When your heart rate quickens, your skin flushes, and your brain grows foggy during a stressful situation, you’re actually experiencing an unpleasant but very normal evolutionary stress response. This is a fight or flight response, one that was built into humans from the very beginning to prepare us to face what our minds perceived as “danger”. During those early days the dangers were real and the response practical, however things look quite a bit different now. In modern times, stress isn’t a predator coming close to camp, it’s a big meeting, missing a goal, or a difficult interaction in the office. These aren’t situations where one should “fight or flee”, but that doesn’t mean the stress response changes.
When you get into a fight or flight cycle, this can lead to brain fog, unpleasant physical symptoms, and difficulty in approaching the “problem” situation in a practical way. For this reason, and for your own well-being, it’s important to learn how to calm fight or flight when it arises:
• Meditation with mala prayer beads – Guided meditation with mala prayer beads is a highly effective way to put the fight or flight response in its place. Using a grounding stone, like Tiger’s Eye, you use your mala prayer beads to count your affirmations as you completely immerse yourself in your meditation session. In just a few minutes, you’ll begin to feel your nervous system regulate as the fight or flight cycle fades away.
• Exercise – While exercise might not be an option all the time, it’s a highly effective one when it’s possible. Exercise has been proven to help the body to burn off stress-related hormones, allowing you to better regulate these fight or flight feelings. Just a quick walk, a run, or a stop by the gym after work can help you to take back control.
• Practice mindfulness – Mindfulness forces you to focus on the moment, which can provide you with just enough perspective to stop the fight or flight cycle. Mindfulness is the practice of living in the moment, and it can be done while in meditation or not.
At Technalink we encourage our teams to help one another in supportive ways to break anxiety, fight or flight, or stress cycles. With a few helpful and practical tips, you are always stronger than the stress cycles that may appear in your professional or personal life.
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