marauding
bandits from different tribes, these were all good reasons why the
Fight or Flight response was so important for the survival of our
tribe.
If a moody bear jumped out at us as we collected berries, almost
instantly and without thought we would spring into automatic survival
mode. Fuelled by a massive adrenalin boost our bodies would jump
to full alertness and start plotting the next best move to ensure
our survival. If we were lucky enough to have some distance on the
bear then we would run away as fast as an Olympic sprinter, our
legs and arms pumped full of energy and power by the adrenalin.
If we are cornered and have to fight then the Fight or Flight response
causes our strength to be increased and our reflexes to quicken
and this raises our chances of getting out of there in one piece.
If we make it back to the safety of our cave, we then have a chance
to reflect on what has just happened. we may feel shaky and tired
as the body starts to break down all that excess adrenalin that
is still being sent around the body. As a sense of safety and calmness
takes hold and the body starts to reset all of our alarm systems
to a more calmer sense of readiness. Things like cell repair, our
digestion, the immune systems factories that make the anti-bodies
that protect us, all of these systems had stopped working. Systems
not deemed important enough to drain valuable energy when the danger
was at full alert slowly begin to restart and synchronise again.
Our bodies would then gently return to its natural balance until
it needed to use the Fight or Flight response again.
Today the threats we
face are different, we have bills that never stop coming, news full
of disasters, redundancies, wars, worries about school and exams,
our children, our image, our sexuality, partnerships breaking down,
the list goes on and on. As soon as we resolve one problem another
seems to turn up and take its place.
The same stress
Our bodies cannot
tell the difference between a Sabre Tooth Tiger and a driving test,
a Wolf and a job interview, a Bear and a bully at work. It responds
in exactly the same way. Our bodies feel that they are all threats.
The body responds with the same alarms, the same bells and the same
adrenalin pumps us full of the same Fight or Flight response
Stress felt in situations
like work, relationships, socialising and family interactions are
particularly difficult to handle because its almost impossible to
avoid these situations if things start going wrong and the pressure
begins to mount. Any one of these can fill a person with a continuous
feeling of dread. A person may feel trapped and in danger all day,
moving from one worry to another. They experience Fight or Flight
from the moment they wake in the morning to the moment they fall
into a nervous interrupted sleep. Our bodies do not cope well if
they are under a never ending stress. The Fight or Flight response
and its chemical release of adrenalin is designed for short sporadic
bursts which keep us out of trouble and then the body quickly breaks
down the chemicals when the danger is over. However a continuous
response to stress and its release of adrenalin with some other
powerful stress chemicals disrupts the body's rhythm. Internal systems
slow down or completely stop. Anxiety and stress are now known to
effect people in many different ways, some common symptoms of an
over active Fight or Flight response are fatigue, insomnia, loss
of memory and concentration, sexual difficulties, irritability,
aches and pains, limited lifestyle, headaches, weakness to colds
and flues, chemical dependence and endless worry.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome or IBS is a great example of the impact
of continuous anxiety or stress on a body. In Fight or Flight mode
the digestive tract is slowed down to an almost stop. As the energy
to drive this system is redirected to powering more needed processes
important for survival. The body doesn't know or understand that
the reason for the stress is a long checkout at the supermarket,
an unreasonable boss, a parking ticket or a quarrel. With the digestive
tract at a standstill, food simply rots in the stomach half digested
creating cramps, gas, pain and a whole host of other difficulties.
Paul cannot change
the world you live in but he can help you to discover a way to change
and control your responses to it.
With hypnosis you can spend more time experiencing what is happening
right now in your life and live in the moment.
Instead of re-experiencing something that did happen in your past
and feeling badfor it now or experiencing right now, some worry
that you think will happen in the future and feeling like it has
already happened.
We all need to get back to the cave so we can give our minds and
bodies a chance to reset, repair, regroup, synchronise and rebalance.
Paul will help you
to find your cave
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