Whether you call it stress, tension, anxiety or fear, the physical response from our body is the same.

Stress is simply the body’s natural primitive response called the “flight or fight” response.  This is the body’s natural way of preparing you to “flight” (runaway) or “fight”, a real or perceived threat or danger.  These sensations are felt throughout the body and put the body into a state of alert, ready to deal with the situation.

When we experience stress and fear it creates physical and chemical changes within the body. As Hormones are triggered and released into the body, blood is sent to vital organs and muscles, putting the body into a state of alert.  This can cause a number of bodily sensations such as tension, tight muscles, increased breathing rate, and change in temperature, perspiration, palpitations, dizziness, nausea, tight throat, and dry mouth.

What is happening is a natural bodily response, where the body is saying, “Come on then, I’m ready to fight or flight”.  As this is a primitive response that we no longer have to utilize on a daily basis, like our primitive ancestor’s (think cavemen), we don’t know how to respond emotionally or physically, so we panic and see Stress, Anxietyor Fear as a negative response.

You may have experienced a confrontation with someone or had the miss fortune of being in a real situation where this has occurred.  But as most everyday stressful situations don’t really require us to fight or runaway, we don’t express or release these symptoms and feelings appropriately.

One thing we can do is change some of the stress triggers if possible, but often we can’t change them, or sometimes we don’t even realise what they are, as stress can also be very silent for many of us, we don’t always realise we are experiencing this response. So often we can’t change these triggers, but ultimately the one thing we are in control of, is the way we respond to them.