In the previous blog, we talked about how stressful triggers are created.  Today, we will discuss what happens when our body goes into stress. 

You have probably heard about the “fight or flight” stress response.  Basically, your body is instantly prepared to either fight or to run away to save your life .  If you are in physical danger, this is a good thing.  You need to react instantly in order to save your life!  However, our minds cannot tell the difference between physical danger and emotional upsets and will respond the same way.  It will respond as if our lives are in danger!

The blood is moved to the back ’survival’ brain and away from the front ‘thinking’  brain.   We can’t think anymore.  We are just reacting.  This is why we can do some of the dumbest things when we are stressed. 

I remember being in a car accident once.  I was driving on the inside lane and a car turned into my lane from the opposite direction.  There was no time to stop and my car hit the side of his car.  Thank heavens I wasn’t driving fast enough for any of us to be badly hurt.  But I was so shocked, that my brain shut down.  I barely remember both lanes of traffic stopping and me driving the car across the road to park at the intersection.  By the time the police got there, I didn’t even remember that I had been on the inside lane. 

I have a friend who is a police officer who said that this reaction is very common.  He said that if you compare the statements of the people involved in accidents, you wouldn’t even know they were talking about the same accident.  It could be that some of them are lying but usually it is because the front thinking brain shuts down when people are under severe stress.

One way to understand this is to put you hand on the base of your skull at the back of your head.  This is where your survival brain is located.  When you are stressed, you are reacting to the present stimuli or situation as if you are in danger.  Our preception of danger comes from our past experiences and conditioning.  So, in reality, we are reacting to the present stimuli in exactly the same way we reacted to past experiences.  We are reacting, based on our past conditioning.

Now put your hand on your forehead or front ‘thinking’ brain.  When the blood supply is in your thinking brain, you can respond to what is happening, using your present-time ‘thinking’ brain.