Stress Through the Ages

The good news is that your stress reactions are the perfect tool for survival.

The bad news is that they're meant for survival challenges that existed 30,000 years ago.

Your body may be covered in cutting-edge clothes, but inside it lurks some prehistoric traits. (If you're a guy, your girlfriend can probably go on about this at length).

Today, when you get up to present to a skeptical audience, or charge in to a crowded store during a big sale, reactions kick in that were meant to help you survive a showdown with a saber-toothed tiger.

The medical profession calls it the "fight-or-flight" response. Our culture calls it stress (borrowing a term from engineering in the 1950's that had not been applied to human beings before then).

Start Your Engines

Adrenaline pumps. Fat cells dump fatty acids into your blood stream for fuel. Your heart and lungs accelerate to enrich your muscles with more oxygen, priming you to run or make your stand.

(The people at the bargains table at that sale better watch out.)

Your blood vessels constrict so you won't bleed as badly if you're wounded. Natural painkillers and coagulants get released. Your sweat glands open up so you're wet, and harder to clutch. Your pupils dilate so you can see better.

(Nevertheless, someone else got to that 70% mark-down first.)

You can see the problem. The stress reactions you have were meant to help you flee the occasional life-threatening surprise.

But these days, it's likely that your body runs the "fight-or-flight" response too much of the time. How can you get your prehistoric body to not interpret your life as one big encounter with a saber-toothed tiger?