Stress Response System: The Level of Stress You Feel Is Within Your Realm of Control

What do you know about your stress hormones and how they are produced in the body? We all have a lot of room to move in terms of how much stress we feel at any given time. Are you from the CroMagnon period? Maybe you’ve been in a relationship with a cave dweller (been there, done that), but that’s not quite the same thing as the idea of the "fight or flight" stress response system needed by cave dwellers a million years ago to survive an encounter with an ill-tempered dinosaur.

The hormones, made in your Endocrine system, actually deserve a medal, since they have likely saved your life more than once, even if you didn’t know it. Remember that time you were driving along, not paying attention, and nearly ended up in the creek or nearly flew off that cliff? Alte
atively, perhaps there was a time when you weren’t completely attentive and nearly lost your footing when you were about to go down some stairs. Well, your highly effective stress response system saved your life those times. I hope you were thankful.

Do you get the picture? Your stress response system is built into you and you need it for survival, but lately we have been quite demanding on it. Give the poor thing a break. Rather than overusing it all the time, start making better decisions and use that noggin a little more and not just while driving. Stop relying on your hormones, so much, to be your savior.

Of course, I don’t think we are all dummies, but there are two popular book series on the market that think we are, not only, dummies, but, in fact, complete idiots, I'm just saying that perhaps we’ve lost a little of our motivation to be creative with our problem solving. Stop letting life push you around so much and then you won’t need to be reactive and rely on your hormones so much. When we let life push, it will always push hard but when we push back, just a little, the laws of physics mobilize and then we don’t need our stress response quite so much.

You remember your high school physics don’t you? Remember inertia and mass and when the immovable force met the irresistible object. Of course, we’re all aware of the fact that there’s no such thing as an immovable force or an irresistible object, but the point is, when we push on something, it will move, as opposed to our always being on the receiving end of the push. This applies to most everything in life - family, kids, careers, and everything else. So, push back a little or even a lot and take back control of your health and your life. That way, your hormones can earn a well-deserved break and get a little rest. It’s just like the commercial used to say, "You deserve a break today," and so do your hormones.