Your ‘normal’ is not ‘neutral’...

You have most likely heard of the 'fight or flight' response, that 'thing' that happens when you feel under threat.

What exactly happens when you feel threatened? Because in this day and age, for most of us, we're not being chased by large predators, and we don't need to run for our lives. Literally!

There is a lot to say about what people perceive as threatening these days... but what happens in our bodies on a chemical and hormone level is very clear.

The chemical cocktail that is produced when you experience anything that is perceived as extremely stressful or disturbing is real. Adrenaline and cortisol are two of the main chemicals that get you ready to 'fight or flight'. 

What happens after the 'threat' is gone is a fascinating thing... ideally, our hormone levels go back to 'neutral'. Like a gazelle chased by a lion, and when the lion is gone, the gazelle happily starts grazing again as if nothing happened. 

This is not often the case for us humans, unfortunately. Most of the time a residue of that chemical cocktail hangs around in our bodies, and it builds up. Every time we find ourselves in a stressful situation and we don’t get the levels back to neutral afterwards, our body adds adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones to the level that is already there.

What happens next is that we start considering that heightened hormone level as normal – because it’s always there, right? As we don’t experience anymore what would be considered neutral, a certain level of stress hormones becomes the norm. 

Unfortunately, this has negative effects on our health and mental well-being. And then we also start considering these effects as normal. 

So I encourage you to become more aware of what is happening for you. If you really think about it, how close are your stress levels to ‘neutral’? What emotions, thoughts or behaviours can you recognise that you consider ‘normal’ these days, but that are actually tell-tale signs of heightened stress levels?

 “There is no one giant step that does it; it’s a lot of little steps.” – Peter A. Cohen

Carefully consider what you are now considering as ‘your normal’ – if you really take some time to look at it, it might not be that normal at all. If that is the case, please take steps to work towards what could be your ‘neutral’ situation. Take a break, take a breath. Pause. Stop. You might not be able to change this overnight, but you can take a first little step right now.

What small thing would help you to work towards balance?

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