Lesson 1: Stress and the Body

Stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Stress is a normal part of life. You can experience stress from your environment, your body, and your thoughts.

Cortisol is closely linked with stress, a key player in the body’s response to stress, and is often measured as an indicator of stress levels. According to an article in Harvard Health Publishing, “The repeated activation of the stress response takes a toll on the body. Research suggests that chronic stress contributes to high blood pressure, promotes the formation of artery-clogging deposits, and causes brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and addiction.”

Stress tends to happen when people feel overwhelmed and overloaded with demands they cannot meet, or when faced with a challenging situation with family, friends, or colleagues. Stress is the body’s way of responding to a kind of demand or threat – whether real or perceived. 

A stress response can be induced by the body’s perception of a situation and even though that situation may not need to induce a fight or flight response, if the amygdala perceived danger it is going to sound the alarm and send a message to the hippocampus that the body is in stress, thus activating the body’s fight, flight or freeze response system.