Fight / flight

Our nervous system consists of the central nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. The central nervous system is controlled by our will. For example moving our muscles.

The autonomic nervous system is controlled indirectly. It takes care of heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, digestion, metabolism and energy production.

The autonomic nervous system consists of 2 parts: the ortho sympathetic system and the para sympathetic system.

The para sympathetic system is active when you are relaxed. It helps you recharge. So this is good for all of the above functions.

The ortho sympathetic system is the system that works when you experience stress. It is meant to help you run if a tiger were suddenly in front of you. This system does everything it can to help you escape a dangerous situation. This means that the functions such as regulating blood pressure, are under pressure. This is not so bad and can be rebalanced when we consciously take the time to relax.

If you don’t do that, it means that there is a chain reaction and you keep experiencing stress much longer then the reason the stress arrived in the first place. If you do not rebalance yourself consciously, you might permanently experience a certain amount of stress. And functions such as digestion, blood pressure, etc. suffer from it.

It also makes your emotions and thoughts out of balance. Think about the tiger. When there is a tiger, will you first make a cup of tea, debate a bit and make a descision what to do? No you act. If you are in stress modus for to long, you will see that you will also act like there is an emergency where in truth there isn’t and you will find yourself thinking in a stressful manner.

This can cause damage to the body and if it happens to often even great damage. It greatly reduces the function of the immune system.

Reason enough to let your body relaxe. But not only for your health, it is also much nicer to feel relaxed, happy and good.