THE MECHANISM OF STRESS, ITS EVOLUTIONARY ORIGIN AND USEFUL TIPS

 Dear Readers and Friends,

Today we continue with another article on Emotional Psychology, combining different perspectives and authors from different fields into a set of suggestions and improvements for our emotional, physical, and psychological well-being.

 

Before we can manage our emotions, it's essential to understand them. Emotions evolved as adaptive mechanisms that helped our ancestors survive. They aren't simple reactions, but rapid and effective action programs designed by evolution.

Each person is solely responsible for their own thoughts, feelings, actions and behaviors.

To understand emotional control, we must understand stress. Stress is our body's natural response, designed for survival. 

When faced with a threat, the fight-or-flight response is activated. The brain detects danger and releases hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones prepare the body for intense action: the heart beats faster, breathing becomes faster and the senses become more acute.

Stress, as an instinctive survival mechanism,  was incredibly useful for our ancestors, who had to fight for their survival every day. Now, in these modern times, when a purely instinctive system is no longer required but a more rational control of one's emotions, the system must be governed, or rather, we must learn to manage it.

The problem is that this ancient system is still active within us, in a radically changed environment.

We no longer face lions in our daily lives. However, our brains still use the same mechanism to respond to the threats of the modern world . Threats that are often not physical, but psychological. And this is where the complexity of managing stress today begins.

Today, without constant physical threats, this system reacts to thoughts and worries, causing unnecessary stress. The modern challenge is distinguishing between real dangers and those created by the mind.

Humans have an ability that distinguishes us from other animals: we can activate the stress response using only our thoughts. Our consciousness, this gift that allows us to reflect and plan, is also a double-edged sword. It can also be an inexhaustible source of stress.

Our body reacts by releasing the same stress hormones as if the threat were occurring here and now. The brain doesn't distinguish well between a real threat and an imagined one. This can trap us in a very harmful vicious cycle.

The vicious cycle: Stressful thoughts lead to more stress, which leads to more stressful thoughts.

A stressful thought generates a stress response. We interpret the physical sensations of that stress as confirmation of danger. This, in turn, generates more stressful thoughts. It's a vicious cycle that fuels chronic stress. 

This is why learning to manage our thoughts is essential.  Breaking this pattern is crucial to avoiding chronic stress.

Humans are meaning-making machines: perception is not truth. To grow, we must become skilled at looking at our interpretations and perceptions of life from multiple perspectives to arrive at a more balanced and informed conclusion.

WE CANNOT CONTROL THE THOUGHTS THAT ENTER OUR MIND, BUT WE CAN CHOOSE TO ACT ON THEM OR NOT.

Many people assume that because they believe something is true, it must be true. However, both thoughts and feelings are fleeting entities: they come and go (provided we allow them to). The assumptions that influence us most in life continue to shape our beliefs, and maturity means growing out of the limiting beliefs we adopted when we were young and becoming something more grounded and stable in service to others.

In most cases, it's our own thoughts that bother us more in life than other people and circumstances; which means that taking responsibility for our thoughts equates to more effective emotional management.