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Argue With Yourself and Improve Your Health
Even as a child, James was described by teachers and his parents as a happy optimist. As the story goes, one day his parents decided to play a joke on him and test his attitude by requiring him to spend an afternoon cleaning deserted stables at...
Close Kept Secrets to Weight Loss Lesson #4
lose Kept Secrets to Weight Loss Lesson #4 How’s the practicing going? Are you spending time each day to practice RET, EFT and affirmations? When you make yourself a priority, then everything else falls into place. When we lose our connection to...
Stress myths and misconceptions
People may, and frequently do, cause significant damage to themselves by basing their lives on inaccuracies and misconceptions. Some of the most commonly quoted in relation to stress include the following.
'There's no such thing as stress'
There...
Stress & Personal Development: When Navel-Gazing turns Nasty!
Generally speaking, the more we develop ourselves personally,
the lower our long-term stress levels. After all, discovering
our life purpose helps avoid the stress of pointlessness.
Developing better communication skills avoids many...
Stress & Supplementation: How is a Supplement Supposed to Help with Stress?
Copyright 2005 Tanja Gardner THE STRESS PRODUCT INDUSTRY – MORE THAN JUST A MONEYSPINNER? It’s not news that stress products are a big-money industry, and stress supplements are at the forefront. Go into any pharmacy or health-food shop, browse...
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Stress Research the Fight-or-Flight Response
In 1932, Walter Cannon offered some of the earliest research on stress and established the theory of the "fight-or-flight" response. His work proved that when an organism experiences a shock or perceives a threat, it reacts instantly by releasing hormones that help it to survive.
In human beings and other animals, these hormones allow for greater speed and strength. Heart rate and blood pressure increases, delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to support major muscles.
Sweating increases to better cool the muscles and allowing them to remain efficient. Blood is regulated to reduce blood loss if there is any damaged. Hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the exclusion of everything else. All of this commands a heightened ability to survive life-threatening events.
We can also trigger this same reaction when faced with something unexpected or something that frustrates our goals. If the threat is small, our response will be likewise, we may not notice the stressor among the many other distractions of a stressful day.
This mobilization of the body to
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spring into survival mode also has negative consequences. We become excitable, anxious, jumpy and irritable. This state can reduce our ability to be most effective. With shakiness and a pounding heart, we can find it difficult to carry out controlled skills.
The intensity of our focus on survival takes from our ability to draw information from many sources. We can find that we are more accident-prone and less able to make good decisions.
To be most productive, our day-by-day lives require a calm, rational, controlled and socially sensitive approach.
We need to be able to control our fight-or-flight response; otherwise, we can have problems later on such as poor health and burnout.
About the author:
Mike Lindsey runs the health site, Healthy News. For information on stress management and stress relief please visit the site.
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