Basic Understanding of How The Body Responds to Stress

In today’s world, we all have busy and stressful lives. There is so much stress and very little time to just sit down and relax. It seems like we are always on the go and never have time to relax. We are always stressed out and in a bad mood because we just don’t feel good. These factors can make life difficult for us and those around us. Because we all seem to have such stressful lifestyles, we need to learn how to make the best of it by managing our stress. The first step to managing stress is to understand how your body responds and reacts to stress. This is the very first thing you should learn about if you are struggling or dealing with stress. There are many factors that affect the body when you are under stress, but we will start out with the simplest to understand.

The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems have critical reactions that happen when you are or aren’t under stress. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for the fight-or-flight reaction. This reaction quickly starts the endocrine, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal systems into gear. You may suddenly feel your heart start to race, you may start to sweat, the palms of your hands may feel clammy, and you may also feel faint. These reactions happen because the body releases adrenaline when it is under stress.

The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for what happens when you are comfortable and calm. You can relax easily and everything seems a little more pleasant.
The good news is, is that you can control when and what happens when you are under stress. It takes a little practice, but it is always nice to know you don’t have a loss of control over your own body. If you ever find yourself stressed and uncomfortable practice some breathing techniques. Regulating your breathing can allow your parasympathetic system to kick in, which will make you feel calm and comfortable, and maybe even a little sleepy.

If you are interested in learning more about the sympathetic, parasympathetic or just the  nervous system in general, check out this PDF: http://www.ehs.net/2231/pdf/autonomic.pdf. It’s full of useful information and is incredibly easy to understand.